BANILA CO Clean It Zero Pore Clarifying Cleansing Balm

What is this product?

Banila Co's Clean It Zero Pore Clarifying Cleansing Balm is the one to pick if blackheads and sebum are the complaint: it stacks three acid classes, capryloyl salicylic acid (LHA), salicylic acid (BHA) and gluconolactone (PHA), into a rinse-off first-cleanse balm, with tea tree extract and leaf oil on top. Skip it if your skin is dry, sensitive or reacts to fragrance, because the fragrance is declared while the acid amounts are not, and Banila Co publishes no pH and prints no ingredient list of its own: the formula shows up only on the two retail listings, at 25mL and 100mL, while the 180ml one prints nothing.

What makes it different?

Three acid classes on one cleansing balm, LHA, BHA and PHA together, is unusual, and none of the three comes with an amount. It is also openly fragranced and carries a fragrance-allergen marker that matches its tea tree ingredients, so the exfoliating upside and the irritation risk arrive in the same jar.

What is in it?

The full ingredient list as the brand publishes it, in the printed order. Each name links to what we know about that ingredient.

This brand publishes its ingredient list in Korean only. Names below are the matching INCI names from the Korean Cosmetic Association ingredient dictionary.

Key ingredientWorth a closer look

• Cetyl Ethylhexanoate
• Ethylhexyl Stearate
• PEG-20 Glyceryl Triisostearate
• PEG-10 Isostearate
• Synthetic Wax
• Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil
• 1,2-Hexanediol
• Butylene Glycol
• Water
• Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Extract
• Fragrance
• Onsen-Sui
• Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Flower Extract
• Gardenia Florida Fruit Extract
• Capryloyl Salicylic Acid
• Salicylic Acid
• Dextrin
• Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil
• Citric Acid
• Gluconolactone
• Lactobacillus Ferment
• 4-Terpineol

Ingredients with no mark are ones we found nothing notable about, and when marks overlap on one ingredient we show the caution first.

We could not place these in the list above: Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil, Cetyl Ethylhexanoate, Ethylhexyl Stearate, Salicylic Acid

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked 5 lines this product advertises against the ingredient list and public documents. One of them holds up. The rest are only partly right or have nothing behind them.

Claims translated from Korean, originals preserved.

Each line is quoted as the brand published it, and each one was read on its own against the ingredient list and the documents the brand publishes.

How we read these lines

What else is worth seeing?

Products we read alongside this one.

• BANILACO Clean It Zero Cleansing Balm OriginalAnother product in the same category
• Dr.G Green Deep Pore Cleansing BalmAnother product in the same category
• beplain Mung Bean Pore Cleansing Milk BalmAnother product in the same category

Which articles cover it?

Articles on this site that write about this product.

• Pore care in Korean skincare: six labels read end to endSix Korean pore products, from a gel cream to two cleansing balms, sorted by what their ingredient lists can actually do and where the marketing runs past it.