What Is Phytosphingosine?

Phytosphingosine is a lipid from the sphingoid family, the same family of molecules your skin uses to build its own barrier. You'll almost never see it on the front of a pimple patch box. It's on the front of ours, which is why this page exists.

What Kind of Ingredient Is Phytosphingosine?

A naturally occurring sphingolipid, found in skin itself. On an ingredient list, it goes by its own name: Phytosphingosine.

Sphingolipids are one of the lipid classes in the outermost layer of skin, and Phytosphingosine is a sphingoid base within that family: a building block your skin already works with, not a novelty invented for a label. If you've ever seen Ceramide NP on a moisturizer jar, you've already crossed paths with it. The P in that name refers to a Phytosphingosine backbone.

Why Do You Rarely See It on Patch Labels?

Most patch brands lead with the same three or four ingredient names. Phytosphingosine isn't one of them, which says something about how much formulas in this category borrow from each other. It sits fourth on our seven-ingredient list, and we print it on the front of the box next to Salicylic Acid and Niacinamide.

That's not a knock on anyone else's formula. Hydrocolloid does most of the visible work in this category, and a short label can be an honest label. But when a lipid from skin's own barrier family makes it onto a patch box, we think it deserves to be named — and explained.

Where Is Phytosphingosine in CLERIVY Products?

In the Hydrocolloid Pimple Patch, where it appears in the order printed on the pack. We publish the full list, all seven ingredients, on the product page and in this site's ingredient guide.

The full ingredient list is: Polyisobutene, Cellulose Gum, Salicylic Acid, Phytosphingosine, Allantoin, Panthenol, Niacinamide. This product contains less than 0.5% Salicylic Acid for cosmetic purposes only. It is not intended to treat, prevent, or cure acne or any other medical condition.

One thing you won't find here is a percentage for Phytosphingosine. We publish only three percentages anywhere on this site: 7% Niacinamide and 3% Tranexamic Acid on the Microdart Spot Patch, and less than 0.5% Salicylic Acid here. For everything else, position is the signal. The list runs in the order printed on the pack, and Phytosphingosine sits fourth of seven. Of the two CLERIVY cosmetic patches, it's in the Hydrocolloid Pimple Patch only. The Microdart Spot Patch is a different formula, built around Sodium Hyaluronate darts.

What Does Phytosphingosine Do in a CLERIVY Patch?

Here's the honest answer, and the limit of this page. We're not going to tell you what Phytosphingosine "does for" your skin in our patch, because we haven't published testing that would back up that sentence. When we can, this page will change. Until then, it's in the formula, and that's as far as we'll go.

The same restraint applies to everything above. Nothing on this page is a performance claim, and the patch itself is a cosmetic product. For the current status of what we have and haven't tested, see What We've Tested.

Related Reading

• Hydrocolloid Pimple Patch — the product that carries Phytosphingosine, with the full seven-ingredient list

• Hydrocolloid vs. Microdart — how the two CLERIVY patches differ, and which stage each one is for

• What We've Tested — the current status of our evidence, stated plainly

Sources

• CLERIVY on-pack INGREDIENTS list and front-of-pack printing (2026)

• CLERIVY Microdart Spot Patch full ingredient disclosure sheet (2026)

• Sphingolipid nomenclature and Ceramide NP naming — van Smeden J. et al., "The important role of stratum corneum lipids for the cutaneous barrier function," Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1841 (2014): 295–313, doi:10.1016/j.bbalip.2013.11.006

CLERIVY Hydrocolloid Pimple Patch and Microdart Spot Patch are cosmetic products. They are not intended to treat, prevent, or cure acne or any other medical condition.

Last updated: August 20, 2026