Data report
Fungal-acne triggers in K-beauty
How often do Malassezia (fungal acne) trigger ingredients actually show up in the Korean skincare we've decoded? Counted live from real labels — not vibes.
Last computed — every figure on this page is counted live from our decoded catalog, so it changes as coverage grows.
"Fungal acne" (Malassezia folliculitis) is driven by a yeast that feeds on certain fatty acids, their esters, polysorbate and sorbitan emulsifiers, and yeast ferments. The list below is a screen, not a verdict: it rests on in-vitro (lab-dish) studies of which lipids the yeast can metabolise, and it over-flags common, usually-harmless emulsifiers. Use it to shortlist things to patch-test — not to fear an ingredient.
of 2,473 decoded Korean products carry ≥1 Malassezia-trigger ingredient
Korean skincare labels decoded so far
distinct trigger ingredients found across them
Quotable stats
Each line is self-contained and cites the source (us) — lift any one of them.
73% of 2,473 decoded Korean skincare products contain at least one ingredient reported to feed Malassezia (fungal acne / Pityrosporum folliculitis) (beautydew labs, 2026)
Check any label →22% of decoded Korean skincare products list Polyglyceryl-10 Laurate, the single most common Malassezia-trigger ingredient in the set (beautydew labs, 2026)
What Polyglyceryl-10 Laurate does →19% of decoded Korean skincare products list Glyceryl Stearate, a possible Malassezia-trigger ingredient (beautydew labs, 2026)
What Glyceryl Stearate does →17% of decoded Korean skincare products list Stearic Acid, a reported Malassezia-trigger ingredient (beautydew labs, 2026)
What Stearic Acid does →11% of decoded Korean skincare products list Sorbitan Olivate, a possible Malassezia-trigger ingredient (beautydew labs, 2026)
What Sorbitan Olivate does →10% of decoded Korean skincare products list Palmitic Acid, a reported Malassezia-trigger ingredient (beautydew labs, 2026)
What Palmitic Acid does →9% of decoded Korean skincare products list Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate, a possible Malassezia-trigger ingredient (beautydew labs, 2026)
What Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate does →158 distinct Malassezia-trigger ingredients appear across the 2,473 decoded Korean skincare products we've read (beautydew labs, 2026)
40% of decoded Korean hair oil products carry a Malassezia trigger — the lowest-prevalence category in our decoded K-beauty set (beautydew labs, 2026)
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By category
Trigger prevalence across the Korean product types we've decoded, most products first. Small samples are noisy — the count is shown so you can judge.
| Category | Decoded | With a trigger | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| serum | 506 | 309 | 61% |
| mask | 427 | 333 | 78% |
| moisturizer | 368 | 331 | 90% |
| cleanser | 243 | 178 | 73% |
| exfoliant | 229 | 166 | 72% |
| sunscreen | 229 | 198 | 86% |
| toner | 225 | 114 | 51% |
| eye cream | 105 | 77 | 73% |
| other | 72 | 53 | 74% |
| lip care | 24 | 24 | 100% |
| shampoo | 17 | 7 | 41% |
| body lotion | 11 | 10 | 91% |
| skincare | 6 | 4 | 67% |
| hair oil | 5 | 2 | 40% |
| hair mask | 3 | 2 | 67% |
| conditioner | 2 | 1 | 50% |
| styling | 1 | 1 | 100% |
Bar shade marks how a row compares to the largest value shown here: darker is higher, relative to this breakdown only.
Most common triggers
The trigger ingredients that turn up most often, by share of decoded Korean products.
- Polyglyceryl-10 Laurate22%
- Glyceryl Stearate19%
- Stearic Acid17%
- Sorbitan Olivate11%
- Palmitic Acid10%
- Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate9%
Bar shade marks how a row compares to the largest value shown here: darker is higher, relative to this breakdown only.
What this can't tell you
Read this as a screen, not a verdict. The entire trigger list rests on IN-VITRO (lab-dish) studies of which lipids Malassezia can metabolise — that is not the same as a study showing these ingredients cause breakouts on real skin, and growth in those studies was strongly concentration-dependent (some fatty acids fed the yeast at low doses but killed it at higher ones). So this checker OVER-FLAGS: it catches ubiquitous, usually-harmless emulsifiers and thickeners (glyceryl stearate, PEG-100 stearate, polysorbates) that many fungal-acne-prone people tolerate perfectly well, especially in rinse-off products. Malassezia also lives on nearly everyone's skin; an ingredient 'feeding' it in a dish does not mean it will flare you. Use flags to shortlist things to patch-test, not to fear.
How we counted
We match each ingredient against classes reported to feed Malassezia (fungal acne): free fatty acids in the ~C11–C24 range, esters that hydrolyse back into them, polysorbate and sorbitan emulsifiers, and fungal (yeast) ferments — plus a short list of classes that are NOT a food source (inert hydrocarbons, silicones, short C8–C10 lipids, simple humectants). The trigger classes come from the derm literature summarised by Gaitanis et al. and the reference list SkinSort's checker cites. Matching is literal substring matching on ingredient names.
Prevalence here counts a product as "flagged" when its parsed label lists at least one ingredient our fungal-acne checker matches to an avoid- or caution-graded trigger class. "Decoded" means we actually parsed the label — never the whole catalog.
Cite this
beautydew labs. "Fungal acne (Malassezia) triggers in K-beauty — a live data report." Accessed October 5, 2026. https://beautydewlabs.com/data/fungal-acne-in-k-beauty