Carenology Bifine Pure Spot Gel Cream

What is this product?

Carenology's Bifine Pure Spot Gel Cream is a properly built spot treatment whose brand name points at the wrong ingredient: salicylic acid sits 12th of 40 ingredients, high enough to work as an exfoliant rather than a preservative, with berberine bearing coptis root 21st, zinc PCA 40th and four centella entries for redness. The loquat leaf the 비파인 line is named after is 16th and carries much thinner evidence than the acid above it. No amount and no pH are published, so the intent is checkable and the strength is not, and 멘톨 at 28 with patchouli oil at 26 makes it a poor pick for reactive skin.

What makes it different?

Most spot products pick one mechanism; this one runs four in parallel, a BHA at a working position, a berberine extract with published antibacterial data, zinc PCA for sebum, and licorice plus centella for the inflammation. It is also unusually light for a spot cream, with no plant oil, butter or heavy ester anywhere on the list. The two entries that should decide against it for some readers are menthol at 28 and patchouli oil at 26, both of which are sensory additions that reactive skin often reacts to, on a product meant for skin that is already inflamed. Salicylic acid also makes it one to raise with a clinician in pregnancy, and its level is not published.

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, except 2 with no dictionary entry, left in Korean.

• Water
• Glycerin
• Butylene Glycol
• Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride
• 1,2-Hexanediol
• Behenyl Alcohol
• Sodium Polyacrylate
• Cetearyl Alcohol
• 헵틸운데실레네이트
• Hydrogenated Lecithin
• Polyacrylate Crosspolymer-6
• Salicylic Acid
• Arachidyl Alcohol
• Glyceryl Stearate SE
• Hydroxyacetophenone
• Eriobotrya Japonica Leaf Extract
• Tocopherol
• Allantoin
• Panthenol
• Ethylhexylglycerin
• Coptis Japonica Root Extract
• Cholesterol
• Arachidyl Glucoside
• Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate
• Xanthan Gum
• Pogostemon Cablin Oil
• Sucrose
• Menthol
• Ceramide NP
• Disodium EDTA
• Madecassoside
• 미네랄솔트
• Malt Extract
• Asiaticoside
• Madecassic Acid
• Asiatic Acid
• Maltodextrin
• Hydrolyzed Gardenia Florida Extract
• Centella Asiatica Extract
• Zinc PCA

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: 광곽향오일, 하이드로제네이티드레시틴, 글리세릴스테아레이트에스이, 살리실릭애씨드

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