Kiehl's
Ultra Pure High-Potency 9.8% Glycolic Acid Serum
Face
Cleaner pick · Safest serums & essences we have rated
Africology Skincare & Spa
Aloe Ferox Serum+15 on ingredient safety
30ml · 569 ZAR · 1896.67 ZAR/100 ml
Ingredient safetyRaters agree
Ranked by safety only. Greenlens earns from qualifying purchases. Payout never affects a rating, a ranking, or the cleaner pick.
Raters split
Ingredient safety
A 20-point gap between the two loudest voices.
80ANSES Endocrine DisruptorsGovernment
vs100Greenlens Precautionary ScreenIndependent
050100
See why, ingredient by ingredientAll 978 cleaner options, safest first We show the best 12, including the strongest on each axis.
Every rater, every axis
Ingredient safety
20 pts apartIndependent — not funded by the brands it rates. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
A government authority. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
Independent — not funded by the brands it rates. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
Independent — not funded by the brands it rates. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
A government authority. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
Also screened, nothing found: EU Harmonised Classification (CLP Annex VI) · California Proposition 65 · IARC Monographs · US NTP Report on Carcinogens · ECHA SVHC Candidate List
Recognized on a safer-ingredients list: US EPA Safer Choice recognizes 71% of ingredients as safer choices — a marker, never a score.
Environmental
Also screened, nothing found: EU Microplastics Restriction
Labor
Run by a nonprofit. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. This rates Kiehl's as a company and applies to everything they make, not this product alone. Checked this week. about this rater →
Coverage & match quality
6 ratings · 2 of 4 axes
- Some ratings rest on an automatic match that has not been human-reviewed.
- Fewer raters reach smaller-brand products, so a missing rating is not a clean bill of health, only a gap.
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Environmentalno rating
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Packagingno rating
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0 means ignored. Higher = more weight in your composite.
Ingredients, decoded
Data availability
Robust7 of 7 characterized
Our sources have reference data on all 7 listed ingredients.
Worth a look (3)
ANSES endocrine candidateflagged by 1 of 9 lists
Health Canada Hotlist — restrictedflagged by 1 of 9 lists
EU-restricted (with limits)flagged by 2 of 9 lists
No flags in our sources (4)
What these ingredient tags mean (3)
These describe what an ingredient is, not whether it is a problem. The stance marks above are the ratings; these are not.
commonly dryingAlcohol Denat
- Alcohol Denat: Denatured ethanol: a fast-evaporating solvent that thins a formula and leaves a dry finish. International Chemical Safety Card ICSC 0044, Ethanol (anhydrous), prepared by an international group of experts for the ILO and WHO: "The substance defats the skin, which may cause dryness or cracking." WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care (2009) records depletion of the skin lipid barrier by lipid-dissolving alcohols, and also that "the lipid-dissolving effect of alcohols is inversely related to their concentration". Both describe stronger exposures than a cosmetic formula.
exfoliating acidGlycolic Acid
- Glycolic Acid: An alpha hydroxy acid that loosens surface skin cells; it also makes skin more sun-sensitive while you use it. FDA, "Guidance for Industry: Labeling for Topically Applied Cosmetic Products Containing Alpha Hydroxy Acids as Ingredients" (announced at 70 FR 1721, 10 January 2005; FDA web pages title it "Labeling for Cosmetics Containing Alpha Hydroxy Acids"), which names this acid and recommends the statement "Sunburn Alert: This product contains an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) that may increase your skin's sensitivity to the sun and particularly the possibility of sunburn."
humectantGlycerin, Sodium Hyaluronate
- Glycerin: A humectant, and one of the two ingredients a comparison of moisturiser components found made a significant difference to skin hydration. FDA OTC skin protectant monograph, 21 CFR 347.10(h), lists glycerin as a skin protectant at 20 to 45%. On the humectant half: Jeong CB, Han JY, Cho JC, Suh KD, Nam GW, "Analysis of electrical property changes of skin by oil-in-water emulsion components", Int J Cosmet Sci 2013;35(4):402-410, DOI 10.1111/ics.12059, PMID 23621673, found that "glycerine and urea showed significant skin hydration effects compared with other humectants".
- Sodium Hyaluronate: A humectant that holds a large amount of water at the skin surface. Chylińska N, Maciejczyk M, "Hyaluronic Acid and Skin: Its Role in Aging and Wound-Healing Processes", Gels 2025;11(4):281, DOI 10.3390/gels11040281, PMID 40277717, open access: hyaluronic acid's "high osmotic activity and anionic structure enable it to bind large amounts of water", and "sodium and potassium hyaluronate are widely used in moisturizing products". The same review notes that high-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid does not penetrate the deeper layers.