Here's our breakdown of the notable ingredients, benefits, and concerns we determined from the ingredients in this product. Click any item to learn more.

Benefits

Hydrating

Brightening

Concerns

May Worsen Oily Skin (3)

Acne Trigger (2)

Rosacea

Eczema

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

Ingredients Overview

Here's our quick-to-read summary of the ingredients in this product. Keep scrolling if you'd like to learn more about what each ingredient does!

Ingredient

Com. / Irr. Rating

Features

Skin Conditioning, Solvent

Humectant, Skin Conditioning, Skin Protecting, Solvent

0 / 0

Cleansing, Emulsifying

3 / 0

Buffering

Emulsifying

3 / 2

Cleansing, Emulsifying, Emulsion Stabilising, Masking

2-3 / 0

Cleansing, Emulsifying

4 / 1

Emollient, Emulsifying

2 / 0

Cleansing, Foaming

Masking, Perfuming

Skin Conditioning

Ingredients Explained

This product contains 12 ingredients. Click on any ingredient to learn more about it

Water

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

Glycerin

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

Myristic Acid

What it does: Cleansing, Emulsifying

Community Rating: Very Disliked

Myristic Acid is a saturated fatty acid. It is naturally found in milk fat. Other sources include palm oil, coconut oil, and butter fat.

Myristic Acid is an emulsifer and cleanser. As an emulsifer, it stabilizes a product by preventing ingredients from separating. Myristic Acid helps clean your skin by acting as a surfactant. It tends to gather oil and dirt on your skin to be easily rinsed away.

One study from 2021 found Myristic Acid to have anti-inflammatory properties.

Learn more about Myristic Acid

Potassium Hydroxide

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

Glyceryl Stearate Se

What it does: Emulsifying

Community Rating: Very Disliked

Glyceryl Stearate Se is a self-emulsifying (SE) form of glyceryl stearate. Self-emusifying means this ingredient automatically blends with water. It is an emulsifier, emollient, and cleansing agent.

As an emulsifier, Glyceryl Stearate Se prevents ingredients such as oil and water from separating. It is also a surfactant, meaning it helps cleanse the skin. Surfactants help gather oil, dirt, and other pollutants so they may be rinsed away easily.

Emollients help your skin stay smooth and soft. It does so by creating a film on top of the skin that helps trap moisture in.

Learn more about Glyceryl Stearate Se

Stearic Acid

What it does: Cleansing, Emulsifying, Emulsion Stabilising, Masking

Community Rating: Very Disliked

Stearic Acid is a fatty acid. It is an emollient, emulsifier, and texture enhancer.

As an emollient, stearic acid helps soften skin. It aids the skin's protective barrier by preventing water loss. It also provides a gentle cleansing effect without stripping away natural oils.

Stearic acid may also be used to enhance the texture of products. It can add volume and stabilize ingredients such as water and oil. This can help water and oil ingredients from separating.

Sources of stearic acid include animal or vegetable fats/oils such as coconut or shea. It can be naturally found in butter, cocoa butter, shea butter, vegetable fats, and animal tallow.

This ingredient may not be Malassezia folliculitis, or fungal-acne safe.

Learn more about Stearic Acid

Lauric Acid

What it does: Cleansing, Emulsifying

Community Rating: Very Disliked

Lauric Acid is a fatty acid or lipid. About half of fatty acids in coconut oil is lauric acid.

This ingredient helps hydrate and sooth skin. As a humectant, it helps trap moisture. It also aids in cleaning and enhancing the texture of products.

Emerging studies show Lauric Acid to have antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. The antimicrobial property helps strengthen the skin barrier by fighting off bad bacteria.

Lauric acid may not be Malassezia folliculitis, or fungal acne, safe.

Learn more about Lauric Acid

Palmitic Acid

What it does: Emollient, Emulsifying

Community Rating: Very Disliked

Palmitic Acid is a fatty acid found in our skin. In cosmetics, it is usually derived from palm oil. It is a cleanser, emollient, and emulsifier.

As an emollient, it helps hydrate the skin. The emulsifying properties keep ingredients together in a product.

Palmitic Acid may not be fungal-acne safe. It can worsen oily skin and cause breakouts due to its emollient nature.

Learn more about Palmitic Acid

Coco-Glucoside

What it does: Cleansing, Foaming

Community Rating: Disliked

Coco-Glucoside is a surfactant, or a cleansing ingredient. It is made from glucose and coconut oil.

Surfactants help gather dirt, oil, and other pollutants from your skin to be rinsed away. Coco-Glucoside is considered gentle and non-comedogenic.

This ingredient is a known skin-irritant.

Learn more about Coco-Glucoside

Parfum

What it does: Masking, Perfuming

Community Rating: Very Disliked

Parfum is a catch-all term for an ingredient or more that is used to give aroma to products. Parfum, or fragrance, can be a blend of hundreds of chemicals or plant oils. This means every product with "fragrance" or "Parfum" in the ingredients list is a different mixture.

In the US, the alternative name for parfum is 'fragrance'. The term 'fragrance' is not regulated in many countries. In many cases, it is up to the brand to define this term.

For instance, many brands choose to label themselves as "fragrance-free" because they are not using synthetic fragrances. However, their products may still contain ingredients such as essential oils that are considered a fragrance. One example is Calendula flower extract. Essential oil ingredients still impart a scent or 'fragrance'.

Depending on the blend, it can cause allergies and sensitivities on the skin. Some ingredients that are known EU allergens include linalool and citronellol.

Products use parfum often to give products a scent or cover up smells of different ingredients.

The bottom line is: not all fragrances/parfum/ingredients are created equally. If you are worried about fragrances, we recommend taking a closer look at an ingredient. And of course, we always recommend speaking with a professional.

Learn more about Parfum

Tetrasodium EDTA

What it does:

Community Rating: Very Disliked

Tetrasodium EDTA is the salt formed from neutralizing ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid with sodium hydroxide. It is a chelating agent and used to prevent metal ions from binding to other ingredients. This helps keep the product and ingredients stable.

Tetrasodium EDTA comes as a white solid and is soluble in water.

Capryloyl Salicylic Acid

What it does: Skin Conditioning

Community Rating: Liked

We don't have a description for Capryloyl Salicylic Acid.

Embed Ingredients

Here's what our community thinks of the 12 ingredients in this product ✨

25% are loved or liked

0% have mixed ratings

75% are disliked or very disliked

0% have no rating yet

When to use

We've created a guide with info on when you should use La Roche-Posay Pigmentclar Brightening Deep Cleanser. We've also included some recommended products to use it with, as well as some routine inspiration!

Read our guide on when to use Pigmentclar Brightening Deep Cleanser ->

Verified by SkinSort

We're dedicated to providing you with the most up-to-date and science-backed ingredient info out there.

The data we've presented on this page has been verified by a member of the SkinSort Team.

Top Reviews

Review by SarahS

Mar 27, 2024

I am so greatful for this product. My face was really really aggravated from a rosacea breakout and it was boarder-line dry enough to bleed. As soon as I used this face wash, and I do mean instantly, my skin very so so hydrated. I woke up this morning and the difference is night and day. Definitely recommend this product and don’t worry about the light scent it didn’t hurt my skin and I was in pretty bad shape.

Great Value

Hydrating

Light

Light Scent

Works Well

Like review

2 likes