My Ultimate List of Fungal Acne Safe Skincare Products
Struggling with fungal acne? These are my go-to fungal acne safe products that actually work—cleansers, moisturizers, serums, sunscreens, and more, all personally tested and loved.
As someone with oily, clog-prone skin, who lives in a tropical climate, and spends far too much time on skincare subreddits, I know a thing or two about fungal acne (FA).
Now, it seems like fungal acne has reached mass epidemic proportions. Suddenly, everyone I see online is talking about it, and while I don’t truly think we’re all suffering from the same thing, I do see a very clear need for more information around products that are fungal acne safe.
Personally, I’ve never been diagnosed with FA, but I prefer using FA-safe products because they tend to be formulated with fewer irritants. Once I switched to using them, I saw a lot of my skin texture issues and random breakouts go away.
So, this post is a curated roundup of fungal acne-safe products I trust—one winner per category, plus a few honorable mentions if you're looking for more options. Whether you’re new to the FA game or just trying to keep your routine in check, I hope this list saves you the guesswork (and the breakouts).
Full Disclosure: I make a teeny little commission from the links below. So, if you find this article helpful and are considering buying any of these products, consider showing some support to this blog.
Cleansers
Like any self-respecting oily-skinned, acne-prone individual, I double cleanse religiously every night. So I’m going to let you in on some of my favorite cleansers, broken down by first and second cleanse.
Best First Cleanse: Bioderma Sensibio H2O Micellar Water
If you love your cleansing balms and oils, I have some bad news for you. Almost no oil-based cleansers are truly fungal-acne safe, and trust me, I’ve tried a lot of them. If your fungal acne isn’t particularly bad, you could get away with an oil or balm for a few days, maybe even weeks, but that dreaded FA texture will inadvertently rear its ugly head again at some point.
That’s why, in my opinion, a good micellar water is always the safest option for a first cleanse. The Bioderma micellar water is my personal go-to, but Garnier has a more affordable option too. Granted these don’t feel as luxurious as an oil or balm, but at least you can be sure your skin won’t be breaking out the next morning.
Best Second Cleanse: Beplain Mung Bean pH-Balanced Cleansing Foam
Luckily, your choices for a second cleanse are far more abundant. In fact, there are so many great options I’ve tried and loved, I actually had a hard time picking my absolute fave. I ended up giving the top spot to the mung bean foaming cleanser from Beplain because I think it’s an incredibly effective, but gentle cleanser that could work for all skin types. Mung bean gently purifies the skin, while nourishing ingredients like aloe, centella asiatica, and turmeric ensure that it’s not too stripping.
Honorable Mentions:
Toners
Toners again, are a category where you’re spoilt for choice. Especially with the explosion of lightweight Korean toners, the options are now endless. Here’s my all time fave + some honorable mentions below.
Best Overall Toner: Heveblue Salmon Caring Centella Toner
Different people want different things from their toners, but me personally? I want my toner to hydrate and calm my skin down after cleansing, providing the perfect, healthy base for the rest of my routine. Which is why, my current go-to FA-safe toner is the Heveblue Salmon Caring Centella Toner.
Featuring social media’s favorite new ingredient, PDRN (or salmon DNA), which may not be the cure for all life’s problems, but does do a great job at hydrating and keeping the barrier healthy. This toner also features centella asiatica leaf water and madecassoside to calm the skin, alongside panthenol and hyaluronic acid for hydration.
Honorable Mentions:
Serums & Treatments
I found it impossible to name one best overall serum/treatment product because it really depends on your needs and what you’re looking for. So I’ve broken it down into a few top concerns: brightening, anti-aging, barrier repair, and exfoliating.
Best for Brightening: Geek & Gorgeous C-Glow 15% Vitamin C Serum
Call me old-fashioned, but when it comes to brightening, it’s hard for anything to beat the classic Vitamin C, Vitamin E and Ferulic Acid combination. If you can afford it, the Skinceuticals C+E Ferulic is the OG for a reason, but C-Glow serum from Geek & Gorgeous is considered a near dupe for the famous Skinceuticals formula, at a fraction of the price. The Maelove Glowmaker is another FA-safe dupe that comes with a much lower price tag.
I will add, at this point, that pure Vitamin C should not be used on active acne as it could make it worse. If you’re struggling with a breakout, the options below with tranexamic acid or azelaic acid would be better bets.
Honorable Mentions:
FaceTheory Glow-C Tranexamic 5% Serum
Best for Anti-aging: Differin Adapalene Gel
There’s a reason that retinoids are considered the gold standard of anti-aging skincare, but unfortunately there still aren’t a lot of FA-safe options on the market today. Enter: Differin Adapalene Gel, a formerly prescription-only retinoid that’s now available over the counter in many countries. Differin was initially prescribed as an acne treatment, however, it works very similar to other retinoids and does offer anti-aging benefits as well. That’s the exact two-birds-with-one-stone kind of product you need in your routine, if you ask me.
If retinoids are a bit much for your skin, peptides and the increasingly popular, growth factors, are also great options. Check out my picks below.
Honorable mentions:
Best for Barrier Repair: Anua Rice 7+ Ceramide Hydrating Barrier Serum
While the Anua Rice Ceramide line as a whole offers some great options, this Rice Ceramide Hydrating Barrier Serum is where it really shines. What I love about this serum is how multi-faceted it is. It nourishes and protects the skin with ingredients like rice bran water, rice extract, and ceramides, it hydrates with urea (great for FA, by the way), panthenol, beta-glucan and hyaluronic acid, AND it also brightens with ingredients like alpha arbutin and niacinamide. A rare triple threat of a serum that has found a permanent spot in my routine.
Honorable Mentions:
Best for Exfoliation: AXIS-Y PHA Resurfacing Glow Peel
I’ll admit it, I’m not a huge fan of exfoliation. I just find that it’s so easy to overdo it, damage your skin barrier, and worsen your acne in the process. So all my recommendations are going to be on the very mild side.
When I do exfoliate (which is usually once a week or less), I skip the AHAs and BHAs, and opt for a milder PHA instead. My current favorite is the AXIS-Y PHA Resurfacing Glow Peel, which has 10% PHA, but is also enriched with centella asiatica and green papaya extract to soothe the skin. Plus it’s a rinse off formula, which makes it even gentler on the skin.
For a few stronger (but still gentle) options, see the honorable mentions below.
Honorable Mention:
Moisturizers
With moisturizers, I stick to lightweight gel moisturizers that are formulated with calming and soothing ingredients like oat and centella asiatica. I do try and go for something a tad richer (though still pretty lightweight, in the grand scheme of things) at night.
Best Day-Time Moisturizer: Purito Oat-In Calming Gel Cream
My all time holy-grail moisturizer, especially for the day time, is the Oat-in Calming gel cream from Purito (pictured here in it’s old packaging—that’s how long I’ve been using it), packed with some of my favorite ingredients for hydrating and calming the skin. Oat seed water, glycerin, squalane, panthenol, beta glucan—you name it, it has it.
Honorable Mentions:
Best Night-Time Moisturizer: Dr.G Red Blemish Clear Soothing Cream
If you’re not too oily, you could probably use this in the day time as well, but I like to slather on a thick layer of the nourishing Dr.G Red Blemish Clear Soothing Cream to end my night time routine. Formulated with 5(!) different types of centella asiatica, this hydrating and soothing cream is perfect for acne-prone skin. It was an absolute life saver for me when I damaged my skin barrier and could barely use any skincare at all.
Honorable Mentions:
Sunscreens
And finally, the most important part of any skincare routine, and maybe the hardest to find FA-safe products for (at least in my experience) is sunscreens. Luckily, through much trial and error, I’ve found a few that are absolutely perfect.
Best Overall Sunscreen: Paula’s Choice Youth-Extending Daily Hydrating Fluid
You were probably expecting a Korean sunscreen here (and there are definitely ones I love), but my all-time favorite sunscreen—FA-safe or otherwise-is the lightweight Youth Extending Daily Hydrating Fluid from Paula’s Choice. I’ve never quite experienced a sunscreen with this texture before. It sinks in effortlessly into the skin, leaves no white cast on my brown skin, and looks fantastic under makeup. Oh, and did I mention, it has a bunch of amazing ingredients, including antioxidants like pomegranate and goji berry for additional protection, and calming ingredients like chamomile and green tea?
Honorable Mentions:
Colorescience Sunforgettable Total Protection Face Shield Flex SPF 50 (tinted)
COSRX Ultra-Light Invisible Sunscreen SPF 50 PA++++
Final Thoughts
Fungal acne can be sneaky. It isn’t always easy to identify, and can be tricky to treat as well. For me, building a skincare routine around FA-safe ingredients has made a huge difference, and today, I can even add in a few not-so-FA-safe products and get away with it. It’s not about switching everything overnight, but being more mindful of what you’re putting on your skin.
I still get the occasional flare-up (humidity is relentless!), but these products have helped me get things under control without compromising on hydration, sun protection, or glow. Let me know your faves, and if I missed any of your holy grail FA-safe products.
About The Skinimalist
Hi, I’m Mal, a 30-something recovering skincare addict, and this is my blog. A space where I attempt to de-influence you from chasing trends and buying more skincare products you may not need.
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