Verified Beauty Data

Dupe report Nº 024 / Squalane oils (100%)

Biossance 100% Sugarcane Squalane dupes, ranked by formula match

Updated

Squalane is one molecule. Per mL, The Ordinary costs about the same as Biossance, for a much smaller up-front price.

02 / The scoreboard

3 formulas, one number that matters

Read the actives column first — it is the apples-to-apples comparison. $ per gram of active is what the working ingredients cost you; the base-formula score is supporting evidence, not the verdict.

Product Actives vs original $ / g of active Price Base formula Verdict
Biossance 100% Sugarcane Squalane Single-ingredient 100% squalane (INCIDecoder-verified) $0.34 $34.00 100 mL · Amazon 100% the reference The original
Exact disclosed active the direct clones — same actives, same percentages
The Ordinary 100% Plant-Derived Squalane Single-ingredient 100% squalane (INCIDecoder-verified) $0.35 $10.40 30 mL · Amazon 95% highest measured The winner Amazon →
Good Molecules Squalane Oil Single-ingredient 100% squalane (INCIDecoder-verified) $0.62 $8.00 13 mL · Amazon 90% Skip price on Amazon

✓ same % as original ≠ different % ? in formula, % undisclosed — not in formula

03 / The original

Why the original is the original

Squalane is a single, saturated, skin-identical lipid — the hydrogenated, shelf-stable form of squalene, a molecule your own skin already produces. A 100% squalane oil has no other active to disclose: it is either squalane, or it is not. Biossance's version is sourced from sugarcane rather than the shark-liver oil squalane historically came from, which is a genuine sustainability upgrade in sourcing, not a different molecule once it is in the bottle.

That sourcing story is exactly what the $34 price buys. Once refined, squalane is squalane — INCIDecoder verifies the same single-ingredient formula in Good Molecules' $8 bottle (13 mL) and The Ordinary's $10.40 bottle (30 mL). Biossance's bottle is now 100 mL, so the three bottles are very different sizes. There is no concentration to compare, no delivery system to differentiate, and no clinical claim unique to any one brand's squalane.

So compare the price per mL, not the sticker price. At $0.34 per mL, Biossance's 100 mL bottle costs about the same per mL as The Ordinary ($0.35/mL). Good Molecules is the cheapest bottle, but at about $0.62 per mL it costs the most per mL. The molecule is the same in all three, so there is no chemistry reason to pay more. The Ordinary is our pick: about the same price per mL as Biossance, for $10.40 up front instead of $34.

04 / The candidates

Every candidate, examined

01 / The Ordinary

The winner
The Ordinary 100% Plant-Derived Squalane bottle
$0.35 per g of active
$10.40 retail · 30 mL
95% base formula · highest of 6

The Ordinary 100% Plant-Derived Squalane

Shared formula DNA 1 of 1 original ingredients present
Squalane

shared with original not shared rare marker — weighs more in the score

What matches
Also the identical single-ingredient 100% squalane, in a 30 mL bottle — the product that made squalane oil a household staple.
What differs
No sourcing story of its own beyond "plant-derived." A smaller bottle than Biossance's 100 mL.
Who it's for
The winner — the pick if the molecule is what you're buying. $10.40 for 30 mL works out to $0.35/mL, about the same as Biossance's $0.34/mL, for far less money up front.
Ships in
Packaging not verified No brand or retailer statement on the bottle — we won’t guess.
pH
pH not published L-ascorbic acid needs pH below 3.5 to absorb
Data source
Single-ingredient 100% squalane (INCIDecoder-verified) Single-ingredient 100% squalane verified via INCIDecoder; 30 mL size and price from the Amazon listing.

$10.40 for 30 mL → $0.35 per gram of active — about the same per active gram as the original's $0.34.

Buy on Amazon $10.40

02 / Good Molecules

Skip
Good Molecules Squalane Oil bottle
$0.62 per g of active
$8.00 retail · 13 mL
90% base formula · 2nd of 6

Good Molecules Squalane Oil

Shared formula DNA 1 of 1 original ingredients present
Squalane

shared with original not shared rare marker — weighs more in the score

What matches
The identical single-ingredient 100% squalane, INCI-verified — the same molecule Biossance sells, in a much smaller 13 mL bottle. There is no concentration or delivery-system difference to report.
What differs
No sugarcane-sourcing story and simpler packaging. The chemistry inside the bottle does not differ from Biossance's at all.
Who it's for
The cheapest bottle to try: $8 for 13 mL. But the bottle is small, so per mL it costs the most here ($0.62/mL, versus $0.35/mL for The Ordinary). Buy it to test squalane, not to save money.
Ships in
Packaging not verified No brand or retailer statement on the bottle — we won’t guess.
pH
pH not published L-ascorbic acid needs pH below 3.5 to absorb
Data source
Single-ingredient 100% squalane (INCIDecoder-verified) Single-ingredient 100% squalane verified via INCIDecoder; 13 mL size and price from the Amazon listing.

$8.00 for 13 mL → $0.62 per gram of active — more per active gram than the original's $0.34.

price on Amazon ($8.00) — not recommended as a dupe

05 / Methodology

How we verified this

Verified June 15, 2026

Every formula on this page was tokenized — split into its individual INCI ingredients — and matched against the EU CosIng ingredient database, so "Aqua," "Water," and "Eau" all resolve to the same ingredient.

The base-formula match score works like this: sharing a rare ingredient counts far more than sharing a common one. Almost every serum contains water and glycerin — that proves nothing. Almost nothing contains Ethoxydiglycol or Laureth-23, so when a candidate shares those with the original, it says something real about how the formula was built. (For the statisticians: it is an IDF-weighted Jaccard similarity over the normalized ingredient lists.)

Scores are computed, not opinions. The verdict tags are our editorial read of the actives, the scores, and the prices — and the methodology stays public so you can disagree with us precisely.

Where the ingredient lists come from

  1. Single-ingredient 100% squalane (INCIDecoder-verified)

Sources for this report

  • INCIDecoder product pages (INCI verified verbatim — single-ingredient squalane)
  • Amazon Creators PA-API — ASIN/price verification
  • Verified Beauty Data's own product records

06 / Questions

Frequently asked

What is the best Biossance 100% Sugarcane Squalane dupe?
The Ordinary 100% Plant-Derived Squalane ($10.40 for 30 mL). It is the same molecule, INCI-verified single-ingredient squalane, and per mL it costs about the same as Biossance ($0.35 vs $0.34). Good Molecules Squalane Oil is cheaper up front ($8), but its bottle holds only 13 mL, so it costs more per mL.
Is all squalane oil the same?
Once refined to 100% squalane, yes — it is a single, saturated, skin-identical lipid regardless of brand. Biossance sources its squalane from sugarcane rather than other plant or shark-liver sources, which is a genuine sustainability story in how the raw material is produced, but the finished molecule in the bottle does not differ.
Why does Biossance squalane cost more than The Ordinary or Good Molecules?
Per mL, it mostly does not anymore. Biossance sells 100 mL for $34, or $0.34/mL. The Ordinary is $10.40 for 30 mL ($0.35/mL). Good Molecules is $8 for 13 mL ($0.62/mL), the most per mL because the bottle is so small. Biossance costs more up front because you buy 100 mL at once. None of this is a chemistry difference.

→ / Related

Dig into the ingredients