LAGOM Micro Pore Cleansing Oil

What is this product?

LAGOM sells this 200ml product as a cleansing oil, but the ingredient list on its own product page reads as a water-led potassium soap wash instead: water, glycerin, three free fatty acids, a PEG and potassium hydroxide are the first seven entries, which is a soap recipe rather than an oil. That contradiction is the main thing to weigh before buying. It is also strongly scented, with eight aromatic oils running from position 22 to 31 of the 38 ingredients and limonene and linalool declared at the end, so fragrance-avoidant and dry skin should look elsewhere.

What makes it different?

LAGOM prints eight short claims for it and puts a 99 percent figure on three of them, with no testing body, no panel size and no date attached to any. Genuine humectants do sit high on the list, so it is not an empty formula. But the gap between what the page markets, fine oil particles, and what the label describes, a soap, is the difference that matters here, and both of those disagreeing descriptions are LAGOM's own.

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

• Water
• Glycerin
• Palmitic Acid
• Lauric Acid
• Stearic Acid
• PEG-32
• Potassium Hydroxide
• Myristic Acid
• Glyceryl Stearate
• Butylene Glycol
• Cocamidopropyl Betaine
• Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate
• PEG-100 Stearate
• Saponaria Officinalis Leaf Extract
• Sapindus Mukorossi Fruit Extract
• Maltodextrin
• Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
• Coconut Acid
• Urea
• Hydroxyethyl Urea
• Sodium Chloride
• Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Oil
• Arachidic Acid
• Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil
• Geranium Maculatum Oil
• Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil
• Santalum Album (Sandalwood) Oil
• Rose Flower Oil
• Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Oil
• Styrax Benzoin Gum
• Commiphora Myrrha Oil
• Disodium EDTA
• Phenoxyethanol
• Chlorphenesin
• Caprylyl Glycol
• Ethylhexylglycerin
• Limonene
• Linalool

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: 오렌 지오일, 라벤더 오일, 와일드제라늄오일, 베르가 모트오일, 단향오일, 장미꽃오일, 마트리카리아꽃오일, 몰약오일, 팔미틱애씨드, 라우릭애씨드, 스테아릭애씨드, 미리스틱애씨드, 글리세릴스 테아레이트, 피이지-100스 테아레이트, 코코 넛애씨드, 아라키딕애씨드

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked 8 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.

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

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.