FACE-OFF: ‘Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Cleansing Foam’ VS ‘Innisfree Olive Real Cleansing Foam’

It’s been over a month now since I came back from Korea and things have been so busy since then, so I haven’t been able to get to any product reviews from my Korea haul until now.

First up I’ll start with 2 products I’ve been enjoying. The Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Cleansing Foam and the Innisfree Olive Real Cleansing Foam (hereon referred to as Jeju & Olive because these names are far too long to repeat)

So both are from the same company and what I love about Innisfree is that they are a green company that is eco-friendly and focus on natural ingredients.  This means less harsh unnecessary chemicals which is great for sensitive skin.

Firstly product info:

JEJU VOLCANIC PORE:

This claims to contains Jeju volcanic clusters that attach to your sebum, work to purify your pores and clean dull-looking skin. It is a cleansing foam to be used on a daily basis.

One of the ingredients that pops out at me is ‘Volcanic Ash’ aka Volcanic scoria. This is a pure and rare ingredient that gets formed from lava after a volcanic eruption and it is this that has powerful sebum-absorbing abilities which is obviously great for oily skin.

Other nice ingredients include green tea extract, tangerine peel extract, prickly pear extract and bamboo extract.

Comes in 150ml. I bought it in Seoul for 8,000 won which is equivalent to £4.50/US$6.90

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OLIVE REAL:

This claims to nourish the skin and retains skin moisture. It has the best quality of extra virgin olive oil from Crete Island, moisturizing ingredients and vitamin nutrients that will thoroughly remove makeup and impurities within the pores to give you healthy radiant skin.

This daily cleansing foam is free from mineral oil, animal-originated ingredients, synthetic colorants and imidazolidinyl urea (a controversial preservative used in many cosmetics).

Some ingredients include: orange peel oil, olive oil, green tea extract, tangerine peel extract, orchid extract, camellia leaf extract and prickly pear extract.

Comes in 150ml. I bought it in Seoul for 8,000 won which is equivalent to £4.50/US$6.90

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My thoughts:

I like both but for slightly different reasons.

Fragrance: I LOOVE the smell of the Jeju cleansing foam. Its soooo good! And makes my face smell great.^^ Can’t really explain the fragrance but its more like a typical moisturizing cream smell. Whereas the Olive is a lot more tangy and orangey which isn’t a surprise given there is orange and tangerine peel listed in the ingredients. Its not overpowering though and doesn’t linger after you’ve washed it off.

Application: Apply onto wet face and massage into the skin. Both require just a small pea size amount to cover my entire face and not a lot is needed to create a nice good foamy lather.

I tend to alternate between each product depending on what my skin feels like at the moment. I generally have normal to oily skin – my cheeks are usually fine but my t-zone can feel clogged and oily during the day.

Mostly I use the Olive first thing in the morning before I start the rest of my skincare routine, and in the evening to remove makeup and dirt in the 2nd part of my ‘double cleansing’ (will do another post covering my double cleansing method). If I’m feeling particularly oily that day or wearing heavier makeup then I will switch out my Olive for the Jeju one.

If you can see from the pictures above, the Jeju looks and feels a lot more like a cream/gel texture (although still quite thick when applied) and has little volcanic beads in it which are very mild and not abrasive on the skin at all.  The Olive is a different consistency which is more like a thicker creamy foam with a pearly sheen to it.

I feel like the Jeju foaming cleanser gets to work better at removing oil and cleaning my pores than the Olive. Neither make my skin feel stripped and dry after use (unlike many western cleansers because it indicates the pH is far too alkaline/high which is bad for your skin in the long-term -optimal skin pH is 5.5).

However, while the Jeju doesn’t give me that horrible squeaky clean feeling of my skin being stripped of any moisture, it does feel slightly more drying than the Olive. After using the Olive, I feel like there is still moisture retained in my skin. Yet it still cleans very well despite my initial fear that a product with olive oil would make my already oily skin even worse. It doesn’t.

When using both cleansers, neither leave any makeup residue when I go to tone my face with a cotton pad. Though these can’t be credited for all the work, since I use a double cleansing method and therefore much of the makeup and dirt has already been removed by the time I use these cleansing foams.

Overall, I feel like both do what they state they do on the packaging and leave my skin looking and feeling refreshed and radiant. There is no feeling of leftover residue, or a sticky, oily face. If I had to pick one I would probably choose the Olive Real simply because its great to use everyday as a mild cleanser and I think olive oil really works great on my oily skin (who would’ve thought) and doesn’t make me any oilier.

As for the Jeju volcanic pore, while I love the scent and how well it works to remove blackheads and sebum, it does feel slightly drying. Upon further research, I found this to have a very high alkaline pH. I probably won’t repurchase this in future only because there are other cleansers I would like to try out. But for now I think it works fine on me because my skin produces way too much sebum and this helps clear it very well. It also  doesn’t feel stripping or overly squeaky clean. Also, I always use a pH adjusting toner after this cleanser so it brings my skin pH back to its optimal level.

I’d say the Olive works for any skin type and the Jeju is more for normal-oily skin. I wouldn’t recommend the Jeju for those with very dry, sensitive or acne prone skin because the high pH would probably just irritate it further.

That’s it for these two. I have also purchased the Innisfree Green Tea Pure cleansing foam which hasn’t been opened yet as I don’t want too many cleansers open at the same time, but I’ll be interested to see how that one stacks up against these two. Will probably review it at a later time.