This acne treatment is formulated around Sulfur to clear breakouts.

This acne treatment is formulated around Bentonite and Sulfur to clear breakouts and balance excess oil.

Facial Treatment
Facial Treatment
Korean South Korea
Korean South Korea

What's inside

What's inside

Key Ingredients

Benefits

Concerns

Ingredients Side-by-side

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Expensive 100% Drying 50% Light 50%
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Ingredients Explained

These ingredients are found in both products.

Ingredients higher up in an ingredient list are typically present in a larger amount.

Skin Conditioning, Solvent

1,2-Hexanediol is a synthetic liquid and another multi-functional powerhouse. 

It is a:

  • Humectant, drawing moisture into the skin
  • Emollient, helping to soften skin
  • Solvent, dispersing and stabilizing formulas
  • Preservative booster, enhancing the antimicrobial activity of other preservatives 
Humectant, Masking, Skin Conditioning

Butylene Glycol (or BG) is used within cosmetic products for a few different reasons:

Overall, Butylene Glycol is a safe and well-rounded ingredient that works well with other ingredients.

Though this ingredient works well with most skin types, some people with sensitive skin may experience a reaction such as allergic rashes, closed comedones, or itchiness.

Learn more about Butylene Glycol
Humectant, Skin Conditioning, Skin Protecting

Glycerin (or glycerol) is a compound naturally found in your skin. It's a powerhouse humectant that pulls water into the stratum corneum.

Topically, glycerin does several things at once:

Your skin makes glycerin on its own (mostly from sebaceous oil breakdown) and shuttles it to your outermost layer of skin, or your epidermis, via aquaporin-3.

Aquaporin-3 is a transporter that is essential for normal skin hydration, elasticity, and repair. Interestingly, mice lacking in AQP3 have dry and less elastic skin that can be fully corrected with glycerin.

This ingredient is non-irritating, plays well with almost every ingredient, and works across all skin types. Typical use is anywhere between 3-10% but can go up to 79% in some leave-on products.

Just know very high concentrations (>40%) can feel tacky in low humidity.

Glycerin is the name for this ingredient in American English. British English uses Glycerol/Glycerine.

Learn more about Glycerin
Antiseborrhoeic, Skin Conditioning

Sulfur is one of skincare's oldest ingredients that has been used to treat acne, rosacea, seborrheic dermatitis, scabies, and tinea versicolor.

How does it work?

When sulfur touches skin, it reacts with an amino acid in skin cells (called cysteine) to create cystine and hydrogen sulfide.

That hydrogen sulfide helps loosen dead skin cells to exfoliate. And here's a geeky detail: the smaller the Sulfur particles, the more they interact with skin and the better they work.

Sulfur also has antifungal and antibacterial activity, which is why you'll see it in both acne treatments and dandruff shampoos.

In the US, acne products can use 3-10% sulfur while dandruff products use 2-5%. It's also often paired with Sodium Sulfacetamide, and using that combo twice daily for 12 weeks reduced inflammatory acne spots by about 80%.

The most common complains are the smell and dryness. Otherwise, side effects are uncommon.

If you have a "sulfa" allergy, that's an allergy to sulfonamide drugs and this doesn't mean you'll react to elemental sulfur.

A 1972 study suggested sulfur might clog pores. Elemental sulfur caused some clogged pores on rabbit ears and human backs (though the researchers noted the effect was mild).

A 1978 follow-up tested this on 52 people. After six weeks of patches with 5% Sulfur, skin biopsies showed no link between Sulfur and clogged pores. The surprise? The base the Sulfur was mixed into was what caused clogged pores. Later reviewers also noted that other studies couldn't repeat the 1972 results.

So why does Sulfur have a comedogenic rating of 3?

That number comes from a 1989 rabbit ear study by dermatologist James Fulton, which gave a 3 to water-soluble sulfur specifically. Even so, a 3 isn't a big red flag. Fulton's own scale treats 2 to 3 as borderline.

Human testing has also proved that any finished product with a comedogenic ingredient won't automatically make you break out; it really comes down to concentration, formula, and your skin.

Learn more about Sulfur
Skin Conditioning, Solvent

Water. It's the most common cosmetic ingredient of all. You'll usually see it at the top of ingredient lists, meaning that it makes up the largest part of the product.

So why is it so popular? Water most often acts as a solvent - this means that it helps dissolve other ingredients into the formulation.

You'll also recognize water as that liquid we all need to stay alive. If you see this, drink a glass of water. Remember to stay hydrated!

Learn more about Water
Emulsifying, Emulsion Stabilising, Gel Forming

Xanthan gum is used as a stabilizer and thickener within cosmetic products. It helps give products a sticky, thick feeling - preventing them from being too runny.

On the technical side of things, xanthan gum is a polysaccharide - a combination consisting of multiple sugar molecules bonded together.

Xanthan gum is a pretty common and great ingredient. It is a natural, non-toxic, non-irritating ingredient that is also commonly used in food products.

Learn more about Xanthan Gum

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