Is this really the best foam for oily skin? | Lagom Cellup Micro Foam Cleanser review

After a long season of internships, it's exam season (or I should say it was when I wrote this review) here so my skincare routine is getting weird - I use fewer products or just choose products to focus on acne or dryness. There's one thing that doesn't change in my routine - cleansing is a must! Lagom is a brand which you saw on kherblog before - Gel to Water Cleanser formula was innovative, how about Lagom Cellup Micro Foam Cleanser? It's definitely a cleanser which you need to know.

Couple information about Lagom

Lagom is a South Korean brand with a Swedish name. Actually, Lagom means  'just the right amount' - just like Lagom says - not too little, not too much. It fits the skincare brand perfectly since skincare is all about using the right ingredients and amounts. All the products fit under the tag "dermocosmetics" or "cosmeceuticals", both words are usually used alternately, I guess cosmeceuticals are even more popular. This type of product is strongly connected to professional skincare and one of the mottos you can find on Lagom's website is 'good doctors making good dermocosmetics', I think it's important to mention because similar to supplements - skincare nowadays can be made by everyone, even people who don't know any medical researches and who sells product that can cause allergic reactions. Obviously - you can get an allergic reaction to an ingredient in dermocosmetic as well but you know what's inside the product and all the ingredients inside the product have a purpose. I also have to mention that Lagom declares as a Cruelty-Free brand. 

Cellup means to wake up your skin

Cellus series is a Cleansing series made by the brand, the name is a mix of words Cell + Wake Up which just means that this product wakes up the cells to work. According to the Spanish website, Lagom Cellup Micro Foam Cleanser is an essential product for makeup gurus. I might not be a makeup guru but I know more about makeup than you might think - thanks to all the weird exams you get but that's a topic for a separate post. To put makeup on the skin you need a clean and well-moisturized skin but also products that fit your skin type so makeup can look flawless without any caking. Cleansing is one of the parts to get the ideal skin. 

What's inside Lagom Cellup Micro Foam Cleanser

I guess this part is my favourite - what's inside Lagom Cellup Micro Foam Cleanser. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to test the pH of the product but according to the internet, the pH is 9.0 and I can believe because my skin feels a bit tight after using it, it might be a bit drying so I recommend it for oily skin with huge sebum problems - if your skin is overproducing the sebum and sebum moderation is all you need then you won't be disappointed even if pH is high (I use it with A'Pieu Madecassoside Toner and Neogen Real Vitamin C Serum so even if pH is high I'm able to balance it). 

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

Before we start, let me mention that Lagom Cellup Micro Foam Cleanser is based on AQUALICIA®, an innovative technology that helps with skin moisture which I guess might be hidden here under the name Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein and Maltrodextrin but I'm not 100% sure if this is true since finding information about it was quite hard. Glycerin is a natural moisturizer which you can find in almost every product because it's very effective. Palmitic Acid, Lauric Acid, Stearic Acid and Myristic Acid are ingredients which I have a bit complicated relationship with because sometimes they break me out, somehow this time I had no reactions but it's good to remember that not every skin will tolerate that even if they do important things for skin but also the formula - they are considered as emollients and they are also emulsifiers or stabilizers. PEG-32 is a humectant and solvent, some people are scared of PEGs but I believe that you can find worse ingredients in cosmetics. Potassium Hydroxide is a pH stabilizer, Glyceryl Stearate is very similar to the acid group I've mentioned before - my skin doesn't like this ingredient because it's an emollient and emulsifier. Cocamidopropyl Betaine is a mild cleanser, it makes the foam, same with Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate. PEG-100 Stearate is a surfactant and we have here similar situation as with PEG-32. Saponaria Officinalis Leaf Extract is an interesting plant, is also known as soapweed. It's not a joke, the name of this plant is soapweed and it's a surfactant - it helps with cleansing but it's also a substance used in skincare for its antifungal, antibacterial and antimicrobial functions. It's used in skincare products for acne-prone skin. Sapindus Mukorossi Fruit Extract is known as soapberry or washnut, it is told that it might be another surfactant. Maltodextrin is an absorbent. 

Let's focus a bit on Coconut Acid and Arachidic Acid, both are surfactants but if you're allergic to nuts be careful with Arachidic Acid and patch test the product first (I recommend you patch test products even if you don't have any allergy). 

The formula is full of natural oils: Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Oil, 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 and Commiphora Myrrha Oil. Even if lavender oil seems to be an ingredient which we associate with heavy scent, the scent of the foam is mild. The role of oils can be different - usually, they are perfuming ingredients but ingredients like Chamomile Flower Oil have soothing properties. Not every skin will enjoy this amount of natural oils - especially lavender oil. I feel like soapweed and soapberry are the most interesting ingredients in this product. 

How does it work?

I should mention another thing, Lagom Cellup Micro Foam Cleanser was selected by Get It Beauty as a cleanser for oily skin in 2018. Get It Beauty is a Korean Beauty Show where you can find much interesting information about beauty. I honestly like such shows even if a small part of it is translated and my knowledge of Korean language is poor - but good enough to read ingredients and I'm not joking sometimes I had to decode ingredients for you - and local shows don't have a good value not to mention that many of these shows are later becoming local memes so I highly recommend you watching the translations of youtube, there's a small amount of them but still you can find there interesting information just like the one above. The pH of the foam is about 7, it's not the ideal pH and my skin felt it. The formula is really nice - it feels like a good foam that won't leave the oiliness and stickiness on your skin but it's a foam which my skin can use once or twice a week since it dries my skin out if I use it too often. I feel like it should be called 'a period foam" - it's ideal for all the imperfections that attack my skin during the period or when I need to cleanse my skin well and I'm aware that for some people it'll be a great everyday foam but my skin doesn't feel well in pH higher than 6.0. 

So how did my skin reacted to this foam? I've got mixed feelings, if I use it every day then after a couple of days my skin feels very dry, if I use it once or twice a week - it's totally fine. The foam is really nice, the scent isn't heavy and the packaging is minimalistic. In comparison to other foams with higher pH than 6, this one is the best for me, since Benton foam after a week made lots of damage to my skin aka acne, and this one - didn't really do bad things besides making my skin dry. The foam is available at Skinsider and it costs £20 for 150 ml, a small amount is enough to clean the entire face so one bottle should be enough for about 6 months if you use it once a day or even longer if you use it once/twice a week as a special treatment. 

Have you tried any Lagom product? What do you think about this brand?

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*** This post was made in collaboration with Skinsider, even though it still shows my personal opinion on the topic and product**