LAGOM Micro Foam Cleanser

What is this product?

LAGOM Micro Foam Cleanser is a real saponified potassium soap in a 150ml tube: three fatty acids at positions 2, 4 and 6 neutralised by potassium hydroxide at 8. That is what gives it the dense fine foam and thorough sebum removal LAGOM markets, and it is also what raises skin surface pH after a wash, which puts its no-tightness claim at odds with its own formula. LAGOM built in a counterweight of urea, hydroxyethyl urea and a rinse-surviving cationic film, but neither its 24-hour hydration window nor its 99 percent ultrafine-dust removal figure comes with a test method, panel or testing body, and no pH is disclosed.

What makes it different?

It is a true soap base in a category that has moved to amino acid and isethionate surfactants, which is the reason to choose it if you are oily and congest, and the reason to avoid it if you are dry, barrier-impaired or fragrance-reactive, since fragrance is declared with limonene and linalool. The deliberate humectant and cationic polymer tail exists to offset the tightness that base normally causes, which tells you the tightness is real. For the skin types it does not suit, LAGOM's own mildly acidic pH Cure foam is the in-house alternative.

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.

Worth a closer look

• Water
• Stearic Acid
• Glycerin
• Lauric Acid
• PEG-32
• Potassium Hydroxide
• Glyceryl Stearate
• Myristic Acid
• Cocamidopropyl Betaine
• Butylene Glycol
• Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate
• Urea
• PEG-100 Stearate
• Sodium Chloride
• Fragrance
• Hydroxyacetophenone
• Hydroxyethyl Urea
• Disodium EDTA
• Arginine
• Polyquaternium-7
• Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
• Maltodextrin
• Betula Alba Bark Extract
• 1,2-Hexanediol
• Sodium Benzoate
• Saponaria Officinalis Leaf Extract
• Sapindus Mukorossi Fruit Extract
• 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: 스테아릭애씨드, 라우릭애씨드, 미리스틱애씨드, 글리세릴스테아레이트, 피이지-100스테아레이트

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked 6 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

What else is worth seeing?

Products we read alongside this one.

• LAGOM pH Cure Foam CleanserThe gentler one of the two
• LAGOM Gel To Water CleanserAnother product in the same category
• LAGOM Micro Pore Cleansing OilAnother product in the same category
• beplain Mung Bean Weakly Acidic Cleansing FoamThe gentler one of the two