What is Retinyl Palmitate?
Retinyl Palmitate is an active ingredient. A gentle vitamin A ester rated 2/5. As a palmitate it is occasionally flagged for fungal acne.
You may see it on labels as Retinyl Palmitate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin A Palmitate, so it can hide under more than one name in an ingredient list.
Where Retinyl Palmitate shows up
You'll most often find Retinyl Palmitate in targeted treatment products. Separately from clogging, its irritancy is rated 1/5 — low, so it's unlikely to sting or sensitise on its own.
Is Retinyl Palmitate bad for acne-prone skin?
Because it barely registers on the comedogenic scale, Retinyl Palmitate is generally a safe pick for breakout-prone skin and is often recommended as a gentler alternative to heavier ingredients.
Note for fungal-acne (malassezia) sufferers: Retinyl Palmitate is commonly avoided in fungal-acne routines, since it falls into the fatty-acid or ester families the yeast can feed on. The evidence there is looser than for comedogenicity — see our fungal-acne checker for context.