Is Palmitic Acid Comedogenic?
Palmitic Acid is rated 2/5 in published comedogenicity lists — rated low-to-moderate.
Single-source Source: compilation. Only the reproduced compilation lists carry this number; not verified against the original table. How we rate
What it is
Palmitic acid is a 16-carbon saturated fatty acid — one of the most abundant fatty acids in nature and in human sebum itself. On labels it appears both as an added ingredient (a thickener and cleansing-bar base, often part of soap systems with stearic acid) and, unlisted, as a building block of the oils and butters elsewhere in the formula.
Why it's rated 2/5
Published lists place palmitic acid at 2 — low-to-moderate, below this site's flag threshold. Its esters are a different story: pairing it with the wrong alcohol produces classic offenders like ethylhexyl palmitate (4) and isopropyl palmitate (4). The acid and its esters are separate label entries with separate ratings.
On the label
Appears as Palmitic Acid, most often in cleansers — where contact is brief and the rating matters least. In leave-on products it is usually a minor thickening component.
When this rating can't be trusted
The 2/5 describes the raw ingredient in a rabbit-ear assay, usually at 10% in propylene glycol. It cannot tell you how much is in your product (position on the label is the only clue), what the rest of the formula does to it, or how your skin responds. Finished products containing highly rated ingredients have tested non-comedogenic on human skin (Draelos & DiNardo, JAAD 2006).
Can the 2/5 rating for Palmitic Acid be trusted?
Single-source This number comes only from reproduced compilation lists and has not been verified against the original table. Treat it as a screening signal from a copied list, not a measurement you can cite. Source: compilation.
A 2 is worth knowing about, not a flag: the AAD 1989 consensus puts 0–2 in the range unlikely to clog human pores. Full reasoning and bibliography.
Where the rating comes from
Ratings on this site come from published comedogenicity literature in the Fulton 1989 lineage — the 0–5 tables compiled from ingredient testing and reproduced across dermatology reference lists since. Where values disagree: a named primary source (Fulton 1989) outranks later unattributed lists, so its value is shown and the others are disclosed in the note; where only compilation lists disagree, the higher-caution value is shown. We never publish an invented number, and we never present one as more certain than its source: every rating carries a confidence tier — established (primary-source value, no disagreement on record), single-source (only the reproduced compilation lists carry it), or contested (published values disagree or depend on grade and vehicle; the note says which value is shown and why). Ingredients we cannot match appear as “not in our database” — unmatched, not cleared: no published list we hold rates them under that name, and that is not a pass.
Our flag threshold follows the American Academy of Dermatology's Invitational Symposium on Comedogenicity (J Am Acad Dermatol 1989): substances scoring 0–2 in the rabbit-ear assay are unlikely to clog pores in humans, while scores above 2 warrant more caution — which is why this site flags 3/5 and up. Read the full methodology and bibliography.
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