Caredermis

Kojic Acid

Severity 4/10

skin brightener

Is Kojic Acid safe?

Kojic Acid carries moderate concerns worth knowing about (allergy risk, irritation).

In plain language

A fungal-derived brightener capped at 1% in the EU; effective for dark spots but a fairly common sensitizer with sustained use.

A Caredermis plain-language explanation to help you read the label — not a regulator statement. The sourced facts are the classifications and status shown on this page.

Documented concerns

Concerns marked Editorialare Caredermis' own dermatological review; the rest are drawn from official data — see the cited sources ↓

Allergy risk

4/10

Documented contact sensitizer with regular use.

Irritation

Editorial3/10

Stinging on sensitive skin, especially above 1%.

Official regulatory status

Pulled directly from official regulatory datasets and expert reviews — not our own judgement.

CIR: safe as used (with qualifications)EU cosmetics: RestrictedIARC Group 3

EU SCCS safety opinions

  • · Opinion on Kojic acid
  • · scientific opinion on Kojic acid, preliminary version of 26-27 October 2021, final version of 15-16 March 2022, Corrigendum of 10 June 2022, SCCS/1637/21.
Read SCCS opinions ↗

Guidance by skin profile

Caredermis editorial guidance based on the concerns above — checked against the official records on every build, but not itself a regulator statement.

  • Sensitive skinHigh caution
  • Oily & acne-proneNo specific concern
  • Dry skinNo specific concern
  • PregnancyNo specific concern
  • Babies & kidsNo specific concern
  • Eczema-proneHigh caution

Sources

Each authority below is shown only because our ingested copy of its data lists Kojic Acid — not because we asserted it. Follow a link to verify the classification or regulation directly.

CIR conclusion from the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) Quick Reference Table — cir-safety.org (snapshot in data/sources/)(point-in-time snapshot; CIR's live record may have been updated since).

See our methodology for how these map to concern levels. Informational only — not medical advice.

Products in our library containing Kojic Acid

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