How to use it
Three steps to a malassezia read
Grab the ingredient list
Copy it from the packaging or the brand's product page — commas or line breaks both work.Paste it into the box above
Every ingredient is classified as a food source, a non-food ingredient, antifungal, or unknown.Look at position, not just presence
Position is a rough clue, not a dose measurement. The checker weights earlier ingredients more heavily, but cannot locate the 1% boundary or predict a reaction.
Background
What fungal acne actually is
"Fungal acne" isn't acne. The proper name is pityrosporum (or malassezia) folliculitis, and it's an overgrowth of a yeast that lives on almost everyone's skin. It shows up as small, uniform, itchy bumps — often on the forehead, chest, shoulders and back — rather than the mixed blackheads, whiteheads and cysts of true acne.
The reason ingredient lists matter is metabolic: malassezia can't synthesise its own fatty acids, so it takes them from its surroundings. It can use fatty acids roughly C11 to C24 and the esters built from them. Feed it, and it has more to grow on.
Method
How this checker works
We classify each ingredient into one of four buckets rather than giving a single pass/fail, because that's closer to how formulas actually behave:
- Food source. Free fatty acids (lauric, myristic, palmitic, stearic, oleic), their esters (isopropyl myristate, glyceryl stearate, ethylhexyl palmitate), plant oils and butters, natural waxes, polysorbates and sorbitan esters, fatty acyl surfactants, and ferments.
- Not a food source. Water, humectants, glycols, silicones, mineral oil and petrolatum, squalane, mineral UV filters, and short-chain lipids such as caprylic/capric triglyceride — C8 to C10 is below the chain length malassezia can use.
- Antifungal. Zinc pyrithione, piroctone olamine, climbazole, sulfur, salicylic acid, urea at strength.
- Unknown. Anything not in our reference is counted as unknown, never as safe.
Limits
What this checker can't tell you
- A screening result isn't a diagnosis. Similar-looking skin conditions can need different treatment. A pharmacist or dermatologist can advise on persistent or itchy bumps; an ingredient list cannot confirm their cause.
- Concentration is invisible. Below 1%, INCI order is arbitrary, so a flagged ingredient at the end of a list may be present in a trace amount.
- Tolerance is individual. Plenty of people with malassezia folliculitis tolerate esters that others react to. Use this to narrow suspects, not to ban whole categories.
Quick reference
Fungal acne safe ingredients — and the usual triggers
These examples show how our reference groups ingredients. A flag describes the screening rule, not a proven reaction to a finished product; list position does not reveal an exact percentage.
Usually safe for fungal acne
- Water, glycerin, butylene glycol, propanediol
- Hyaluronic acid, panthenol, allantoin, urea
- Squalane (hydrogenated, not squalene oil)
- Caprylic/capric triglyceride — C8–C10, too short to feed it
- Dimethicone and other silicones
- Mineral oil and petrolatum
- Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide sunscreens
- Niacinamide, azelaic acid, ascorbic acid
Commonly flagged as malassezia food
- Plant oils and butters — olive, coconut, shea, jojoba
- Fatty acids — lauric, myristic, palmitic, stearic, oleic
- Fatty esters — isopropyl myristate, glyceryl stearate, ethylhexyl palmitate
- Fatty alcohols — cetyl, cetearyl, stearyl, oleyl
- Polysorbates 20/60/80 and sorbitan esters
- Lecithin and lanolin
- Ferments — galactomyces, saccharomyces, bifida
- Amino acid surfactants built on fatty acyl chains
Common questions
Fungal acne, answered
Is squalane fungal acne safe?
Yes, in the form used in skincare. Cosmetic squalane is fully saturated and malassezia cannot use it as a fatty-acid source, which is why it turns up in so many malassezia-safe routines.
Is caprylic/capric triglyceride fungal acne safe?
It is normally treated as safe. Its fatty acids are C8 and C10 — below the roughly C11–C24 range malassezia can metabolise. It is one of the few lipid emollients that survives this screen.
Why are polysorbates 20, 60 and 80 flagged?
This checker groups polysorbates and sorbitan esters under its fatty-acid ester rule. It flags their presence and list position, but does not measure how a particular Malassezia species would respond to the finished formula. A flag is not proof of a breakout.
Are all esters treated the same?
No. The reference flags examples such as glyceryl stearate, isopropyl myristate and ethylhexyl palmitate based on their fatty-acid groups. Caprylic/capric triglyceride is treated differently by this screen. These classifications do not establish that an entire product is safe or unsafe for you.
Are ferments like galactomyces a problem?
Galactomyces ferment filtrate, saccharomyces ferment filtrate and bifida ferment lysate are flagged as a precaution in this reference. Ferments vary in composition, and a ferment name alone does not establish that it feeds Malassezia or causes symptoms. Treat this flag as uncertain, not a reason to automatically reject a product.
How do I tell fungal acne from normal acne?
Malassezia folliculitis is usually small, uniform, itchy bumps in clusters on the forehead, chest, shoulders or back, with no blackheads. True acne is mixed in size, rarely itchy, and includes comedones. Only a clinician can confirm it.
Does an ingredient at the end of the list matter?
It can. Ingredients at 1% or less may appear in any order after those above 1%, and position alone cannot identify that boundary. This checker uses position as a rough weighting, not a measured concentration or a clinical risk score.
Will avoiding these ingredients clear it up?
This checker cannot predict that. Ingredient screening is not treatment, and changing products may not address the cause of symptoms. Ask a pharmacist or dermatologist about diagnosis and appropriate care rather than relying on a safe-list label.
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