How Clera calculates acne risk scores and what research supports them.
Last updated May 19, 2026
What the score is: Clera's acne risk score is a 0–100 rating of a product's ingredient profile. Higher scores are safer; lower scores carry more flagged ingredients.
70–100 (green) : the product's ingredient mix is generally well-tolerated for acne-prone skin.
40–69 (orange) : the product contains some ingredients that may pose a risk for acne-prone skin.
0–39 (red) : the product contains multiple ingredients that are commonly flagged as comedogenic, pro-inflammatory, or otherwise associated with acne in dermatological literature.
The score reflects a product's general ingredient risk profile. It is not a personalized prediction and not a medical diagnosis. Individual skin reacts differently to the same ingredients, and a low score does not mean a product will cause acne for you — only that its ingredient profile contains more flagged compounds than a higher-scored product.
The Daily Clera Score:
The Daily Clera Score is a separate, derived metric shown on the home screen. It is a penalty-based aggregate of the items you've logged on a given day:
0 penalty points: ingredient profile is clean — score stays at the daily ceiling.
1–2 penalty points: light penalty — score slips into the mid-band.
3–5 penalty points: moderate penalty — score drops into the orange band.
6+ penalty points: heavy penalty — score drops into the red band.
The Daily Clera Score is a behavioral tracking tool, not a clinical measurement.
How scores are calculated
Each product is scored from its ingredient list using a transparent additive model:
Base score: 85. Every product starts at 85 before any ingredient is analyzed. This represents a neutral baseline for a product with no flagged or supportive ingredients.
Trigger ingredients subtract points. Each ingredient classified as a "trigger" — comedogenic, pro-inflammatory, or acting through a hormonal pathway implicated in acne — subtracts points proportional to its impact weight, multiplied by 15. The first three ingredients in a product's INCI list are weighted 1.5× more heavily, reflecting that ingredients listed earlier are present in higher concentrations.
Supportive ingredients add points. Each ingredient classified as "supportive" — anti-inflammatory, anti-comedogenic, or barrier-supporting — adds points proportional to its impact weight, multiplied by 5.
Final score is clamped to 0–100. No product can score below 0 or above 100, regardless of how many trigger or supportive ingredients it contains.
Ingredient classification categories
Trigger: ingredients with published evidence linking them to comedogenicity, pro-inflammatory effects on sebaceous skin, or activity along hormonal pathways (e.g., androgenic stimulation) associated with acne.
Supportive: ingredients with published evidence supporting anti-inflammatory, anti-comedogenic, or skin-barrier-restoring effects relevant to acne management.
Neutral: ingredients with no meaningful evidence in either direction for acne-prone skin.
Unknown: ingredients we cannot confidently classify, either because they are absent from peer-reviewed literature or because the available evidence is contradictory. Unknown ingredients are not penalized or rewarded.
What the research says
The scoring framework above is grounded in the following peer-reviewed sources. Each reference links directly to the original publisher or PubMed record.
Comedogenicity and topical ingredients
Kligman AM, Mills OH Jr. "Acne cosmetica." Arch Dermatol. 1972;106(6):843–850. jamanetwork.com
Fulton JE Jr, Pay SR, Fulton JE 3rd. "Comedogenicity of current therapeutic products, cosmetics, and ingredients in the rabbit ear." J Am Acad Dermatol. 1984;10(1):96–105. jaad.org
Draelos ZD, DiNardo JC. "A re-evaluation of the comedogenicity concept." J Am Acad Dermatol. 2006;54(3):507–512. jaad.org
Diet and acne
Smith RN, Mann NJ, Braue A, Mäkeläinen H, Varigos GA. "A low-glycemic-load diet improves symptoms in acne vulgaris patients." Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;86(1):107–115. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Adebamowo CA, Spiegelman D, Danby FW, Frazier AL, Willett WC, Holmes MD. "High school dietary dairy intake and teenage acne." J Am Acad Dermatol. 2005;52(2):207–214. jaad.org
Kwon HH, Yoon JY, Hong JS, Jung JY, Park MS, Suh DH. "Clinical and histological effect of a low glycaemic load diet in treatment of acne vulgaris in Korean patients." Acta Derm Venereol. 2012;92(3):241–246. medicaljournals.se
Melnik BC. "Linking diet to acne metabolomics, inflammation, and comedogenesis: an update." Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol. 2015;8:371–388. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Dall'Oglio F, Nasca MR, Fiorentini F, Micali G. "Diet and acne: review of the evidence from 2009 to 2020." Int J Dermatol. 2021;60(6):672–685. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Inflammation and acne pathogenesis
Zouboulis CC. "Acne and sebaceous gland function." Clin Dermatol. 2004;22(5):360–366. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Thiboutot D, et al. "New insights into the management of acne: an update from the Global Alliance to Improve Outcomes in Acne Group." J Am Acad Dermatol. 2009;60(5 Suppl):S1–50. jaad.org
Clinical guidelines
American Academy of Dermatology. "Acne." AAD.org. aad.org
Zaenglein AL, et al. "Guidelines of care for the management of acne vulgaris." J Am Acad Dermatol. 2016;74(5):945–973. jaad.org
Limitations
A few things the score cannot do, and that we want to be upfront about:
It is not personalized. The score reflects general dermatological evidence on ingredient classes, not your individual skin chemistry, hormonal profile, or sensitivities.
It is ingredient-based, not formulation-based. Two products with the same ingredients can behave differently depending on concentration, pH, and the rest of the formula — details that are rarely disclosed publicly.
Comedogenicity research has limits. Much of the foundational comedogenicity literature is based on the rabbit-ear assay, which does not perfectly predict human response. We weight more recent human evidence where it exists.
Ingredient lists can be incomplete or outdated. Clera relies on the ingredient data provided by the product label, Open Beauty Facts, or our AI fallback. Reformulations can lag the data we see.
A high score is not a guarantee. Even a 90-scoring product can break out an individual user. A low score is a flag, not a verdict.
Clera's scores should be treated as a starting point for discussion with a qualified dermatologist, not as a clinical verdict.
Data sources:
Product identity and barcodes. Product names, brands, images, and ingredient lists are sourced from Open Beauty Facts (openbeautyfacts.org), an open, collaborative database of cosmetic products. We use Open Beauty Facts as our primary product registry and contribute corrections back where appropriate.
AI-generated analysis. When a product is not yet curated in our system, Clera uses a large language model to produce a provisional ingredient breakdown based on the product label and publicly available formulation information. These results are model outputs, not clinical findings, and are flagged as AI-generated in the app. Curated and human-reviewed entries take precedence when available.
Clera is not a medical device and is not FDA-cleared. Nothing on this page or in the Clera app constitutes medical advice.