Comparisons › Zinc Oxide vs Titanium Dioxide
Zinc Oxide vs Titanium Dioxide: which is better for acne-prone skin?
Quick answer: It's a tie on comedogenicity — both rate 1/5. Choose on texture and how your skin responds.
Side by side
| Zinc Oxide | Titanium Dioxide | |
| Comedogenic rating | Low risk · 1/5 | Low risk · 1/5 |
| Category | Sunscreen | Sunscreen |
| Pore-clogging (≥3) | No | No |
| Fungal-acne trigger | No | No |
Scale: 0 = non-comedogenic (won't clog pores) … 5 = very likely to clog pores.
The verdict
Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide score the same on the comedogenic scale (1/5), so for pore-clogging alone there is no clear winner. Pick on texture, price and how your own skin responds — and patch test.
Zinc Oxide: 1/5
Zinc Oxide rates 1/5 — a very low pore-clogging risk. Most skin tolerates it well; very reactive skin may want to patch test. It is not a common fungal-acne (Malassezia) trigger. Full breakdown: is Zinc Oxide comedogenic?
Titanium Dioxide: 1/5
Titanium Dioxide rates 1/5 — a very low pore-clogging risk. Most skin tolerates it well; very reactive skin may want to patch test. It is not a common fungal-acne (Malassezia) trigger. Full breakdown: is Titanium Dioxide comedogenic?
Checking a real product?
Single-ingredient ratings are guidance, not a lab test of a finished formula — concentration and the rest of the ingredient list matter (Draelos & DiNardo, 2006). Paste the full list into the comedogenic ingredient checker to screen everything at once, or the fungal-acne checker if Malassezia is your problem.
By Mitchell Zandwijken · Rated against published comedogenicity references (Fulton 1984; Draelos & DiNardo 2006) · Last updated July 2026.