Petroleum Jelly Original
What it's good for
Key actives from our research database. Click any to read the full evidence dossier.
The gold-standard occlusive moisturiser. Locks water into damaged or compromised skin better than anything else, accelerates barrier repair, and (in newer research) actively boosts your skin's own antimicrobial defences. Cheap, non-allergenic, widely recommended by dermatologists for very dry, compromised, or post-procedure skin and for slugging.
Good for: Barrier repair, Hydrating
Evidence behind the ingredients
Real citations from our research database, one per tracked active in this product. Click any ingredient name to read its full evidence dossier.
The gold-standard occlusive moisturiser. Locks water into damaged or compromised skin better than anything else, accelerates barrier repair, and (in newer research) actively boosts your skin's own antimicrobial defences. Cheap, non-allergenic, widely recommended by dermatologists for very dry, compromised, or post-procedure skin and for slugging.
van Zuuren EJ, Fedorowicz Z, Christensen R, Lavrijsen APM, Arents BWM. Emollients and moisturisers for eczema. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;2:CD012119. — Cochrane review of 77 studies (n=6,603) found most moisturisers prolonged time to flare, reduced flares, and reduced topical corticosteroid use; moisturisers combined with active treatment outperformed active treatment alone.
Czarnowicki T, Malajian D, Khattri S, et al. Petrolatum: Barrier repair and antimicrobial responses underlying this 'inert' moisturizer. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2016;137(4):1091-1102.e7.
Genuino GAS, Baluyut-Angeles KV, Espiritu APT, Lapitan MCM, Buckley BS. Topical petrolatum gel alone versus topical silver sulfadiazine with standard gauze dressings for the treatment of superficial partial thickness burns in adults: a randomized controlled trial. Burns. 2014;40(7):1267-1273. — RCT: petrolatum gel at least as effective as silver sulfadiazine for re-epithelialization (mean 6.2 vs 7.8 days) with similar infection/allergy rates.
Sources: 10 clinical journals and regulatory databases across the US, EU, Korea, Japan, and China. Every entry points to a specific document. See methodology for the full list and what each outcome label means.
Similar comparisons
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