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Product Comparison

Here's our complete breakdown comparing the ingredients, attributes, and more of Pyunkang Yul ACNE Facial Cleanser versus COSRX Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser .

Last updated on July 18, 2023. Published on May 20, 2021

Overview

What they are

These products are both cruelty-free and reef safe face cleansers. They have a total of 9 ingredients in common

Suited For

They're both likely to be good for fighting acne, dry skin, brightening skin, oily skin, reducing pores and scar healing

Free From

They both do not contain any harsh alcohols, common allergens, parabens, silicones or sulfates

We independently verify ingredients, and our claims are backed by peer-reviewed research. Spot a product that need an update? Let us know.

Face Cleanser South Korean Brand South Korea
Face Cleanser South Korean Brand South Korea

Face Cleanser

Face cleansers are used to remove makeup, dead skin cells, pollutants, oil, dirt, and/or clean out pores on the skin. Face cleansers may specialize in having one function (exa. just removing makeup) or may have multiple functions (exa. Removing makeup and cleaning pores).

Face Cleanser

Face cleansers are used to remove makeup, dead skin cells, pollutants, oil, dirt, and/or clean out pores on the skin. Face cleansers may specialize in having one function (exa. just removing makeup) or may have multiple functions (exa. Removing makeup and cleaning pores).

Price

Shop

Buy ACNE Facial Cleanser

Starts at $9.44
Shop

Buy Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser

Starts at $6.59

Ingredient Info

Click any item below to learn more and view relevant ingredients.
alcohol-free
silicon-free
fragrance-free
sulfate-free
paraben-free
oil-free
fungal-acne safe
reef-safe
eu-allergen-free
vegan
cruelty-free
alcohol-free
silicon-free
fragrance-free
sulfate-free
paraben-free
oil-free
fungal-acne safe
reef-safe
eu-allergen-free
vegan
cruelty-free
ph level
9.5

At a glance

Click on any of the items below to learn more

Benefits

Hydrating
Good For Oily Skin
Redness Reducing (5)
Reduces Irritation (5)
Reduces Large Pores
Anti-Aging (2)
Scar Healing (2)
Acne Fighting
Brightening

Concerns

Drying
Acne Trigger
Rosacea
Eczema

Notable Ingredients

BHA

Benefits

Hydrating
Good For Oily Skin
Reduces Large Pores
Scar Healing
Acne Fighting
Brightening (2)

Concerns

Drying (2)
May Worsen Oily Skin (3)
Acne Trigger (3)
Irritating
Rosacea (2)
Eczema (2)
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Ingredients Compared

Ingredients that are highlighted in purple are present in both products.

Ingredients Side-by-side

Ingredients that are highlighted in purple are present in both products.

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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.

1
What it does: Skin Conditioning, Solvent
Community Rating: Loved

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. Talk about multi-purpose! If you see this, drink a glass of water. Stay hydrated!

Learn more about Water

Pyunkang Yul ACNE Facial Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 1.

COSRX Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 1.

2
What it does: Cleansing
Community Rating: Disliked

Cocamidopropyl Betaine is a fatty acid created by mixing similar compounds in coconut oil and dimethylaminopropylamine. Dimethylaminopropylamine is a diamine, an amine with two amino groups.

Cocamidopropyl Betaine is a surfactant and cleanser. It helps gather the dirt, pollutants, and other impurities in your skin to be washed away. It also helps thicken a product and make the texture more creamy.

Being created from coconut oil means Cocamidopropyl Betaine is hydrating for the skin.

While Cocamidopropyl Betaine was believed to be an allergen, a study from 2012 disproved this. It found two compounds in unpure Cocamidopropyl Betaine to be the irritants: aminoamide and 3-dimethylaminopropylamine. High-grade and pure Cocamidopropyl Betaine did not induce allergic reactions during this study.

Learn more about Cocamidopropyl Betaine

Pyunkang Yul ACNE Facial Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 2.

COSRX Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 5.

3
What it does: Humectant, Skin Conditioning, Skin Protecting, Solvent
Community Rating: Loved

Glycerin is already naturally found in your skin. It helps moisturize and protect your skin.

A study from 2016 found glycerin to be more effective as a humectant than AHAs and hyaluronic acid.

As a humectant, it helps the skin stay hydrated by pulling moisture to your skin. The low molecular weight of glycerin allows it to pull moisture into the deeper layers of your skin.

Hydrated skin improves your skin barrier; Your skin barrier helps protect against irritants and bacteria.

Glycerin has also been found to have antimicrobial and antiviral properties. Due to these properties, glycerin is often used in wound and burn treatments.

In cosmetics, glycerin is usually derived from plants such as soybean or palm. However, it can also be sourced from animals, such as tallow or animal fat.

This ingredient is organic, colorless, odorless, and non-toxic.

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

Learn more about Glycerin

Pyunkang Yul ACNE Facial Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 7.

COSRX Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 13.

4
What it does:
Community Rating: Disliked

Disodium EDTA plays a role in making products more stable by aiding other preservatives.

It is a chelating agent, meaning it neutralizes metal ions that may be found in a product.

Disodium EDTA is a salt of edetic acid and is found to be safe in cosmetic ingredients.

Learn more about Disodium EDTA

Pyunkang Yul ACNE Facial Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 8.

COSRX Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 20.

5
What it does: Humectant, Masking, Skin Conditioning, Solvent
Community Rating: Mixed

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

  • It is a solvent, meaning that it helps to dissolve other ingredients. This also enhances the absorption of the product into one's skin.
  • It is a humectant, which means that it helps attract moisture into the skin.
  • It helps improve product application.

Overall, Butylene Glycol is a safe and well-rounded ingredient. It is unlikely to irritate skin, and works well with pretty much all other ingredients.

Pyunkang Yul ACNE Facial Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 15.

COSRX Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 17.

6
What it does: Masking
Community Rating: Very Disliked

Chances are, you eat sodium chloride every day. Sodium Chloride is also known as table salt.

This ingredient has many purposes in skincare: thickener, emulsifier, and exfoliator.

You'll most likely find this ingredient in cleansers where it is used to create a gel-like texture. As an emulsifier, it also prevents ingredients from separating.

There is much debate on whether this ingredient is comedogenic. The short answer - comedogenic ratings don't tell the whole story. Learn more about comegodenic ratings here.

The concensus about this ingredient causing acne seems to be divided. Research is needed to understand if this ingredient does cause acne.

Scrubs may use salt as the primary exfoliating ingredient.

Learn more about Sodium Chloride

Pyunkang Yul ACNE Facial Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 23.

COSRX Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 3.

7
What it does: Buffering, Masking
Community Rating: Disliked

Citric Acid is an AHA derived from citrus fruits (think oranges, lemons, and limes!).

If you spot Citric Acid near the end of an ingredient list, it's likely there as a pH adjuster rather than an active ingredient.

As an AHA, Citric Acid removes the top layer of skin cells from the newer layer of skin underneath. This helps skin to remove dark spots and look more even.

Read more about some other popular AHA's here:

Learn more about Citric Acid

Pyunkang Yul ACNE Facial Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 26.

COSRX Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 23.

8
What it does: Buffering
Community Rating: Very Disliked

Potassium hydroxide is commonly known as caustic potash. It is used to fix the pH of a product or as a cleaning agent in soap. In cleansers, it is used for the saponification of oils.

Sapnification is the process of creating fatty acid metal salts from triglycerides and a strong base. During this process, Potassium Hydroxide is used up and is not present in the final product.

Using high concentrations of Potassium Hydroxide have shown to irritate the skin.

Learn more about Potassium Hydroxide

Pyunkang Yul ACNE Facial Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 27.

COSRX Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 14.

9
What it does: Skin Conditioning
Community Rating: Mixed

Ethylhexylglycerin (we can't pronounce this either) is commonly used as a preservative and skin softener. It is derived from glyceryl.

You might see Ethylhexylglycerin often paired with other preservatives such as phenoxyethanol. Ethylhexylglycerin has been found to increase the effectiveness of these other preservatives.

Pyunkang Yul ACNE Facial Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 29.

COSRX Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser contains this as ingredient number 8.

Here's what our community thinks of the ingredients in these two products.

45% are loved or liked
10% have mixed ratings
24% are disliked or very disliked
21% have no rating yet
26% are loved or liked
17% have mixed ratings
57% are disliked or very disliked
0% have no rating yet

Usage

Here's some more info on how this product is used by our community.

When to use

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Reviews

Here's what our community thinks

Pyunkang Yul ACNE Facial Cleanser 29 ingredients

4.0 /5
from 2 reviews
Fabilush's Avatar'
May 25, 2023

TL;DR Great for fungal acne, gentle on oily skin, prevents most breakouts
I originally used this as a cleanser to help with my fungal acne and it did help a lot with it. I've heard some people say it's too drying but since I have oily...

TL;DR Great for fungal acne, gentle on oily skin, prevents most breakouts
I originally used this as a cleanser to help with my fungal acne and it did help a lot with it. I've heard some people say it's too drying but since I have oily skin, this was never an issue for me. It did great at preventing regular breakouts, but once I started having hormonal acne, it didn't do AS great. Still a great cleanser if you're looking for something gentle and simple.

COSRX Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser 23 ingredients

3.0 /5
from 12 reviews
skinogre's Avatar'
Feb 13, 2024

I used to think it was good because of how it really goes DEEP into cleaning your skin, it feels like it’s been scraped out. It’s good if you haven’t washed your face in a week, other than that it’s really bad. And that’s coming from...

I used to think it was good because of how it really goes DEEP into cleaning your skin, it feels like it’s been scraped out. It’s good if you haven’t washed your face in a week, other than that it’s really bad. And that’s coming from someone who has oily skin and uses Paula’s choice BHA every other day. There are so many better cleansing products than this, I highly advise getting the Etude house foam 6.5 whip cleaner instead and using an exfoliant alongside it. One thing I do like about this cleanser is its consistency, I always loved how it would squirt out but on the downside was it’s drying out of skin. It never “ruined” my skin per se, but there are a lot better products than this for daily cleansing. If you want your skin to feel EXTREMELY scraped of all oils and its essence, sure use this.

Drying
Strong Scent
princessmelody2010's Avatar'
Jan 1, 2024

Okay.. but NO.. not safe for fungal acne.

Okay.. but NO.. not safe for fungal acne.

YSLDave's Avatar'
Nov 7, 2023

Too Harsh for the skin
PH Level is wayy too high on this, it feel like you washed your face with soap, i only use it at night with double cleanse on exfoliation days, but i will not cop another bootle for sure

Too Harsh for the skin
PH Level is wayy too high on this, it feel like you washed your face with soap, i only use it at night with double cleanse on exfoliation days, but i will not cop another bootle for sure

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