Groundnut Oil
Groundnut oil is rated 5 on our list, in the high band, and the number is traced: Fulton 1989 graded it 2.
Like every rating here, it is for the raw ingredient tested alone, and a label does not print how much of it a product holds.
Groundnut oil and peanut oil are both the oil pressed from the seeds of the peanut plant, Arachis hypogaea. Our list carries both names as separate rows. It rates groundnut oil 5 and peanut oil 2 to 3. The numbers do not overlap, so at least one of them is wrong.
The papers we read grade it 2 in Fulton 1989. No paper we read gives the 5 for groundnut oil. No paper we read gives the 2 to 3 for peanut oil. The list records no source for either number.
Is groundnut oil comedogenic?
Groundnut Oil is rated 5 on the comedogenic scale, which is the high band. The rabbit-ear studies we have read give it less: Fulton 1989 gave it 2 (groundnut oil is the same oil). Our list's 5 is above all of them.
Another term for peanut oil; a heavy occlusive oil used to trap moisture.
- Comedogenic rating
- 5 out of 5
- Band
- High: Clear plugging in the rabbit-ear test. The first band to check in a leave-on product.
- Where the number comes from
- Traced to Fulton 1989. The section on who rated it prints each grade.
- Composition
- Oils
- Also written as
- No common variants recorded
What a 5 means in practice
A 4 or 5 is the top of the scale. In the rabbit-ear test, Fulton 1989 counted 4 to 5 as a clear positive: the ingredient plugged the follicles, and did so repeatably. A person's skin reacts less readily than a rabbit's ear, and a product holds far less of the ingredient than the test did, so treat this band as the first thing to check in anything that stays on your skin. It does not prove the ingredient will cause a breakout. A rinse-off product is on the skin for seconds.
Two things change what this number is worth. Ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration, so groundnut oil near the top of a label matters far more than groundnut oil at the bottom. And the rating describes the raw ingredient on its own. A 2006 review in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that a rating for a single ingredient does not reliably predict how a finished formula behaves on human skin. The full story of the scale is here.
Who rated it
Our list is one band above the research. Our list gives groundnut oil 5. Fulton 1989 gave it 2 (groundnut oil is the same oil). We report the list as it stands and show the papers beside it. Where the list and the research disagree.
Our list gives groundnut oil 5. These are the figures the published rabbit-ear studies we have read give it, as printed in each paper's table.
| Paper | Grade | Tested as |
|---|---|---|
| Fulton 1989 | Grade 2 | Tested as Peanut oil (groundnut oil is the same oil) |
Our list's top figure, 5, is higher than anything in these papers.
Fungal acne
Groundnut Oil matches rule 4, plant or animal oil or butter , on the fungal acne checker. A plant or animal oil, mostly triglycerides. The rule comes from lab studies of what Malassezia yeast can feed on, and it is not a verdict on any product.
Common questions
- Is groundnut oil comedogenic?
- Groundnut Oil is rated 5 on the comedogenic scale, which is the high band. The rabbit-ear studies we have read give it less: Fulton 1989 gave it 2 (groundnut oil is the same oil). Our list's 5 is above all of them.
- Is groundnut oil non comedogenic?
- No. Groundnut Oil is rated 5 on the comedogenic scale, which is the high band. That is the number on our list; the papers we read grade it lower (see Who rated it).
- What is groundnut oil's comedogenic rating?
- 5 out of 5 on our list. It is classed as Oils. The rabbit-ear studies we have read give it less: Fulton 1989 gave it 2 (groundnut oil is the same oil). Our list's 5 is above all of them.
Sources we checked this rating against
- Kligman AM, Kwong T. “An improved rabbit ear model for assessing comedogenic substances.” British Journal of Dermatology, June 1979;100(6):699–702. (opens in a new tab) The rabbit-ear assay behind published 0 to 5 comedogenicity grades.
- Fulton JE Jr. “Comedogenicity and irritancy of commonly used ingredients in skin care products.” Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, November/December 1989;40(6):321–333. (opens in a new tab) Rabbit ear. Each ingredient at 10 percent in propylene glycol unless stated, applied five days a week for two weeks, and graded 0 to 5 from the width of the follicles, measured by micrometer and under the microscope. The paper counts 0 to 1 as not significant, 2 to 3 as borderline and 4 to 5 as positive. Some grades depended on the supplier of the raw material, and some oils were also tested refined.
- Draelos ZD, DiNardo JC. “A re-evaluation of the comedogenicity concept.” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, March 2006;54(3):507–512. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2005.11.1058 (opens in a new tab) Tested finished products on the backs of six people and concluded that “Finished products using comedogenic ingredients are not necessarily comedogenic.”