Pore-clogging ingredients / Algae, seaweed, and marine extracts
Algae, seaweed, and marine extracts
Marine ingredients are a blind spot for a lot of label-readers: algae extract sounds like a gentle antioxidant, yet it rated 5/5 in comedogenicity testing, and most of its relatives score nearly as high. Acne-specialist estheticians treat the whole family as a red flag.
These ingredients hide behind vague label names ('seaweed extract', 'kelp', Latin genus names like Laminaria and Chondrus crispus), so they're easy to miss. This is the full marine family our checker flags.
| Ingredient | Rating | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Algae Extract | 5/5 | moderate |
| Carrageenan | 5/5 | high |
| Red Algae | 5/5 | moderate |
| Algin | 4/5 | moderate |
| ChlorellaChlorella Vulgaris Extract | 4/5 | moderate |
| Kelp | 4/5 | moderate |
| Laminaria Digitata Extract | 4/5 | moderate |
| Laminaria Saccharina Extract | 4/5 | moderate |
| Plankton Extract | 3/5 | moderate |
| Spirulina | 3/5 | moderate |
Check a product against the full list
Paste any ingredient list and we'll check it against all 100 flagged ingredients, not just this category, with every synonym and spelling variant handled automatically.
Open the checkerBrowse other categories
Ratings come from published comedogenicity research and esthetician-maintained lists. They are imperfect and formulation-dependent, and this page isn't medical advice. Last reviewed 2026-08-15 by the PorePass editorial team.