FAQ's: Are Sally B's Products Non-Comedogenic?

Pores have been a buzzword in the skincare industry since, well, as long as we can remember. On average, our skin has 5 billion of them and they can very easily get clogged, blocked, and leave us with blackheads and blemishes. So, it’s safe to say that at one time or another each of us have searched out a pore-refining or pore-cleansing treatment.

Around the time when the industry started using words like “hypoallergenic,” skincare manufacturers starting using the marketing claim “non-comedogenic" to describe ingredients, and therefore products, that don't clog pores. Many people applauded the industry for its new, fool-proof method of navigating the beauty aisle in search of flawless skin, but for those of us who know that there are very few marketing regulations in the skincare industry, we started to ask, "what exactly does non-comedogenic mean?"

For starters, it's important to know that there is no official FDA definition of the term non-comedogenic and no officially recognized standard or test to determine the comedogencity of ingredients. The only method of testing, it seems is to use the inside of a bunny's ear to determine an ingredient's pore clogging tendencies. This not only raises concerns about the test's reliability (is our skin just like a bunny's oily ear?), but also raises an ethical issue: animal testing. 

Creating a standard for what is non-comedogenic is tough, as each of us react to ingredients differently and each have pores of varying size; What is non-comedogenic to you might not be non-comedogenic to me. However, we recognize that there are certain ingredients that have a higher tendency to irritate skin and clog pores. If you're experiencing skin irritations and or clogged pores, check to see if your products include: Bismuth oxychloride, myristyl myristate, stearly Heptanoate, Disodium Monooleamido, Cetearyl Alcohol, Hexadecyl Alcohol, Laureth 4, Octyl Stearate, or Propylene Glycol Monostearate. Those might be the culprits causing your less-than-perfect skin.

But there’s more to clear skin than just avoiding certain ingredients. Here are a few tips to keep pores cleared the all natural way. 

1. Use a gentle facial cleanser to completely remove all makeup and dirt from your face both at night AND each morning.
2. Use a toner, like ourFruit Acid Toner,after cleansing, which will exfoliate the skin and help remove blackheads that might be clogging pores. It also aids in the skin's absorption of moisture for all around, healthier skin.
3. It has been said that on average we touch our face once every three minutes. So, keep your hands clean to avoid transferring any dirt or bacteria to your face. This goes for your cell phone, too. If you're holding it up to your face, make sure it's clean!
4. If you have long hair, consider what hair care products you are using. If you wear it down, it is coming into contact with your face!

So to answer our frequently asked question: No. We do not label our products as non-comodogenic. We do, however, go to great lengths to research and test our ingredients (but never, ever on animals! We're our own personal guinea pigs.) to ensure we are using the most gentle, yet effective, ingredients available. We do not use ingredients that are known irritants and make our products in small batches, so if new research becomes available we can swap out any questionable ingredients for a better one. Most importantly, we are transparent with our ingredients so you can determine what ingredients work best for your skin and avoid the ones that don’t.