Is glyceryl stearate comedogenic?
Short answer
No concern found: No concern found in the included sourcesNo source included in this dataset reports a comedogenicity concern for glyceryl stearate. The only citation on the record establishes that the name refers to a recognised cosmetic ingredient, which is not evidence about comedogenicity, so the reviewed literature is silent on this ingredient rather than reassuring about it.
Recorded as Glyceryl Stearate · dataset record glyceryl-stearate · reviewed 2026-08-06
What the evidence actually is
A reference or regulatory source rather than a study that measured comedogenicity. In this dataset that most often means the source establishes only that the name refers to a recognised cosmetic ingredient.
What the sources report
A recognised cosmetic ingredient. No source included in this dataset reports a comedogenicity concern for it.
What this does not cover
This states only that the included sources raised no concern for this name. The corpus is small, so this is not a finding of proven non-comedogenicity, and it says nothing about the finished product.
Why people ask about Glyceryl stearate
Glyceryl stearate is an emulsifier, which means it is doing structural work in a very large share of creams, lotions and cleansers rather than being an active anyone markets. People encounter it because it sits near the top of an enormous number of labels, and because it turns up on circulating pore-clogging lists often enough to be flagged by other checkers.
Where the circulating rating for Glyceryl stearate comes from
Glyceryl stearate is usually placed in the low-to-middle band of the 0–5 scale, and this project could not trace that placement to an assessment it was able to check. Emulsifiers are also a case where a raw-ingredient rating is unusually hard to interpret even in principle. An emulsifier's entire function is to hold a formula together, so it is present precisely because the finished product is not a pile of separate ingredients — which is the assumption an ingredient-level rating depends on.
Names Glyceryl stearate appears under
Declared as Glyceryl Stearate, and also as glycerol monostearate, glyceryl monostearate or GMS. Glyceryl Stearate SE is a different declared name for a self-emulsifying grade and is not in this dataset, so a label carrying it will come back unrecognised rather than matched to this record. Glyceryl stearate is also distinct from stearic acid, which is a fatty acid rather than an ester of one.
Recognised in this dataset as Glyceryl Stearate, and through the recorded aliases glycerol monostearate, gms, glyceryl monostearate. Matching is exact: there is no fuzzy matching anywhere in this tool, so a name not listed here is reported as unrecognised rather than guessed at.
Questions about glyceryl stearate
Is glyceryl stearate the same as stearic acid?
No. Glyceryl stearate is an ester formed from glycerin and stearic acid; stearic acid is the fatty acid on its own. They are declared separately, and stearic acid is not in this dataset.
Why does my label say Glyceryl Stearate SE?
SE denotes a self-emulsifying grade, which is a different declared name. This tool matches on the name as printed and does no fuzzy matching, so Glyceryl Stearate SE will be reported as unrecognised rather than quietly matched to this record.
Sources cited on this page
These are the sources attached to this record. Nothing on this page is drawn from anything else.
Cosmetic ingredient database (CosIng)
European Commission, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, 2026. Regulator.
Used only to establish that an INCI name refers to a recognised cosmetic ingredient. Presence in CosIng does not mean an ingredient is approved, safe, or non-comedogenic, and this dataset never treats an identity citation as evidence about comedogenicity.
Record reviewed 2026-08-06 by pore-checker prototype dataset compilation (not clinically reviewed).