Is shea butter comedogenic?
Short answer
No concern found: No concern found in the included sourcesNo source included in this dataset reports a comedogenicity concern for shea butter. That is a statement about a small corpus rather than a finding of non-comedogenicity: the only source cited on this record establishes that the name refers to a recognised cosmetic ingredient, and ingredient identity is never treated here as evidence about pore-clogging. In practice, the reviewed literature has nothing to say about shea butter in either direction.
Recorded as Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter · dataset record shea-butter · 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 Shea butter
Shea butter is solid at room temperature and feels heavy, and heaviness is the most common intuition people use to guess whether something will block a pore. It is also a staple of rich moisturisers and body creams, so it is often the most recognisable name on a label someone is inspecting after a breakout. The intuition is understandable. It is not evidence, and texture is not one of the things the reviewed sources measured.
Where the circulating rating for Shea butter comes from
Shea butter is usually listed at the low end of the 0–5 scale, occasionally in the middle. This project found no assessment of it in the sources it reviewed, so both placements are unverified here. That cuts in a direction people do not always expect: a low circulating rating is no better supported than a high one when neither can be traced to a study. Being reassured by an unsourced number is the same error as being alarmed by one.
Names Shea butter appears under
Declared as Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, and also as Butyrospermum Parkii Butter or with the words 'Shea Butter' inside the parentheses. Shea butter extract, shea oil and shea unsaponifiables are different declared materials and are not in this dataset, so a label carrying one of those will come back unrecognised rather than matched to this record.
Recognised in this dataset as Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, and through the recorded aliases shea butter, butyrospermum parkii butter, butyrospermum parkii (shea butter) butter. 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 shea butter
Is shea butter non-comedogenic?
Nothing in the reviewed sources establishes that. The record here says only that no included source raised a concern, and the single citation attached to it is an identity source rather than a comedogenicity assessment. That is an absence of evidence, not evidence of absence.
Does 'no concern found' mean shea butter is safe for my skin?
No. It means the sources included here did not produce a concern for this name. It is not a finding of proven non-comedogenicity, it says nothing about a finished product containing shea butter, and it cannot account for how your own skin responds.
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).