Hanyul Pure Artemisia Cleansing Oil vs Aritaum Poyan Cleansing Oil

Double cleansing is a really important step in an evening time Korean skincare routine. Why? Your first step, the oil based cleanser, breaks down your sunscreen and makeup, and the second water-based step washes away residue and grime, leaving you with your blank canvas for the rest of your routine. I don’t think any other method effectively cleanses my face.

Having said that, finding cleansers you love/can afford, can be a little more tricky. Today I’m going to be putting two oil cleansers (first step cleansers) from EOpenMarket to the test: the high end, fancy-nancy Hanyul Artemisia Cleansing Oil, versus the budget Aritaum Poyan Cleansing Oil. Let’s see how they compare!

Both products were provided courtesy EOpenMarket in line with my policies. The links in this post are not affiliate.

EOpenMarket 

First just to let you guys know a little more about the company who provided these products to me for review. They’re an ecommerce site based here in Seoul, offering a lot of the big Korean brands such as Aritaum, Tony Moly, Etude House, Clio, Dr Jart, Iope etc. Their prices are very competitive, and the site is definitely worth checking out!

Product Details & Ingredients

1. Product Name: Hanyul Pure Artemisia Cleansing Oil

Amount: 200ml

Ingredients:

C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Triethylhexanoin, Cetyl Ethylhexanoate, PEG-20 Glyceryl Triisostearate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Isopropyl Palmitate, PEG-8 Isostearate, Isostearic Acid, Artemisia Princeps Leaf Water, Camellia Japonica Seed Oil, Brassica Campestris (Rapeseed) Seed Oil, Angelica Acutiloba Root Extract, Cnidium Officinale Root Extract, Ethylhexylglycerin, Butylene Glycol, Fragrance

2. Product Name: Aritaum Poyan Cleansing Oil

Amount: 150ml

Ingredients:
C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Pentaerythrityl tetraethylhexanoate, Cetyl Ethylhexanoate, Caprylic/CapricTriglycerides, PEG-20 Glyceryl Triisostearate, Triethylhexanoin, PEG-8 ISOSTEARATE, Pentaerythrityl Tetraisostearate, Isopropyl Palmitate, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter, 
Gossypium Herbaceum Extract, Lactobacillus/Soybean Ferment Extract, Monascus/Rice Ferment, Saccharomyces/Barley Seed Ferment Filtrate, Soybean Seed Extract, Isostearic Acid, Butylene Glycol, Water, Fragrance

I’m not going to deeply analyze the ingredients, as we’re washing them more or less straight off. Both are on Cosdna if you’re interested in learning more.

Packaging

The Hanyul packaging is gorgeous. I adore the deep green color, and the bottle looks so elegant in my bathroom. When you actually hold it its not heavy-weight, and feels cheaper in my hand than it looks, but that’s just being plastic rather than glass.

The pump is a pretty pearly white, and efficient. It’s quite tall and therefore dispenses a decent amount with one pump. Overall the packaging is gorgeous for a bathroom staple.

The Aritaum packaging reflects the price- its basic but totally fine. It does have the pretty flower design, with beans and hangul written on the front. It’s nice enough! It has a black pump, that releases the same amount of product as the Hanyul pump.

Scent

Now this is a sliiiight drawback of both products for me- I don’t love the scents, sob.

I honestly expected to fall in love with the Hanyul, and thought that would be a big selling point for me. It’s fine, but it’s not necessarily the hanbangy, herbally scent I expected. It’s very fresh, and quite perfumey. It has grown on me, and I enjoy it much more now than I did initially.

The Aritaum scent is really not a win for my nose…it’s hard to explain, but is super powdery perfumey. Again, I’ve gotten used to it, but Aritaum definitely loses this round. Not a fan.

Texture

Because I’ve been using cleansing balms more frequently, which tend to be a much thicker texture, it took me a minute to get used to runny oils again.

Both oils are similar light weight, with the Aritaum being a SMIDGE thicker in consistency. I only know this because I literally compared them side by side. Personally, I prefer a thicker oil, because I like to work it, and feel luxurious and fancy, but it’s a personal choice, and there’s not a truly noticeable difference between these two light oils.

They both emulsify extremeeely easily. They go milky and then rinse off very quickly, with zero effort.

Makeup Removal

I don’t personally use cleansing oils to remove eye makeup. I have super sensitive eyes, and they get irritated so easily with the majority of oils and balms, so I always use a makeup remover first (the only oil/balm that’s ever worked has been A by Bom Eoseongcho Watery Cleanser). Soo I wasn’t really judging these two oils at all based on eye makeup removal.

I did however want to show some tests on my hands to give you guys an insight into the makeup removal, in case you do want an oil to perform well in that way. I tried to be quite gentle because obviously comparing a hand to your sensitive eye area isn’t really a fair comparison, so keep that in mind. I used my more heavy weight/waterproof makeup to really put these to the test.

Hanyul:

Aritaum:

Both performed fairly similarly on my hand. On my face, all of my base makeup has been coming off easily and thoroughly. I have tried using both to remove eye makeup but it’s been stingy and left my eyes all cloudy for a while, as all oils I’ve tried do. I hate that. So no, neither are for me for that purpose. But otherwise, both are removing sunscreen and base makeup well!

Overall Performance

Both are nice, easy oil removers. They both serve the main purposes I wanted: to remove base makeup and sunscreen, to feel good when I massage in, to emulsify well and rinse off easily with no residue. Like I said the scents are a little off for me, and I do like to enjoy a luxurious scent from my first cleanser, so that was a little disappointing. But scents so personal.

The main difference is honestly the price point- on EOpenMarket Aritaum comes in at $8.63 (on discount from $11.82), and Hanyul at $16.63 (and that’s on discount from the original $27.27…!). Aritaum has less product in so let’s compare price per 100ml for both:

Aritaum is $5.75 per 100ml

Hanyul is $8.31 per 100ml

Personally packaging matters to me, particularly for the products on display in my bathroom. Therefore I’m more drawn to the Hanyul oil, in that gorgeous green bottle. I also prefer the scent.

However for a K-Beauty beginner, who might be testing different oils to find one they like, or someone who’s really watching every penny, I think Aritaum is just as good. The scent isn’t for me, but that’s so individual, and as a starter or basic cleansing oil it works well.

I always seem to have boring conclusions in my comparison posts, as there’s no clear cut winner or loser! But I guess that’s ultimately a good thing?!

Have you guys tried either of these? What are you favourite first step cleansers?