numbuzin No.1 Pure Calming Herb Toner

What is this product?

numbuzin's 1번 진정 맑게담은 청초토너 is the toner to reach for when the goal is to add nothing irritating: 300ml of a 19-ingredient formula with no fragrance, no essential oil, no alcohol, no acid and no oil at all, built around licorice root at 7th place with houttuynia, centella, allantoin and panthenol behind it. The calming half of the name holds up. The 맑게 half does not, because nothing on the label is a brightening ingredient and the panel records no functional-cosmetic status. Pair it with a moisturizer, since it carries nothing that holds water in place.

What makes it different?

A nineteen-entry statutory list on which the shortness is the product rather than a side effect: every entry is water, a glycol, a humectant, a thickener, a chelator or a plant extract, so there is almost nothing here for reactive skin to rule out. No rank against other toners is asserted here, and toners held here with shorter panels do exist. That composition is what makes it a low-risk first step to stack under an acid or a retinoid routine. What it will not do is treat anything. It carries no ascorbate, no niacinamide, no arbutin and no acid, and numbuzin publishes no pH for it. Six of its nineteen entries are botanical extracts, including hyacinth and fleeceflower, which are less characterised than licorice, houttuynia or centella and are the one reason to patch test.

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
• 1,2-Hexanediol
• Dipropylene Glycol
• Propanediol
• Butylene Glycol
• Glycerin
• Glycyrrhiza Uralensis (Licorice) Root Extract
• Houttuynia Cordata Extract
• Carbomer
• Centella Asiatica Extract
• Hydroxyethylcellulose
• Arginine
• Allantoin
• Disodium EDTA
• Polygonum Multiflorum Extract
• Betaine
• Hyacinthus Orientalis (Hyacinth) Extract
• Panthenol
• Nymphaea Alba Flower Extract

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

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked 2 lines this product advertises against the ingredient list and public documents. One of them looks likely, though none are proven outright.

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.

• numbuzin No.1 Pantothenic B5 Active Soothing SerumThe stronger one of the two
• numbuzin No.1 Pantothenic B5 Active Soothing CreamAnother product in the same category
• numbuzin No.3 Skin Softening First Texture Boosting TonerAnother product in the same category