Fungal Acne Ingredient Checker
Fungal acne and seborrheic dermatitis are driven by Malassezia, a yeast that lives on everyone's skin and feeds on certain oils, fatty acids, and esters. Paste a product's ingredient list below to see which ingredients are known to feed it.
Separate ingredients with commas or line breaks, exactly as they appear on the package.
What This Tool Looks For
Malassezia cannot make its own fatty acids, so it relies on the lipids it finds on your skin. Products rich in those lipids can feed the yeast and keep breakouts or flaking going. The checker screens for the groups most often implicated:
- Fatty acids — such as oleic, palmitic, stearic, and lauric acid.
- Fatty acid esters — such as isopropyl myristate, glyceryl stearate, and the polysorbates.
- Fatty alcohols — such as cetearyl, cetyl, and stearyl alcohol.
- Plant oils and butters — coconut, olive, argan, and marula oil are especially high in the fatty acids the yeast prefers.
- Yeast-derived ferments — such as galactomyces and saccharomyces ferment filtrate.
How to Read Your Results
A flagged ingredient does not mean a product will break you out. Tolerance varies widely, position on the ingredient list matters, and rinse-off products behave differently from leave-on ones. Many people do well with a flagged cleanser while reacting to the same ingredient in a moisturizer.
An ingredient shown as not flagged simply means it is not on our list. Ingredient lists are often incomplete or use unfamiliar trade names, so treat a clear result as reassuring rather than definitive.
Use this as a starting point for narrowing down which products to pause, then bring your list to your visit so we can review it together.
This Is Not a Diagnosis
Fungal acne is frequently mistaken for ordinary acne, and the two are treated very differently. Products that help bacterial acne often do nothing for Malassezia, and some make it worse. Seborrheic dermatitis can likewise resemble eczema, psoriasis, or simple dryness.
This screening tool is educational and cannot examine your skin. If your breakouts are itchy, appear as uniform small bumps, cluster on the forehead, chest, or upper back, or have not responded to acne treatment, an in-person evaluation is the fastest path to the right treatment.
Request an appointment or call our office at (646) 360-0115 to have your skin evaluated.