Palm Oil
Plant oil · INCI: Elaeis Guineensis (Palm) Oil
Reviewed by Elysiana Aguilar, master esthetician
How we read it
Known to clog pores. If you break out easily, this is the one to skip.
Is Palm Oil comedogenic?
Yes. Palm Oil is a known pore-clogging ingredient, and we read it as highly comedogenic. If you're acne-prone, it's worth avoiding, especially when it sits near the top of an ingredient list.
Why we read it this way
Palm oil is a thick, largely saturated fruit oil used for richness and structure. It appears on the pore-clogging references we curate against, and we read it as one to avoid on acne-prone facial skin, along with palm kernel oil, which comes from the seed and is heavier still.
The nuance
Its derivatives are everywhere and most of them are not the same thing. Palmitic acid, glyceryl stearate and the palm-derived emulsifiers are separate ingredients that we rate on their own.
Related ingredients
One ingredient rarely tells the whole story. The acne ingredient checker reads everything in a product at once, the pore-clogging ingredients list has the rest of what we flag, and there is more on what comedogenic means. Also in the guides: What acne actually is.