Super Matcha Pore Clean Cleansing Gel

The phrase ‘matcha cleanser’ tends to sound more like a wellness Instagram caption than a serious skincare category. Green powder, aesthetic packaging, vague promises about antioxidants. It’s easy to dismiss, which is what makes Some By Mi’s Super Matcha Pore Clean Cleansing Gel quietly interesting — because when you actually read the INCI, the matcha here is doing real work, and the supporting formulation around it is more considered than the marketing suggests.

Camellia sinensis leaf extract shows up twice: once as a water-soluble extract and once as finely milled leaf powder. The extract contributes the soluble catechins and EGCG that have a real body of research behind them for antioxidant and sebum-regulating activity. The powder acts as a mild physical component — not a gritty scrub, but enough fine particulate to help polish sebum out of pore openings during the contact time of cleansing. Put bluntly, you can see the green specks in the gel, and after a minute of massaging they’re doing something your average foaming cleanser isn’t.

The second headline ingredient is willow bark extract. Willow contains salicin, a natural precursor to salicylic acid, and while it’s nowhere near as potent as a true BHA treatment product, its inclusion here adds a gentle anti-congestion edge that fits the matcha theme. You won’t get the kind of chemical exfoliation a dedicated BHA toner delivers, but as a cleanser add-on, it tips the product toward clearer pores over time.

What keeps this from being a drying, acne-angled disaster is the surfactant base. Sodium lauroyl methyl isethionate and cocamidopropyl betaine do the lifting, supported by lauryl glucoside — a combination that’s among the milder foaming systems in K-beauty. The pH sits around 5.5, comfortably inside the range your skin actually wants, so you get real cleansing without the post-wash tightness that plagued drugstore gel cleansers for decades. A small dose of centella asiatica and panthenol provides a soothing buffer during the short contact window.

On the skin, it feels like a serious gel cleanser. The deep green color and herbal aroma give it a spa-shelf presence, and it foams into a soft, light lather you wouldn’t expect from its consistency. The fragrance is the one thing worth flagging — it’s added, it’s noticeable, and anyone sensitive to scented cleansers should know that upfront. It’s an herbal, clean fragrance rather than floral or sweet, but it is fragrance.

Where this product shines is on oily and combination skin that feels congested by the end of the day. It clears excess sebum without the tightness of clay-heavy cleansers, and over two or three weeks of consistent use, the pore-surface improvements are visible rather than imagined. It also pairs unusually well with whatever you put on after — retinol, vitamin C, BHA toner — because it doesn’t leave behind a residue or disrupt your skin’s pH.

It’s not the right cleanser for everyone. Dry skin types are going to find it under-hydrating relative to a creamy or milky wash, and anyone with a truly reactive barrier should weigh the fragrance and the matcha particles carefully. But for the oily, combination, and congestion-prone crowd — which is a meaningful share of K-beauty’s actual audience — it earns its spot in the routine at a price that undercuts most of its Western equivalents. Some By Mi remains an emerging brand without the deep clinical roots of the derm-pharmacy category, but as a formulation choice, this gel holds up to scrutiny.