Squalane: a skin-like oil and where it comes from

Squalane has become a star of the “lightweight face oil” shelf, often sold as the oil that’s closest to what your skin makes. There’s some truth to that, with an important twist in the spelling. Here’s what squalane is, how it differs from squalene, where it comes from, and what the science does and doesn’t say.

Squalene: the oil your skin already makes

Your sebaceous glands (the tiny oil glands attached to hair follicles) produce sebum, the natural oil that coats your skin. One of its main ingredients is squalene, an oily molecule that makes up about 12 percent of the lipids on the skin’s surface in adults, and up to about 20 percent in some people, according to a 2010 review.

Squalene is unusual. The same review notes that it’s a big part of human sebum but missing from the sebum of our closest primate relatives. It seems to act as a kind of sacrificial antioxidant: it soaks up damage from sunlight so deeper layers don’t have to.

That’s also its weak point. Squalene has several double bonds, spots in the molecule that react easily with oxygen. When sunlight, especially UVA, hits your skin, squalene oxidizes quickly into compounds called squalene peroxides.

Squalane: the stable version

Squalane (with an “a”) is squalene with all those double bonds “filled in” with hydrogen. Chemists call this hydrogenation, and the result is a saturated oil, meaning it has no reactive double bonds left.

Why bother? Because squalane barely oxidizes, so it doesn’t go rancid in the bottle or turn into irritating peroxides on your skin the way squalene can. Reviews of squalene production describe squalane as the oxidation-stable derivative, which is why it’s the form used in most skin care.

In a moisturizer, squalane works as an emollient (an ingredient that softens skin by filling in the gaps between rough, flaky cells) and a light occlusive (it slows water loss by sitting on top of the skin). It feels thin and non-greasy compared with many plant oils. A 2022 review also describes it as spreading into skin easily, which is why it’s used to carry other ingredients.

Honesty check: we found few clinical trials testing squalane on its own for dry skin or barrier repair. Its use rests mostly on its chemistry, its feel and its long safety record, rather than on head-to-head studies.

Where does cosmetic squalane come from?

This is the part the label won’t tell you. “Squalane” on an ingredient list is the same word whatever the source.

Shark liver

Deep-sea sharks store huge amounts of squalene in their livers, and shark liver oil can be distilled to over 98 percent pure squalene in one step. That’s why it was the traditional source. According to a 2024 review, about 3,000 sharks are killed to produce one tonne of squalene. A 2010 study on telling sources apart went as far as calling the use of shark-derived squalene in cosmetics unethical.

Olives and other plants

Olive oil contains up to about 0.5 percent squalene, so producers extract it from olive oil distillates in bulk. Amaranth seed oil is richer, but plant sources need more purification, which raises the cost.

That same 2010 study noted that shark-derived squalene and squalane were cheaper than the olive versions, and developed a laboratory test to tell them apart by their chemical fingerprint. Mixing shark squalane into “olive” squalane could be detected once it made up about 10 percent of the product, which tells you the concern about mislabelling was real enough to study.

Fermentation (the “sugarcane” squalane)

Newer squalane is made by microbes. Genetically engineered yeast can turn sugar into farnesene, a building block of squalene, and microbial production of squalene itself is being scaled up. When you see “sugarcane-derived” or “plant-fermented” squalane, it generally refers to this kind of process, starting from plant sugar rather than from an oil.

For your skin, the finished squalane is the same molecule whatever its origin. The difference is environmental and ethical, plus how pure the final product is.

Does squalane clog pores?

You’ll often see squalane described as non-comedogenic, meaning it doesn’t block pores and cause blackheads or whiteheads. The science here is thinner than the claim.

What has been studied is oxidized squalene. In a 2000 test on rabbit ears, the classic model for comedogenicity (see our article on how pore-clogging is tested), squalene monohydroperoxide, the first product formed when squalene is hit by UVA light, caused more comedones than well-known pore-clogging cosmetic ingredients. Squalene itself caused less. The 2010 review also notes that people with moderate to severe acne had about twice as much squalene in their sebum as people without acne.

None of that was about squalane. Because squalane doesn’t oxidize easily, it shouldn’t form those peroxides, so there’s good reason to think it’s lower-risk than squalene. But we couldn’t find a solid study testing squalane itself on acne-prone human skin. Treat “non-comedogenic” on a squalane product as likely, not proven. If you’re acne-prone, patch test on one area for a couple of weeks before using it all over.

Is squalane safe?

Yes, as far as anyone can tell. The Cosmetic Ingredient Review expert panel, a US scientific body that assesses cosmetic ingredient safety, first reviewed squalane and squalene in 1982. In 2023 it looked at newer studies and confirmed that both are safe as used in cosmetics.

As always, other ingredients in a face oil, such as fragrance or essential oils, are more likely to cause trouble.

Choosing a squalane product

• Check the spelling. Squalane is the stable form. Squalene in a product can oxidize over time.
• Look for a stated source if sharks matter to you. “Plant-derived”, “olive” or “fermented from sugarcane” on the packaging is the only clue you’ll get.
• Keep your expectations realistic. Squalane is a pleasant, light emollient, not a treatment. For very dry or eczema-prone skin, a thicker cream or ointment may do more.
• Mind acne-prone skin. Try it on a small area first.

If you’re comparing options, you can browse moisturizers reviewed by the panel or filter for products suited to a compromised skin barrier.

Squalane is a stabilized version of an oil your skin genuinely makes, which is why it feels light and familiar. It’s safe and doesn’t go rancid, but its benefits rest more on chemistry than on clinical trials, and “non-comedogenic” hasn’t been properly tested. The biggest real-world question isn’t what it does to your skin, but where it came from.