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PHYSIOGEL

PHYSIOGEL Red Soothing Cica Balance Pore Control Serum

Ingredient analysis and how the ad lines read

Read on 2026-09-06

What is this product?

Physiogel's Cica Balance Pore Control Serum is a better active serum than its soothing-line branding suggests, and a worse fit for the calm-skin buyer that branding attracts: niacinamide fifth, salicylic acid nineteenth, ascorbyl glucoside eighteenth and carnitine twelfth, all at amounts the brand does not publish. The cica it is named for is the one part that is measured, roughly 251 ppm across four centella fractions, about 0.025 percent. Fifty-four ingredients, no fragrance, no dye, no essential oil and no drying alcohol, but four free fatty acids and shea butter sit in the emollient body, which matters if you are screening for that.

What makes it different?

Most pore serums pick one lever; this one runs four at once, a keratolytic acid, a sebum-relevant amino acid derivative, a stable vitamin C glucoside and niacinamide, and then adds a full barrier lipid triad of ceramide NP, cholesterol and fatty acids in the back half. The problem is that Physiogel publishes none of the four active amounts while printing the four centella fractions to two decimal places, so the only numbers a buyer gets are for the smallest thing in the formula. Salicylic acid behaves very differently at a fifth of a percent than at two percent, which is the single fact you most need and cannot have. Physiogel publishes no pH here either, which for an acid-containing leave-on is the second thing worth knowing.

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.

Key ingredient

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: Linoleic Acid, Linolenic Acid, Palmitic Acid, Stearic Acid, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Cetearyl Alcohol, Salicylic Acid

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked 2 lines this product advertises against the ingredient list and public documents. None of them hold up on their own. They are partly right at best.

Claims translated from Korean, originals preserved.

partly backed1

  • Care from pores to blemish marks! Cica Pore Serum acknowledged even by combination skin.
    Korean original

    모공부터 잡티흔적까지 케어!수부지피부도 인정한 시카포어세럼

says nothing1

  • Physiogel Cica Balance Pore Control Pore Serum 50ml
    Korean original

    피지오겔 시카밸런스 포어 컨트롤 모공 세럼 50ml

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.