How is this different from a blemish serum?

Coverage. This is dabbed on two or three spots, while a serum goes across an area. That means the formula can be more focused than something you would spread everywhere. If your blemishes are scattered across the cheeks rather than in a couple of places, a whole face product is the better buy.

Where does it go in my routine?

Last, at night, after your moisturizer. Because it sits only on the spots, putting it under the cream would mean spreading it around as you apply the cream. Do the full routine, then dab this on, then nothing else until you cleanse in the morning.

Can I use it in the morning too?

You can, but under makeup it may lift whatever goes over it, so most people keep it for nights. If you do want it in the daytime, put it on after moisturizer and before sunscreen, and give it a couple of minutes to settle before anything else touches the area.

Can I use it with a patch?

Pick one per spot per night rather than layering. A patch needs a dry clean surface to stick to and a cream underneath stops it holding. Use the cream on the nights a spot is closed, and a patch on the nights it is open and weeping.

Is this the Korean-market formula?

Yes. This is the Original Korean Formula 30g tube, the same one sold on Korean shelves.

COSRX

AC Collection Ultimate Spot Cream 30g

Name: COSRX AC Collection Ultimate Spot Cream 30g
Brand: COSRX
SKU: 3914531103
Price: 47.5 USD
Availability: InStock

A 30g targeted cream for the look of blemishes, dabbed on the spots that need it rather than spread across the whole face.

Reviewed by Nurcan Saglam, licensed dermo-cosmetic expert (Paris)

No reviews yet

$47.50

30 g

$158.33 per 100 g

Korean-market formula
Ships from California or direct from Korea
Korean barcode and batch code intact

Suited to: Oily skinCombination skinNormal skin

Helps with: The look of individual blemishesTwo or three spots at a timeAn overnight targeted step

One-time purchase

$47.50

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$42.75

In stock. Arrives in 3 to 7 business days

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How it works

This is a targeted product, which changes how it is used: a small amount on the spots that need it rather than a layer over the face. Because the dose is local, the formula can be more focused than anything you would want across both cheeks. It goes on at the end of the evening routine, over the cream rather than under it, so nothing is spread across the area afterwards. That is the difference from a whole face blemish serum, which is the right buy when the problem is scattered rather than in two or three places. What you can judge is how the individual spots look the following morning.

Key benefits

On this formula's own list, Butylene Glycol shows up near the top. It is a multifunctional glycol that carries moisture and helps preserve the formula.
This one's ingredient list carries Zinc Oxide near the top, a zinc compound included to help manage surface oil and shine.
Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil sits in the back half on this product's own ingredient list, tea tree oil, included for its use against blemish-prone, oily skin.

Inside the formula

Ingredients declared

No fragrance

on the list

1 of 2

23 of 24 explained

Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Water plant extract: Aloe leaf water, the dilute form of aloe used in place of plain water. It carries some of the leaf polysaccharides and sugars.
Butylene Glycol humectant: Butylene Glycol is a small glycol that does two jobs at once: it holds water in the top layer of skin and it dissolves plant extracts and actives that plain water cannot. It also thins a formula, which is why watery Korean essences lean on it.
Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil emollient: Sunflower Seed Oil is high in linoleic acid, the fatty acid dry and blemish-prone skin is often short of. It is a light, non-fragrant emollient and one of the better tolerated plant oils.
Glycerine humectant: Glycerin is the most used humectant in skincare. It draws water into the outer layer of skin and holds it there, and it is one of the very few ingredients whose hydrating effect is settled science rather than marketing. Higher amounts feel tacky, which is why it is usually blended.
Cetearyl Alcohol fatty alcohol: Cetearyl Alcohol is a waxy solid, not the drying kind of alcohol. It is a blend of cetyl and stearyl alcohols used to thicken a cream and keep oil and water from separating, and it softens skin as it does so.
Dimethyl Sulfone solvent: Dimethyl Sulfone is MSM, an organic sulfur compound that dissolves in water. It is used as a conditioning ingredient and as a carrier for other actives.
Betaine humectant: Betaine is a sugar-beet-derived humectant that cells use to hold water. In a formula it hydrates and takes the edge off cleansers and acids, which is why it often appears alongside them.
Polysorbate 60 emulsifier: Polysorbate 60 is a water-loving emulsifier used with a fatty co-emulsifier to build stable lotions and creams.
Elaeis Guineensis (Palm) Oil emollient: Palm Oil is a rich emollient high in palmitic and oleic acids. In skincare it is more often a source material for esters and emulsifiers than an ingredient on its own.
Elaeis Guineensis (Palm) Kernel Oil emollient: Palm kernel oil, high in lauric acid and solid at room temperature. It gives balms and cleansing bases their body.
Cetearyl Olivate emulsifier: Cetearyl Olivate is the water-loving half of the olive-derived emulsifier pair. With sorbitan olivate it builds emulsions whose lipid profile is close to skin's own.
Sorbitan Olivate emulsifier: Sorbitan Olivate is an olive-derived emulsifier, the oil-loving half of the pair sold as Olivem. It holds oil into water and leaves a light, non-waxy feel.

11 more explained

1,2-Hexanediol humectant: 1,2-Hexanediol is a glycol used for two reasons: it holds water like glycerin, and it makes a formula harder for microbes to live in, so less traditional preservative is needed. Korean formulas use it heavily for that second reason.
Calamine absorbent: Calamine is a mineral blend of zinc oxide with a trace of iron oxide, which is where its pale pink colour comes from. In a formula it is an absorbent mineral powder.
Dimethicone silicone: Dimethicone is the most used cosmetic silicone. It forms a breathable film that smooths the surface, slows water leaving skin, and gives the slip that makes a primer or cream feel silky. It is inert and does not penetrate.
Illicium Verum (Anise) Fruit Extract plant extract: Star Anise Fruit Extract carries aromatic plant compounds. It is used as a conditioning extract and contributes scent.
Scutellaria Baicalensis Root Extract plant extract: Scutellaria Baicalensis is Chinese skullcap. Its root extract carries baicalin, a well studied plant antioxidant, and it is used for the look of redness.
Xanthan Gum thickener: Xanthan Gum is a polysaccharide made by fermenting sugar. It thickens a watery formula into a gel and holds the whole thing in suspension so nothing separates. Too much of it and a serum turns stringy, which is why it appears in fractions of a percent.
Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil fragrance component: Tea Tree Leaf Oil is an essential oil from an Australian shrub, carrying terpinen-4-ol. Korean formulas use it in products aimed at blemish-prone skin; it is potent, aromatic, and one of the essential oils most likely to bother reactive skin.
Ethyl Hexanediol humectant: Ethyl Hexanediol is a glycol that hydrates and makes a formula less hospitable to microbes, the same double role 1,2-hexanediol plays.
Asiaticoside active: Asiaticoside is one of the four active triterpenes isolated from centella and the most studied of them. Korean formulas name it separately when they want to show which fraction of the plant they standardised.
Asiatic Acid active: Asiatic Acid is the third of centella's four triterpenes and the aglycone form, meaning it has no attached sugar. It is oil soluble, so it turns up in cica creams and balms more than in watery layers.
Madecassic Acid active: Madecassic Acid is the fourth centella triterpene. A list that names all four is telling you the extract was standardised rather than simply pressed, which is the difference between a cica claim and a cica formula.

How to use

Finish your usual evening routine first, so this goes on over the cream rather than under it.
Take a small amount on a clean fingertip and dab it onto each spot without spreading it outward.
Leave it on overnight and rinse in the morning as part of your usual cleanse.
Do not use it over the whole face, since the point of a targeted product is that only a small area gets it.

Worth knowing

Use it on the spots only, since a focused formula across the whole face is more than most skin wants.
Stop if the surrounding skin starts flaking or stinging, and go back to a plain moisturizer for a few days.

Complete the routine

This itemCOSRX AC Collection Ultimate Spot Cream 30g$47.50
Seal the routine in as the last stepCOSRX Skin Barrier Moisturizing Cream 450ml$42.50
An as-needed step, in place of the prep layerCosrx 5 PDRN Hyaluronic Acid Vital Hydrating Hydrogel Mask$4.70

Total for 3 items$94.70

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COSRX AC Collection Ultimate Spot Cream 30g

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COSRX, Korean-market original

A 30g targeted cream for the look of individual blemishes, stocked in the Original Korean Formula.

Verify your unit when it arrives

Korean-market stock with the original barcode and batch code intact, exactly as it left Korea.

COSRX verifies units itself. Find the verification page on cosrx.com and enter the batch number and expiration date printed on your unit. Read them off the package rather than from us, which is the point.

Source: COSRX FAQ

On the unit itself

The Korean-market barcode, unaltered from the retail package.
The manufacturer’s batch code, exactly as the maker printed it.

정품Genuine article, Korean-market stock

What professionals say

What skin-care professionals say about skin care, quoted from the medical sources linked beside each.

Your skin barrier is basically your outer layer of the skin.
Melissa Piliang, MDDermatologist, Cleveland Clinic
Pretty much every step of a Korean skin care routine is going to have some component of hydration.
Alok Vij, MDDermatologist, Cleveland Clinic