Is Wheat Germ Oil Comedogenic?
Wheat Germ Oil is rated 5/5 in published comedogenicity lists — rated high on published lists.
Single-source Source: compilation. Only the reproduced compilation lists carry this number; not verified against the original table. How we rate
Also appears on labels as
- triticum vulgare germ oil
- triticum vulgare (wheat) germ oil
- triticum aestivum germ oil
- triticum aestivum (wheat) germ oil
What it is
Wheat germ oil is pressed from the germ — the embryo — of the wheat kernel, the small fraction of the grain that is removed when flour is refined. It is one of the richest natural sources of vitamin E among plant oils, which is the reason it turns up in "nourishing" face oils, DIY blends, and hair treatments. It is heavy, amber-coloured, and oxidises quickly; its fatty-acid profile is dominated by linoleic acid, with palmitic and oleic acid next.
Why it's rated 5/5
Wheat germ oil sits at the very top of the scale in the original Fulton 1989 table — a 5, alongside isopropyl myristate and a handful of synthetic esters. Among plant oils that is unusual company: most high-linoleic oils grade 0–1, and wheat germ oil is the clear outlier. The tables report the result, not the mechanism, and this site does not speculate beyond them.
If the appeal is the vitamin E, note that the tocopherol content does not carry the rating — Tocopheryl Acetate, the vitamin E ester used in most products, is graded 0 in the same table. For a linoleic-rich oil with a low rating, Sunflower Seed Oil and Safflower Seed Oil both grade 0.
On the label
Appears as Triticum Vulgare (Wheat) Germ Oil, sometimes Triticum Aestivum (Wheat) Germ Oil. It is most common in body oils, cuticle and hair products, and multi-oil "elixir" blends, where it is often near the front of the list. A 5 matters most in leave-on facial products; in a rinse-off or a hair oil kept off the face, contact with facial skin is brief or incidental.
When this rating can't be trusted
The 5/5 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 5/5 rating for Wheat Germ Oil 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 flag here means look closer — the AAD 1989 threshold for caution — not this product will break you out. Full reasoning and bibliography.
Non-comedogenic swaps
Picks are products labeled non-comedogenic; we don’t test or endorse.
CeraVe PM Facial Moisturizing Lotion
Oil-free niacinamide moisturizer, labeled non-comedogenic.
Shop at UltaPaula's Choice CLEAR Oil-Free Moisturizer
Made for breakout-prone skin; low-rated ingredient list.
Shop at Paula's ChoiceEltaMD UV Clear SPF 46
The classic labeled-non-comedogenic facial sunscreen.
Shop at Dermstore
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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