Fungal acne triggers

What triggers fungal acne? The truth is, it’s not always a simple answer.

Fungal acne, also known as Malassezia folliculitis, can be tricky to manage ; what triggers a flare-up in one person might not affect someone else at all.

In this article, we’ll dive into what fungal acne is and how our ingredient checker can help you figure out what works best for your skin.

What Is Fungal Acne?

Fungal acne is not the same as normal acne. It's caused by a type of yeast instead of bacteria or hormones. This yeast infects hair follicles, causing fungal acne. The catch? This yeast is already present on our skin and only becomes a problem when it overgrows and causes breakouts.

Fungal acne looks like uniform, itchy, pink bumps. It more commonly occurs on the chest, back, and shoulders, but it can occur on the face too.

What Triggers Fungal Acne?

Here's the trickiest part: There's no universal list of triggers that affect everyone. What causes a flare-up for one person might be completely fine for many others.

Everyone's skin chemistry, routine, and environment are different. You are more likely to experience fungal acne if you:

• Live in a hot, humid environment
• Often take antiobiotcs
• Wear tight clothes
• Have a broken skin barrier
• Are genetically predisposed to fungal acne

With that being said, some ingredients are more likely to feed Malassezia, like fatty acids with 12-14 carbon chains, squalene, or certain esters.

How Our Ingredient Checker Helps

We built our fungal acne checker to scan products for ingredients that could promote Malassezia growth. It flags commonly known triggers so you can make more informed choices.

While our checker aims to be as thorough as possible, it’s important to know it isn’t perfect.

Research on fungal acne is still evolving, and cosmetic formulas are complex. Just because something is flagged doesn’t mean it will trigger your fungal acne.

Final Thoughts

Fungal acne is personal. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but with the right tools and a bit of trial and error, you can find what works for your skin.

We’re always working to improve our checker and expand our knowledge, and we encourage you to keep exploring what feels best for you.