This salicylic acid gel cleanser is formulated around Salicylic Acid to clear breakouts and unclog pores.

Face Cleanser
Face Cleanser
Japanese Japan
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What's inside

What's inside

Key Ingredients

Benefits

Concerns

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Broke Me Out 33% Doesn't Work 33% Irritating 33%

Ingredients Explained

These ingredients are found in both products.

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

Disodium EDTA is a chelating agent. It grabs onto and deactivates metal ions that sneak into your products from water, packaging, or air.

This ingredient mainly works behind the scenes and helps with:

On top of that, this ingredient can counteract the effects of hard water by binding to the minerals in it.

One thing worth knowing is that Disodium EDTA has been shown to be a mild penetration enhancer. It can help other ingredients absorb into skin more effectively which can be a double-edged sword (great for actives, but can also make the active too strong if you have sensitive skin).

Clinical patch testing showed no significant skin irritation at typical use concentrations and minimal dermal absorption.

You'll most likely see this ingredient near the end of an ingredient list. It's typically found in concentrations less than 1%.

Learn more about Disodium EDTA
Emulsifying, Surfactant

Potassium Cocoate is basically a liquid coconut soap that's made by cooking coconut oil with potassium hydroxide.

It's a cleanser, foaming, and emulsifying agent that mostly shows up in soaps and "natural" cleansers.

Rinse-off concentrations typically range from 2-25%.

The finished product sits at a fairly high pH (~9-11) because it's a true soap. This just means it can feel drying or slightly stripping if a formula isn't balance with emollients.

Allergy and irritation risk is low as this ingredient was found to be an irritant in less than 1% of subjects (2 of these subjects had active psoriasis and 3 had active eczema).

Fungal acne: The Malassezia yeast feeds on fatty acids in the ~C12-24 range, and Potassium Cocoate is made of exactly those (Lauric C12, Myristic C14, Palmitic C16, Oleic C18:1). Lab studies have shown the yeast can take up Lauric Acid and grows readily on Palmitic Acid. Therefore, this ingredient may not be fungal acne safe.

Learn more about Potassium Cocoate

Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate is an amino acid-based surfactant and cleaning agent. This ingredient can be derived from animals or plants. It may also be synthetically created from fatty acids of the coconut and glycine.

Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate is a gentle surfactant. Surfactants help gather the dirt, oil, and other pollutants from your skin to be rinsed away. It is a mild cleanser and naturally produces foam.

Potassium Hydroxide (also known as potash) is a strong alkaline ingredient that does one job: it nudges a product's pH up so the whole formula lands in a skin-friendly range.

It's also the base that turns oils into liquid soap during the soap making process.

An expert safety panel reviewed it and found it safe when formulations are made to be non-irritating.

As a pH adjuster, it's typically used well under 1% though regulatory caps go much higher: 5% in nail cuticle removers and 2-4.5% in hair straighteners.

Though there is some concern for irritation from raw or high pH material, a well-balanced formula will be a non-issue for the vast majority of people.

Learn more about Potassium Hydroxide
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

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