by Jude Chao

Review: Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash

It always cracks me up when people describe me as someone who’s tried just about everything in Korean skincare, because that’s far from the truth. There are so many product categories I’ve barely touched. One of those categories is the powdered foaming cleanser, which only came to my attention when my friend Cat at Snow White and the Pear reviewed the Su:m37 White Award Enzyme Powder Wash back in June. That was around the same time that I was beginning to discover Tosowoong, so when I spotted a powder cleanser among their products and read its claims to pH 5.5 status, I snatched it up. Thank the snail gods I did. My skin adores this stuff so much that I’ll find it difficult to switch to any other cleanser.

Domo is shocked that I've ventured out of my Hada Labo Cleansing Foam cave.
Domo is shocked that I’ve ventured out of my Hada Labo Cleansing Foam cave.

Purpose: Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash is a pH 5.5 foaming facial cleanser that claims to deep-clean skin without drying it out.

Do not use if: Your skin truly cannot tolerate sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), alcohol denat., or anything else in the ingredients list. But if you are avoiding those ingredients because you’re afraid they’ll be too stripping, read this review first.

Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash back of bottle and box
Very shocked.

When and how to use: Shake a small amount of cleanser into the palm of your hand or onto a damp cleansing tool. Add water and lather. Gently massage over your face, then rinse thoroughly.

Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash ingredients: Zea mays (corn) starch, sodium lauroyl aspartate, sodium cocoyl isethionate, sodium palmitate, sodium lauryl sulfate, titanium dioxide, dipotassium glycyrrhizate, methylparaben, alcohol denat., perfume, maltodextrin, papain, badger oil

CosDNA analysis turns up a couple of major flags in this list. SLS rates a 5 as a potential acne trigger, while alcohol denat. scores a 5 as a potential irritant. Once again, however, I definitely urge you to read on before you allow those ingredients to put you off.

Notable ingredients: Typically I use this section to talk about the potentially beneficial ingredients I find in a product’s ingredients list, but here I’m going to take a different approach and talk about the ingredients that many people consider dealbreakers. SLS, for example, is almost universally panned by those who know a bit about skincare. It’s known as the harshest of the sulfates and considered a one-way ticket to stripped, dried skin, even among people who haven’t yet seen the pH 5.5 light. Alcohol denat. is often shunned for much the same reasons.

What I’ve found from my month and a half of using this product is that when you’re trying to assess how stripping a cleanser will be, the ingredients may not matter quite as much as the pH. This is because the mechanism by which a cleanser strips and dries out skin (or doesn’t) isn’t quite as clear-cut as “sulfates bad, SLS devil.” My theory, developed over the last month and a half, is that in order for the sulfates to do your moisture barrier harm, the pH of the cleanser itself must be damagingly high.

What happens is that an alkaline cleanser will weaken the structure of your acid mantle. If you attack your skin with soaps or with surfactants like SLS while it is in that compromised state, then those surfactants can indeed bind to and wash away many of the natural and necessary lipids that are meant to remain in your moisture barrier. But if the cleanser is at a skin-safe pH, the acid mantle’s integrity remains intact. The surfactants are unable to make off with your ceramides and lipids and happy fatty acids. That’s my theory, anyway, and my reading supports it (more in-depth post on this coming soon). I came up with this theory because of how Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash makes my skin feel.

(This theory is also the reason I disagree with people who say that using a strong, alkaline cleanser is okay if you “balance” your skin’s pH with a balancing toner afterward. The damage is being done during the act of cleansing. Attempting to rapidly lower your skin’s pH after the fact won’t fix that unless your balancing toner can travel back in time, slap the high-pH cleanser out of your hands, and replace it with a pH 5.5 cleanser, and if your toner could do that, you wouldn’t be reading this review because the space/time continuum would be terribly damaged and none of us would be here anymore because your toner probably would have prevented us all from existing in the first place. Skin pH returns to normal not long after cleansing anyway. Shortening that period by a half an hour isn’t going to undo the harm that was caused by the cleansing process.)

Performance

Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash comes in a fairly plain plastic bottle with a flip top that reveals a small opening.

Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash bottle opening
It looks like a smile, which is what I get on my face whenever I use this cleanser.

Inside the bottle are suspicious-looking little grains of powdered cleanser with a somewhat strong detergent-y smell (which is much fainter when the product is lathered up, so don’t worry). The opening reminds me of the large openings on some spice bottles. Luckily, this bottle is designed to prevent accidental giant spills of product.

The actual opening inside the bottle is in the middle, and when the cap is screwed on, that opening is blocked, so that only the grains which have been shaken into that top section can be dispensed. This is a pretty handy design for people like me, who get a little overenthusiastic with spice shakers sometimes.

Whether you’re using your hands or a konjac sponge to cleanse your face, you’ll only need a small sprinkle of powder to make a decent amount of foam. When I started using Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash, I used it with a konjac sponge, because that’s what I’ve been using to wash my face for over a year, and habit dies hard.

Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash contains papain, a mild enzyme exfoliant derived from papayas. From the very first few times I used this cleanser, I noticed my skin feeling softer and softer and silkier and silkier. With no other changes to my routine, I could pretty confidently point to the cleanser as the source of the new improvement. I wondered if I could ditch the konjac sponges without missing the gentle exfoliation they provide, so I gave it a shot.

I haven’t used a konjac sponge since then. My skin doesn’t miss it at all. My skin doesn’t miss my old Hada Labo cleanser, either.

Here’s the thing about Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash: It’s pretty much the most perfect cleanser I’ve ever found for my face. My own pH testing verifies the company’s claim that it is pH 5.5, which I consider the ideal cleanser pH. It cleans my skin thoroughly, leaving no residue behind, so that my face looks and feels perfectly fresh and sparkling clean. And, best of all, through the magic of a low pH, Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash achieves that without stripping my skin, drying it out, or otherwise compromising its natural protective barrier. I have been using this cleanser twice a day for a month and a half, and in that time, my skin has not gotten any drier.

In fact, in that time, my skin’s barrier seems to have gotten better. When I rinse my face now, it feels literally buttery. It’s the opposite of a squeak. I can feel the healthy layer of lipids doing their protective thing on the surface of my skin, and making my skin extra glowy at the same time.

I tried three other cleansers just once or twice each during the testing period for the Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash. The three other cleansers were all mild, low-pH cleansers: the classic Hada Labo cleansing foam, the Hada Labo es cleansing foam for sensitive skin, and the famous Su:m37 Enzyme Powder Wash, which I got in sample packet form from the awesome and bad-ass Tracy of Fanserviced. None of those cleansers gave me the same buttery skin texture upon rinsing. I could tell from texture alone that they were removing more of my natural lipids than the Tosowoong, and the Su:m37, while still miles above any alkaline cleanser, actually gave me the tiniest hint of a squeak. What I’m trying to say is that no other cleanser I’ve tried has come close to the incredibly non-dry clean that I get every single time I wash with Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash. I can cleanse, get distracted, forget to put anything else on my skin for an hour at a time, and not feel tight or uncomfortable at all.

I consider it extremely important to maintain that upper layer of lipids as much as I can, because some of my other skincare steps involve a controlled weakening of it. Chemical exfoliation, after all, speeds up the removal of the dead skin cells that form part of the moisture barrier, and retinol accelerates their sloughing, too. If I want to continue attacking the signs of sun damage and aging at the rate I am now (or harder), I have to make sure my skin can handle it. Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash cleans my skin thoroughly without weakening the barrier it needs to stay healthy and able to hold moisture despite the actives I throw at it every day.

Oh, and guess what? Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Cleanser is incredibly cheap and, because it comes in dry form, makes traveling with one’s skincare wardrobe a little easier.

Conclusion: I don’t switch cleansers often. I stuck with my Hada Labo for over a year, and I see myself sticking with Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Cleanser for even longer. It offers exactly the perfect mix of pH 5.5 gentleness and deep and thorough cleansing, keeping my skin moist and happy without letting a single speck of dirt or grime stay behind. I’m super happy with this product. I’m happy enough, in fact, to consider it a new Holy Grail. This cleanser is the main reason I now discourage sponsors and potential sponsors from sending me cleansers. I just don’t want to feel obligated to use anything else right now.

Rating: 5/5

Rating scale:

1 – This should be taken off the market.
2 – Caused me some problems; would not buy again.
3 – Meh. Neither great nor bad.
4 – Pretty good. Would buy again unless I find something better.
5 – I’ll never be in the market for a replacement unless this one is discontinued.

Where can I buy Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash?

Remember how I said Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash is incredibly cheap? You can snag a bottle at the following Fiddy-trusted shops. Affiliate links are marked with an asterisk(*).

The 70ml bottle is generous, especially since only a little product is needed at a time–one bottle should last several months.

Have you found your perfect cleanser yet? Tell me about it in the comments!

52 thoughts on “Review: Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash”

  1. I’m going to try this 🙂 I usally use foam cleansers even though I know they aren’t good for your skin ph wise… but I just feel cleaner 🙂 This looks very good though 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  3. I was the person puzzled by the ‘meh’ ingredients resulting in such pleasant outcome in your Tosowoong brand focus post, thanks for giving a detailed review! Very interesting post. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    1. No problem! It goes to show that the ingredients don’t tell the whole story, as much as we would like them to 😦 With cleansers, I find it is more productive to assess the potentially “bad” ingredients, since any potentially beneficial ones typically get rinsed off anyway and will not do your skin any good, but even looking at the “bad” ingredients isn’t always indicative of the product’s effects! Sigh–there’s really no way around just using things for oneself, eh? :/

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I do use an oil cleanser before it in the evenings, yes. Usually I use some kind of balm (Botanic Farm or Banila Co Clean It Zero) but right now I’m testing Etude House Real Art Moisture Cleansing Oil, which seems okay so far.

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      2. Is it okay to just use water based cleanser two times ? without oil cleanser before ? I use the banila one for sensitive skin but I feel like oil cleanser break me out or worsen my skin. My skin does not like oils in general.

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  7. I love this cleanser. I actually bought it originally because I saw it on your blog and our skin seems to like the same stuff. And I’m really happy with it!

    My husband is completely weirded out by powder though so he can keep my Cerave Foam 😉

    Liked by 2 people

  8. I’ve been thinking about this cleanser since I mentioned it you before *pathetic cry*…. breaks my heart that it actually works well! </3 Does Jolse have this in stock? I'd really love their "makes-me-buy-more" free shipping lol

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hahaha! Do you want a decant of it? One little travel jar should last quite some time and I have a few backups on the way to me anyway, so I won’t be putting myself out at all by sending you some ❤

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    1. I read your review of this last week and was so glad to know that I’m not the only one feeling that this cleanser actively makes my skin softer. Chel (Holy Snails) got it and she said the same thing. This cleanser is just incredible, especially for the price!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. It’s so good that I’m actually paranoid it’s too good to be true. When I was reviewing it I kept thinking something must be wrong somewhere for it to be so awesome, because nothing is perfect, right?

        Liked by 1 person

  11. Great review 🙂

    I’ll be in the market for a new cleanser in about a months time (currently using innisfree apple juicy liquid foam which innisfree assure me is acidic but I’ve not tested myself, it’s OK but nothing to sing and dance about)

    I was holding out for the new cosrx mild cleanser, but if it doesn’t land on the market soon I think I’ll give this one a chance

    Liked by 2 people

  13. This might be a dumb question but the pH of this cleanser is 5.5 after water has been added? I have a cleanser that is 5.5 but after water is added, it goes up….so finding a low pH cleanser has been a headache!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I only pH test cleansers with water added, foamed up just as they would be if I were going to wash my face. (Anyway, I think it’d be hard to pH test a dry powder in its natural state, but I’m no chemist, so I could be wrong!)

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  17. how do you foam up the powder just using your hands? I just got this in the mail and it’s not getting very foamy with a few drops of water & scrubbing in my hand!

    Liked by 2 people

  18. I really want to try this, but… badger oil. I’ve always been in badger conservation. Maybe there will be a non-badger type in future.

    Liked by 2 people

  19. uhh.. i just ordered cosrx low PH good morning cleanser 2 tube and now this tosowoong catch my eyes so badly 😦 why i missed this post when i open your blog last time? *slap my own face* uh well, you are my next obsession tosowoong!
    Thank you for the perfect review, i always love your post since you always describe everything in one product.

    Liked by 2 people

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  21. I bought and tried this cleanser, solely based on your review. I love the way it makes my face feel – clean, but not tight/dry in the least. The only (almost) deal breaker for me is the scent. You’re right – it’s detergent-y/soapy. But I do not find that it dissipates as it foams. After applying a VERY strong-scented lime wash-off mask after the cleanser, my hands still smelled like the cleanser! To me, it’s overpowering, but I love the performance. Quite a dilemma!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Urgh, fragrance is such a difficult thing isn’t it! I have a few other powder cleansers I’m wanting to try. Maybe one of them will be more suitable!

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  22. I have just started using this cleanser and am quite excited at the prospect of using a foaming cleanser again! I am using it with “foaming” net/bubble net and it makes quite a bit of nice foam this way 🙂 🙂 🙂
    One thing I am curious about since this appears to be a completely dry powder is how there could be Denat. Alcohol in it. Perhaps it was used as an ingredient in the formulation stage, but all the alcohol should have evaporated out of the dried product, correct?

    Liked by 1 person

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  24. Hi! I’ve been reading really good reviews on this cleanser, and I love your very informative one, but may I ask about its cleansing power? All the reviews I’ve read talk about the low pH and the soft skin quality it confers, which are very important to me, but I’d also like to know if it’s good at picking up all the gross things on my face, including light makeup or the remnants of makeup an oil cleanser wouldn’t get prior. Thank you!

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  25. Hi , a great review here ! I am thinking of trying this cleanser too . I have a normal skin with some occasional breakouts and I’m 19 y/o . I don’t know if this cleanser is suitable or not as I’m afraid if it is too much for my skin . Hope you can answer , thank you 😊

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  27. Hi,
    Omg I would love to try this! Really quick question though, I use a clarsonic, do you think it would still work? I’m not sure if I should foam it up then put it o the brush? What do you think?

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  30. Hi Jude! Thank you so much for introducing this brand! I didn’t know it existed until I saw your posts. I recently purchased their face masks and totally loved it! Will purchase this one as well! ❤

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  31. You can also mix it with a cleaning oil like CosRX for a lovely spa like facial massage treatment. I did this with Tatcha cleansing oil and Powder Enzyme Wash. Much cheaper abd better option 😁

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  34. Has this been discontinued??
    It’s my all time favourite, but now I can’t seem to find it any of my usual online stores. And the few on eBay are super overpriced.

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