Is Calendula Oil Comedogenic? The Pore-Clogging Truth

There is no trustworthy comedogenic rating for calendula oil, and anyone quoting you a single number for it is guessing. We could not find a human study that tested an infused calendula oil for clogged pores, the numeric scales online come from animal tests, and what sits on your skin from a bottle of calendula oil is mostly its carrier oil. So the practical question is "which carrier, and does my skin like it," and the sections below show how to answer that for any bottle, ours included.

Calendula oil bottle

Calendula Oil

Our own small-batch calendula oil, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

From $13.99

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Why no one can give you a calendula number

Start with what was tested. In the published rabbit-ear studies we found, the materials were mostly synthetic esters such as isopropyl myristate and isopropyl palmitate, plus cocoa butter, cetyl alcohol and petrolatum; the abstracts we read do not list calendula or the common carrier oils (Nguyen et al., Cutan Ocul Toxicol, 2007). The commonly cited 1984 paper by Fulton and colleagues describes its own model as "not an ideal animal model but is the best we have" (Fulton et al., J Am Acad Dermatol, 1984). We could not retrieve its full text, so we cannot confirm which oil scores people attribute to it.

The model itself has been challenged. A 1982 review in the same journal concluded the rabbit-ear test had performance problems and no demonstrated correlation with human experience (Frank, J Am Acad Dermatol, 1982). In 2006, Draelos and DiNardo ran a small human study (six volunteers, patches of finished products on the upper back three times a week for four weeks) and concluded that "finished products using comedogenic ingredients are not necessarily comedogenic" (Draelos and DiNardo, J Am Acad Dermatol, 2006). Their abstract does not list which products they used, so it does not settle any particular oil. What it does tell you is that an ingredient's rating does not predict a finished product's behavior.

The disagreement in the literature

Narrative reviews still describe some oils as pore-clogging. One 2024 review labels coconut oil "highly comedogenic," olive oil "comedogenic potential," and jojoba "noncomedogenic" (Abdalla et al., ACS Omega, 2024). A 2020 review says topically applied botanical oils occlude the skin and "lead to break outs on most skin types, other than very dry skin" (Moore et al., Front Pharmacol, 2020). In the passages we read, neither cites a human acne trial for those statements; they rest on animal-scale ratings and composition reasoning. Both camps are in print, and they have not been reconciled. Our position: treat the labels as a hypothesis about a raw oil, not as a verdict on your bottle.

What is actually in a bottle of infused oil

An infused oil is petals extracted into a carrier oil, so the carrier determines most of its behavior. Here is the arithmetic. The EU herbal monograph defines the traditional oil preparation at 1:10 in a fatty vegetable oil such as olive oil (EMA/HMPC, 2018), and a hexane extract of dried petals yielded about 13.76% of dry petal weight in one study (Rafajlovska et al., 2012). Reasoning from those figures, even if all of that petal lipid transferred, it would be about 1.4% of the mixture. That is an estimate, not a measurement of our oil, and we do not publish our own petal-to-oil ratio here. One 2025 study of other herbs found maceration can shift an oil's fatty acid proportions, so "exactly the carrier" is an approximation (Laskos et al., Sci Rep, 2025).

Carriers differ a lot, even under the same name. USDA reference data show sunflower oil ranges from about 65.7 g linoleic acid per 100 g in the high-linoleic type to 3.6 g in the high-oleic type, while olive oil is mostly oleic acid, about 71 g per 100 g (USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy). Jojoba, often named on comedogenic lists as the safe one, is chemically a liquid wax, over 98% waxes, mostly wax esters, per Abdalla et al., not a triglyceride oil. So "sunflower-based" or "olive-based" tells you less than you would hope. We do not name the carrier of our oil in this article; it is on the batch paperwork, which you can get by emailing the lot number to [email protected]. Ask any supplier for the same.

What to do if you are breakout-prone

  1. Find the carrier first. If the label or data sheet does not name it, ask. A vague "calendula oil" listing is incomplete information for acne-prone skin.
  2. Patch test for allergy. This is a separate question from clogged pores; follow our patch-test guide. Calendula is in the daisy (Asteraceae) family, and the EU monograph lists hypersensitivity to that family as a contraindication.
  3. Test for pores over weeks, not days. Reasoning from Draelos and DiNardo's four-week protocol, a research-grade check for follicular blockage takes weeks, so a three-day trial will not tell you. Introduce one new product at a time on a limited area so you can tell what caused a change.
  4. Use a small amount. We found no source giving an amount for facial use. A thin film is a reasonable way to limit the variable.

Calendula and acne: what is and is not known

We found no trial of calendula alone for acne. The one randomized placebo-controlled trial we found was of a combination serum with snail secretion filtrate, calendula and licorice root extract, in 66 people with mask-related acne; inflammatory lesions fell more than with placebo in the mask-covered area (p = 0.03), and the study cannot separate calendula's contribution (Puaratanaarunkon et al., J Cosmet Dermatol, 2022). Persistent or painful acne is a medical question for a dermatologist. Our acne article goes deeper on what the evidence supports, and for the face generally, using calendula oil on your face covers technique. If you cannot decide between oils for a face, calendula oil vs jojoba oil sorts out which job each does.

Our oil is made from dried, hand-separated petals extracted on their own, then brought into a carrier oil, with nothing else added. That describes the process, not how your pores will behave. Your own slow test is the real answer. The shop page lists sizes, including small ones suited to a slow test.

Calendula oil bottle

Calendula Oil

Nature's Golden Botanical, bottled: small-batch calendula oil in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.

From $13.99

Shop Calendula Oil →

Sources & Further Reading