UIQ Biome Barrier™ Cleansing Balm

What is this product?

UIQ's Biome Barrier Collagen Firming Cleansing Balm is an oil balm for taking makeup off, and it is worth more for its ferment than for the collagen in its name: the brand prints two amounts on the label, 1,070ppm of a Cutibacterium avidum ferment filtrate in eighth place and 0.1ppm of hydrolyzed collagen in twenty-fifth, which is far too little to firm anything. The only things UIQ promises are two hashtags, whitehead removal and exfoliation, and it publishes no test at all behind either, though a protease and capryloyl salicylic acid are genuinely on the list. No fragrance appears on the ingredient list.

What makes it different?

Set against ordinary cleansing balms, which print no amounts at all, three things separate it. First, it puts numbers on two of its actives, 1,070ppm and 0.1ppm, so you can judge for yourself that the collagen axis is thinner than the name suggests. Second, it works the exfoliation side on two tracks at once, an enzyme and an acid derivative together, where most balms finish the cleanse on oil alone. Third, it names the ferment down to the strain, Cutibacterium avidum, which is more checkable than a label that only says ferment.

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 1 with no dictionary entry, left in Korean.

Key ingredient

• Cetyl Ethylhexanoate
• Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride
• Polyethylene
• PEG-20 Glyceryl Triisostearate
• PEG-10 Isostearate
• Sorbeth-30 Tetraoleate
• Sorbitan Sesquioleate
• Cutibacterium Avidum Ferment Extract Filtrate
• Protease
• Fructan
• Water
• 1,2-Hexanediol
• Butylene Glycol
• Propanediol
• Panthenol
• Glyceryl Glucoside
• Lactobacillus Ferment Lysate
• Phaseolus Radiatus Seed Extract
• Canavalia Gladiata Seed Extract
• Glycine Soja (Soybean) Seed Extract
• Lens Esculenta (Lentil) Seed Extract
• Ceratonia Siliqua (Carob) Seed Extract
• Pueraria Lobata Root Extract
• Glycerin
• Hydrolyzed Collagen
• 판토락톤 카프릴로일살리실릭애씨드
• Ethylhexylglycerin
• Glyceryl Caprylate

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: Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Sorbeth-30 Tetraoleate, Sorbitan Sesquioleate, PEG-20 Glyceryl Triisostearate, PEG-10 Isostearate, Glyceryl Caprylate, Cetyl Ethylhexanoate, Capryloyl Salicylic Acid

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked the one line 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.

• Olive Young cleansing balms and oils: six first cleanse picksSix Korean cleansing balms and oils from the Olive Young shelf, sorted by what their labels disclose, including which ones are scented and which are not.