Red Palm Oil
Plant oil · INCI: Elaeis Guineensis (Red 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 Red Palm Oil comedogenic?
Yes. Red 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
Red palm oil is unrefined palm fruit oil, keeping the carotenoids that give it its color along with the thickness of the refined version. We flag it for the same reason we flag palm oil: it is on the pore-clogging references we curate against and it is heavy on acne-prone facial skin.
The nuance
Its color transfers, so it is normally used in small amounts or in body products. That limits how much reaches your face, but it does not change the reading.
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: The types of acne lesions.