It is the rare Korean foam that both declares its salicylic acid dose — 5,000 ppm — and builds the lather on amino-acid surfactants with glycerin listed first, which is a thoughtful combination for oily skin. It shares its nine-essential-oil blend and its trace-level hyaluronic and ceramide garnish with the line's cleansing oil, so the two are best understood as a matched pair rather than as separate formulas.
For oily, blackhead-prone skin that is not reactive, this is a good pore foam: amino-acid surfactants, glycerin first, a declared 0.5 percent salicylic acid and soft silica, at twenty dollars for 150 mL. Its sensitive-skin billing is the problem — nine essential oils and a 10 ppm dose of the heartleaf it is named for make 'soothing' a stretch — and the hyaluronic and ceramide claims are label decoration in a rinse-off.
Two years of Korean sales and a presence at K-beauty importers give this foam a real history, but its English-language review base is scattered and there is no Amazon US listing to draw a firm count from, so the figures here are conservative. Scoring leans on the disclosed 76-ingredient formula, the declared salicylic acid dose and the established behaviour of amino-acid surfactant cleansers; how often the essential-oil blend causes reactions in practice is the least settled question.
The case for it
Cautions: fungal-acne triggers.
Same rule for everyone. “Good choice” is the verdict on 9,564 of 45,024 concern verdicts across the catalog; rule R2r decided 408 of them. As of September 25, 2026, engine 5.1.1.
Brand or formulator? Disclose a concentration or correct a fact →
The studies behind the evidence row
The case for it
Cautions: fungal-acne triggers.
What would change this: The same active in a leave-on form would be judged on its evidence rather than its contact time.
Same rule for everyone. “Supporting role” is the verdict on 8,197 of 45,024 concern verdicts across the catalog; rule R6 decided 2,017 of them. As of September 25, 2026, engine 5.1.1.
Brand or formulator? Disclose a concentration or correct a fact →
The studies behind the evidence row
The case for it
What would change this: The same active in a leave-on form would be judged on its evidence rather than its contact time.
Same rule for everyone. “Supporting role” is the verdict on 8,197 of 45,024 concern verdicts across the catalog; rule R6 decided 2,017 of them. As of September 25, 2026, engine 5.1.1.
Brand or formulator? Disclose a concentration or correct a fact →
The studies behind the evidence row
The case for it
Cautions: fragrance; fungal-acne triggers.
Same rule for everyone. “Good choice” is the verdict on 9,564 of 45,024 concern verdicts across the catalog; rule R2r decided 408 of them. As of September 25, 2026, engine 5.1.1.
Brand or formulator? Disclose a concentration or correct a fact →
The studies behind the evidence row
Does the jobDoes what a cleanser is for: surfactant mildness, rinses clean without stripping. Not measured from the label: pH match to skin.
A verdict is DermApproved’s assessment of how well a product’s ingredients fit a concern — never a claim about what the product treats. Evidence dots and collected reviews sit beside it and are never blended in. Rules 0.5.1 · evidence table ev-2026.09-r228 · how we decide
Goodal prints the doses of a few ingredients on this foam's label, and the three numbers tell the story better than any marketing copy could. Heartleaf extract: 10 parts per million. Hyaluronic acids: mostly hundredths or thousandths of a part per million. Salicylic acid: 5,000 parts per million, or half a percent. In other words, the ingredient the product is named after is present at a homeopathic wink, the ingredients on the front of the box are there in quantities you could not detect, and the one active dosed to do something is an oil-soluble acid that most people buying a 'soothing' cleanser would not expect to find. Once you read the Heartleaf Hyaluron Soothing Pore Cleansing Foam that way — as a salicylic pore foam in soothing-line packaging — it makes a lot more sense, and it turns out to be a rather good one.
The base is where the quality is. Glycerin is the first ingredient, ahead of water, which is unusual for a foam and is the real reason it does not leave skin tight. The surfactants are sodium cocoyl glycinate and sodium lauroyl glutamate, the mild amino-acid pair that Japanese and Korean cleansers have used for years to get a creamy, dense lather without a sulfate, backed by an amphoteric and a betaine further down. Hydrated silica sits fifth and gives the lather an almost imperceptible fine grit that you notice only as a slight polish on the nose. Then, at the very end, the salicylic acid. Half a percent for the minute a lather is on the face is not a treatment, but used twice a day it is a steady nudge on the sebum plugs that become blackheads, and the silica gives it a physical partner. Two to four weeks in, the nose is smoother and the T-zone stays matte until lunch. That is a fair return from a cleanser.
Goodal has been a Clio Cosmetics skincare label since 2010, and the Heartleaf line became its sensitive-skin franchise on Olive Young shelves in 2024. This foam and its sister cleansing oil arrived that summer as the pore-care double cleanse for the range. Two years on it has a steady Korean following and a scattered presence at importers, but no Amazon US listing, which keeps English-language feedback thin.
The formula runs to seventy-six ingredients, and the middle of the list is where the reservations live. Between the fruit extracts that make up the brand's 'green phyto acid' story and the surfactant helpers, there is a block of nine essential oils — fir, rosemary, clary sage, geranium, clove leaf, patchouli, German and Roman chamomile and juniper — identical to the blend in the cleansing oil. They give the lather a green, herbal, faintly medicinal scent that many people will enjoy. They also make this one of the more allergen-rich foams in the category, because clove means eugenol, geranium means geraniol and citronellol, and the conifer and herb oils bring the terpenes that oxidise into sensitisers over the life of a tube. A rinse-off exposure is short, so most people will never react. But a product that carries all of them, plus salicylic acid, while disclosing its soothing botanical at ten parts per million, has no business being sold to reactive skin, and the packaging's 'soothing' should be read as the name of the line rather than a promise.
In practice that means a tingle around the nostrils and the corners of the eyes in the first week for many users, a matte, thorough, slightly tighter-than-cream finish that moisturizer fixes immediately, and, for a minority with fragrance sensitivity, pink cheeks that mean stop. Dry skin will find it a once-a-day cleanser at most. Oily and combination skin will find it exactly what it is: an effective, pleasant, mildly exfoliating foam that keeps pores in better order than a plain cream cleanser would.
The claims that do not survive contact with the ingredient list are the ones on the front. Ten hyaluronic acid species and five ceramides with cholesterol appear in the back third, at trace levels, in a product that is rinsed off after sixty seconds. They cannot hydrate or repair anything on that timescale, and the comfortable afterfeel comes entirely from the glycerin and the surfactant choice. The succinic acid credited with sebum control is likewise a trace in a rinse-off. None of this makes the foam worse; it just makes the box a poor guide to what you are buying.
At twenty dollars for 150 mL — about thirteen cents a millilitre — the price is fair for an amino-acid foam with a declared salicylic dose, and a tube lasts around two months of twice-daily use. It is not a bargain and does not need to be. The right buyer is someone with oily or combination skin, clogged pores, no history of reacting to essential oils, and a leave-on acid already in the routine that this can support in the morning. The wrong buyer is the person the packaging is aimed at: anyone who reached for the word soothing because their skin needs it.
The hero actives that drive this product's performance.
| Ingredient | Function | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Sodium Cocoyl Glycinate + Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate | Two amino-acid surfactants in third and fourth place — the mild, creamy-foaming pair that lets this foam lift sebum without the squeak of a sulfate; disodium cocoamphodiacetate and lauryl betaine further down thicken the lather and soften it further. | Not yet assessed |
| Salicylic Acid (0.5%) | Declared at 5,000 ppm and listed last, it gives the foam its pore-care credentials: an oil-soluble acid that can loosen the top of a blackhead in the minute the lather is on, though at a rinse-off contact time it is a nudge rather than a treatment. | Regulator-approved for Blackheads · emerging certainty |
| Glycerin | Unusually, the first ingredient ahead of water — a glycerin-heavy base is what stops the amino-acid surfactants leaving the face tight, and it is the honest reason this foam feels hydrating rather than the trace hyaluronates the box advertises. | Not yet assessed |
| Hydrated Silica | Fifth in the list, a very fine, soft silica that gives the foam a faint polishing action on the nose and chin as it is massaged — the physical half of the blackhead claim, gentle enough to be almost imperceptible. | Not yet assessed |
| Houttuynia Cordata Extract (0.001%) | The heartleaf extract on the label, disclosed by the brand at just 10 ppm — enough to justify the name, not enough to soothe a face that also meets nine essential oils in the same lather. | Not yet assessed |
| Green Phyto Acid Complex (Prunus Mume, Apple, Papaya, Grape Fruit Extracts) | The fruit-extract quartet Goodal credits with plant-based exfoliation; in a foam that is on the face for a minute they are a story that supports the salicylic acid rather than a measurable exfoliant in their own right. | Not yet assessed |
Ingredient standings describe the active at treatment-level doses and vehicles; this product's own condition grades weigh its actual formula.
Glycerin, Water, Sodium Cocoyl Glycinate, Sodium Lauroyl Glutamate, Hydrated Silica, Dipropylene Glycol, Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Flower Extract, Gardenia Florida Fruit Extract, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Extract, Laminaria Japonica Extract, Houttuynia Cordata Extract, Eclipta Prostrata Leaf Extract, Melia Azadirachta Leaf Extract, Melia Azadirachta Flower Extract, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Fruit Extract, Prunus Mume Fruit Extract, Malus Domestica Fruit Extract, Carica Papaya (Papaya) Fruit Extract, Coccinia Indica Fruit Extract, Solanum Melongena (Eggplant) Fruit Extract, Curcuma Longa (Turmeric) Root Extract, Ocimum Sanctum Leaf Extract, Corallina Officinalis Extract, Diospyros Kaki Leaf Extract, Coffea Arabica (Coffee) Seed Extract, Polygonum Cuspidatum Root Extract, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Castanea Crenata (Chestnut) Shell Extract, Zanthoxylum Piperitum Fruit Extract, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Abies Sibirica Oil, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Oil, Salvia Sclarea (Clary) Oil, Pelargonium Graveolens Flower Oil, Eugenia Caryophyllus (Clove) Leaf Oil, Pogostemon Cablin Oil, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Oil, Juniperus Mexicana Oil, Anthemis Nobilis Flower Oil, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Sodium Hyaluronate, Lauryl Betaine, 1,2-Hexanediol, Sodium Chloride, Butylene Glycol, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Hydroxyacetophenone, Ethylhexylglycerin, Sodium Polyacrylate, Dextrin, Hexylene Glycol, Fructooligosaccharides, Beta-Glucan, Hydrolyzed Hyaluronic Acid, Succinic Acid, Panthenol, Glyceryl Glucoside, Ceramide NP, Glyceryl Stearate, Ceramide AS, Ceramide AP, Ceramide NS, Cholesterol, Amber Powder, Moringa Oleifera Seed Oil, Dimethylsilanol Hyaluronate, Hydrolyzed Sodium Hyaluronate, Potassium Hyaluronate, Hyaluronic Acid, Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, Hydroxypropyltrimonium Hyaluronate, Sodium Hyaluronate Dimethylsilanol, Sodium Acetylated Hyaluronate, Ceramide EOP, Salicylic Acid
cleanser
AM & PM
Works as a morning cleanser on its own or as the second step after an oil cleanse at night. On evenings a leave-on salicylic or glycolic product is planned, a plainer foam is kinder — stacking the 0.5 percent here with a leave-on acid adds irritation without adding benefit.
Cleaner, less shiny skin from the first wash. Slightly smaller-looking blackheads and fewer clogged pores over two to four weeks of twice-daily use; a clear nose needs a leave-on acid on top.
The one active dosed to matter here is salicylic acid at a declared 0.5 percent, and the honest question is what that does in a cleanser. The evidence that cleansers can move acne at all is thin but real: an eight-week, double-blind, split-face randomized trial published in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment in 2010 compared a base cleanser against the same cleanser with added salicylic acid, triclosan and azelaic acid in thirteen acne patients, and found both sides reduced inflammatory and non-inflammatory lesion counts, with the active side continuing to improve after discontinuation while the plain side rebounded. The study is small and the actives were combined, so it cannot isolate salicylic acid's contribution, but it supports the general claim that a medicated cleanser is more than a wash. Mechanistically, salicylic acid is oil-soluble and can enter the follicle during contact, loosening the corneocyte plug; at half a percent for a minute the effect per wash is small, which is why the benefit shows over weeks and why the foam pairs sensibly with a leave-on acid rather than replacing one.
The surfactant system is the formula's quiet strength. Sodium cocoyl glycinate and sodium lauroyl glutamate are amino-acid-derived anionic surfactants with higher pH tolerance and lower protein-denaturing potential than sulfates, and pairing them with disodium cocoamphodiacetate and lauryl betaine is a standard way to build a dense but mild lather. Glycerin as the first ingredient is a humectant buffer against the barrier lipid loss that any foaming wash causes. Together these are why the product rinses without squeak; the trace hyaluronates and ceramides play no measurable part.
The essential-oil block is the formula's scientific weak point. A 2021 review in the International Journal of Women's Dermatology summarised the rising case literature on allergic contact dermatitis from essential oils and recommended that clinicians ask about them routinely when evaluating suspected contact allergy. Clove leaf oil (eugenol), geranium oil (geraniol, citronellol) and the terpene-rich conifer and herb oils here are all recognised sources of fragrance allergens; rinse-off use reduces but does not remove the risk. Combined with salicylic acid, they make the foam's 'soothing' billing scientifically unsupported, even as the cleansing chemistry underneath it is sound.
In clinical terms this is a mild-surfactant salicylic acid cleanser with a botanical fragrance load, and each of those three facts would be weighed separately. Salicylic acid washes at 0.5 to 2 percent are a common first-line suggestion for comedonal acne and oily skin because they add gentle keratolytic support without the irritation of a leave-on retinoid, and the amino-acid surfactant base here is the kind usually preferred for acne-prone patients who need to cleanse twice daily without stripping. The essential-oil content is the reservation: eugenol, geraniol and oxidised terpenes are among the most frequent positive reactions on fragrance patch-test panels, and a cleanser that combines them with an acid is not one a contact-dermatitis clinic would recommend for rosacea, atopic or otherwise reactive skin, whatever the line is called. For non-reactive oily skin it is a sensible adjunct beside benzoyl peroxide or adapalene, used in the morning so the prescription active has the night. The hyaluronic acid and ceramide claims have no clinical meaning in a rinse-off and should not influence the choice.
Wet the face with lukewarm water, squeeze a pea-sized amount into damp palms and work it into a dense lather before it touches the skin. Massage gently for thirty to sixty seconds, spending the extra time on the nose, chin and forehead where the silica and salicylic acid earn their keep, and keep it away from the eyes and nostrils, where it can sting. Rinse thoroughly and follow with toner and moisturizer. Oily skin can use it morning and night; combination skin may prefer it at night only, after an oil cleanse on sunscreen or makeup days; dry skin should treat it as an occasional pore wash. If you use a leave-on salicylic or glycolic product, put that on the opposite end of the day.
Twenty dollars for 150 mL — roughly thirteen cents a millilitre — puts this at the middle of the Korean foam market and below most Western salicylic acid cleansers of similar size, and a pea-sized dose twice a day gives about two months from a tube. For an amino-acid surfactant base with a declared half-percent salicylic acid and soft silica, that is fair money; the cleansing performance justifies it without help from the ten hyaluronic acids and five ceramides, which add label appeal and nothing else. Goodal's fifteen years and the Heartleaf line's standing at Olive Young support a small premium over anonymous imports. The value collapses only for reactive skin, where the essential-oil blend may leave the tube unusable — the buyer the 'soothing' name is most likely to attract.
Oily and combination skin with clogged pores and blackheads that wants a mild-surfactant foam with a real, declared salicylic acid dose, and can tolerate — or enjoys — an herbal essential-oil scent. It suits people building a Korean double-cleanse routine who already have a leave-on acid the foam can complement.
Rosacea, eczema, perioral dermatitis and fragrance-allergic skin should choose a fragrance-free foam instead; the soothing name does not offset nine essential oils plus an acid. Dry skin will find it too active for twice-daily use, and anyone buying for the hyaluronic or ceramide claims should redirect that money to a leave-on product.
Ready to try Goodal Heartleaf Hyaluron Soothing Pore Cleansing Foam?
Buy at Amazon ♥A thick white cream that whips into a dense, slightly grainy lather with a little water — the hydrated silica gives it an almost imperceptible fine grit — and rinses away cleanly.
A pronounced green-herbal fragrance from the essential oils: rosemary and clary sage up front, clove and patchouli beneath, fading once rinsed.
A soft 150 mL mint-green squeeze tube with a white flip cap, sold in a matching carton; the tube stands on its cap and dispenses a clean bead.
The first wash feels thorough — matte, fresh, and a touch tighter than a plain cream cleanser until moisturizer goes on. A mild tingle around the nostrils from the salicylic acid and essential oils is common in the first week; persistent redness on the cheeks is the sign to retreat to once-daily use or stop.
About two months at a pea-sized amount twice daily; nearer three if used only at night after an oil cleanse.
All Year
Goodal added a pair of pore-care cleansers to its Heartleaf line in mid-2024 — this foam and a matching cleansing oil — to give the range a full double-cleanse without borrowing from the brand's older Green Tangerine cleansers. The salicylic acid at half a percent was the differentiator, pitched at the blackhead-prone Olive Young shopper who wanted something stronger than the line's gentle toner.
Founded in 2010 under Clio Cosmetics, Goodal has grown its Heartleaf line into one of Olive Young's steadier sensitive-skin ranges since 2024. The brand discloses declared doses on some actives — here 5,000 ppm salicylic acid — but publishes no independent clinical data on its cleansers.
The ten hyaluronic acids and five ceramides make this a hydrating, barrier-repairing cleanser.
Goodal's own disclosure lists most of the hyaluronates at fractions of a part per million, and the ceramides sit in the back third of a rinse-off. The foam feels comfortable because glycerin is the first ingredient and the surfactants are mild — not because of anything those trace additions do.
Salicylic acid in a cleanser works like a salicylic acid serum.
Half a percent for the sixty seconds a lather is on the face gives a mild, cumulative pore-loosening effect. Leave-on products at one to two percent stay on the skin for hours and do the real work on blackheads; the foam supports them, it does not replace them.
Goodal declares 5,000 ppm, which is 0.5 percent, and lists it last on the label. That is a useful level for a cleanser — enough to loosen the top of blackheads over weeks of use — but a fraction of what a leave-on exfoliant delivers.
Despite the 'soothing' name, it contains nine essential oils — clove, geranium, rosemary, clary sage and others — plus salicylic acid, and the heartleaf extract is disclosed at only 10 ppm. Reactive, rosacea-prone or eczema-prone skin should patch test and may be better served by a fragrance-free foam.
Less than most pore cleansers: the surfactants are amino-acid types and glycerin is the first ingredient, so it rinses without squeak. Oily and combination skin will find it comfortable twice a day; dry skin may prefer it only at night.
Yes, but stagger them: use the foam in the morning and the leave-on acid at night, or alternate evenings. Stacking a 0.5 percent cleanser directly under a 2 percent serum adds tingle without adding results.
Only on days you wear sunscreen or makeup. The foam alone handles a bare-skin morning or a light day; the oil first, then the foam, is the full double cleanse the line is designed around.
No. There is no synthetic perfume, but fir, rosemary, clary sage, geranium, clove, patchouli, juniper and two chamomile oils are listed and give it a strong herbal scent, along with recognised fragrance allergens such as eugenol and geraniol.
Recurring themes our editors read across retailer reviews of this product — summaries in our words, not quotations, and not a substitute for your own patch test.
Dense, creamy lather that rinses without squeak or tightness
Keeps the T-zone matte through the morning
Nose feels smoother after a couple of weeks
Herbal scent is strong for a soothing cleanser
Can sting around the nostrils and eyes
Too much for dry or reactive skin twice a day