Beauty Review: Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Cleansing Foam

One of the most surprising things when I first arrived in Belgium was the lack of, or the difficulty of trying to track down, cleansers. Seriously, in my first month of arriving, I didn’t pack a face cleanser because who knew that it was going to be so hard to find one? So the last time I went back to Singapore, I made sure to stock up on cleansers and this Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Cleansing Foam was one of those I picked up.

This comes in two sizes, 150ml and 300ml; I bought the 150ml for SGD18. Because it’s creamy cleansing foam, this takes a really long time to use up. I use it once every couple of days and it’s lasted me months. According to Innisfree, this is a cleansing foam that contains Jeju volcanic scoria which strongly absorbs sebum and purifies clogged pores.

As we can see in the picture above, this is a thick cream cleanser with little bits in it – those little bits are supposed to be volcanic scoria. The bits are really small, as well as few and far between, so it doesn’t feel like a scrub. It emulsifies with water, but not as thick or foamy as you would think given that it’s called a cleansing foam – it’s more of a thin, milky lather.

This foam cleanses really well – it manages to remove most of my makeup quickly and efficiently, except for waterproof makeup. This stinks the shit out of your eyes if the foam gets in, so be really careful not to let this go anywhere near it! However, I don’t see any difference in the looks of my pores – I don’t think this ‘purified my pores’ more than any other cleansers, and my skin definitely doesn’t look any clearer or brighter. Cleaner, yes.

I find this to be very drying on my dry skin on normal skin days. I don’t use this as a morning cleanser, and I don’t use it when I have nothing on my face – such as when I’m not wearing makeup or when I don’t have other oilier products on my face. I usually use this as a second cleanse, particularly after a much heavier balm or oil-type first cleanse that’s hard to remove. That said, this is incredibly effective if your face is feeling oily, or you have a layer of oily balm that you can’t seem to remove – this will get it all off!

If you’re one of those people who love a squeaky clean feeling, this is it – this will really make your skin squeak. To be honest, despite my dry skin, I do love a squeaky clean feeling once in a while, but not too many. I would definitely not recommend this for anyone with dry skin intending to use this as a first or regular cleansing, but it might be a good product for oilier skins or if you use a much oilier first cleanse which is too hard to remove.