Sulwhasoo is a luxury Korean skincare brand that's recently become popular worldwide. The brand claims to sell "Targeted Solutions For All Skin Concerns."

But does Sulwhasoo use research-backed ingredients for reducing wrinkles and improving skin? Does the brand use any unhealthy ingredients? Why do we take issue with some of the brand's research claims? And is Sulwhasoo better or worse than popular anti-aging brands like Depology?

In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Sulwhasoo's most popular product (First Care Activating Serum) to give our take on whether or not it's likely to be effective, and whether or not it's healthy.

We'll also share our concerns with some of the company's research claims, and compare Sulwhasoo to other luxury skincare brands like Depology to pick our winners (and losers).

Key takeaways:

• Highly potent formulation
• Contains fragrance ingredients we consider unhealthy
• We do not currently recommend Sulwhasoo

Ingredient Analysis

The ingredients in Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum VI are shown below:

image source: https://us.sulwhasoo.com/

Panax ginseng root extract is the key active ingredient, and this root was shown to have anti-aging and skin whitening effects in a 2022 medical review.

While ginseng is the ingredient that the brand centers much of its marketing on, there are other active ingredients in this formulation with research backing.

Nelumbo nucifera flower extract is clinically shown to have anti-aging effects, as we documented in our Rare Beauty Blush reviews article.

Madecassoside is another ingredient with skin whitening effects, having been shown in a medical review published in the Molecules journal to inhibit melanin synthesis.

Ascorbic acid, better known as vitamin C, is clinically shown to significantly reduce wrinkles when applied topically.

While this formulation is impressive in regard to potential anti-aging effects, it also contains several ingredients that we consider to be questionable from a health perspective.

Fragrance is included, and a medical review on fragranced consumer products published in the Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health journal concluded the following:

“Results of this study provide compelling evidence that everyday fragranced products can impose serious risks to human health, environmental quality, businesses, and society.”

Linalool, citronellol, citral and geraniol are additional fragrance compounds.

Overall, we consider Sulwhasoo likely to be effective for anti-aging, but we do not currently recommend this product due to the fragrance ingredients described above.

Questionable Research Citations

The First Care Activating Serum product page has a number of research call-outs, such as the suggestion that the product increases skin hydration by 14.5%.

However, the fine print for this claim has the below citation:

image source: https://us.sulwhasoo.com/

There is no link to the study, and we can't find any clinical trials on any Sulwhasoo products in peer-reviewed journals, so we'll assume this is a privately-funded and unpublished clinical study.

As we've stated in many other Illuminate Health articles, we recommend that consumers entirely disregard clinical claims based on research not published in peer-reviewed journals, due to the high risk of bias.

Sulwhasoo vs. Popular Anti-Aging Brands

Here's how Sulwhasoo compares to other popular anti-aging brands in terms of formulation quality, in our opinion:

Depology

Matrixyl 3000 (the brand's best-seller) has a similarly potent formulation but no unhealthy additives, as we documented in our Depology reviews article.

Winner: Depology

VouPre

Like Sulwhasoo, contains many research-backed active ingredients, and some inactive ingredients we consider unhealthy. Significantly more expensive (with some products pushing $1,000).

Winner: Sulwhasoo

DRMTLGY

Needle-Less Serum should be similarly effective to First Care Activating Serum. Contains some inactive ingredients we consider unhealthy (two preservatives in combination), but we consider these ingredients to be better than the fragrance additives in Sulwhasoo.

Winner: DRMTLGY

Our Clean Skincare Pick

MindBodyGreen Best Skin+ is our top anti-aging skin supplement.

It contains orange extract which is clinically shown to increase skin moisturization, skin elasticity and skin radiance.

This supplement also contains astaxanthin which is clinically shown to cause "wrinkle formation reduction."

This supplement is free of ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.

Sulwhasoo Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Contains Panax ginseng, which is rare and effective
• Contains many research-backed active ingredients
• Should have an anti-aging effect on skin
  
• May have skin-brightening effects

Cons:

• Contains fragrance ingredients
• Brand makes clinical claims based on studies not published in peer-reviewed journals
• Less healthy than some competitors

Conclusion

We consider Sulwhasoo to be an above-average cosmetic brand from a potential efficacy perspective.

The use of ginseng and other active ingredients like vitamin C should improve skin quality and potentially reduce wrinkles.

We do not currently recommend this brand's best-selling product due to the use of multiple fragrance ingredients, which we consider to be unhealthy (particularly when used in combination).

The brand's website makes clinical claims based on what appears to be a company-funded clinical trial which isn't published in any peer-reviewed journals.

We consider this type of "research" to be useless to consumers due to potential bias, as we have explained in many Illuminate Health reviews.

We consider Sulwhasoo to be superior to VouPre, but inferior to Depology and DRMTLGY, from a formulation perspective.