Dong Wha Pharm Vitabi Spot Gel

What is this product?

Dong Wha Pharm's Vitabi Spot Gel prints niacinamide at 5 percent and puts it third of only 29 ingredients, which is both the level and the position the published work on post-blemish marks actually used, so the mark-fading pitch has real backing rather than a trace inclusion. Salicylic acid is here too, but 22nd and with no amount printed, so how much follicular work it does cannot be sized. It is an oil-free gel with no fragrance compound, no essential oil and no declared allergen anywhere in the list, though anyone pregnant should note the salicylic acid before using it.

What makes it different?

Only 29 ingredients, and the one that carries the product is disclosed at 5 percent when most brands print nothing. Totarol at 27 is an antibacterial diterpene that rarely appears in a Korean blemish product at all. Tromethamine at 10 is a pH buffer, and that matters here in a way worth reading: salicylic acid needs an acidic pH to exfoliate while niacinamide is happier near neutral, and with no pH published there is no way to tell from the label which way the formula was tuned. The 15ml fill is small and no plant oil appears at any position.

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 ingredient

• Water
• Glycerin
• Niacinamide
• Butylene Glycol
• Propanediol
• 1,2-Hexanediol
• Sodium Hyaluronate
• Methyl Gluceth-10
• Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer
• Tromethamine
• Sodium Polyacryloyldimethyl Taurate
• Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride
• Ethylhexylglycerin
• Allantoin
• Adenosine
• Hydrogenated Lecithin
• Sodium Phytate
• Maltodextrin
• Ceramide NP
• Beta-Glucan
• Tocopherol
• Salicylic Acid
• Dipropylene Glycol
• Pentylene Glycol
• Sucrose Cocoate
• Myristyl Nicotinate
• Totarol
• Xanthan Gum
• Gardenia Florida Fruit Extract

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: Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Sucrose Cocoate, Salicylic Acid

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked 3 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