Product review · Updated 2026-09-30 · Source dates below
La Roche-Posay Effaclar Medicated Cleanser: page, price and dated gel labels
Separate the current cleanser offer, two label versions and the differently described salicylic and LHA entries.
Public-source editorial review. No clinician sign-off, firsthand product testing or personal assessment claimed.
Effaclar Medicated Acne Face Wash appears on a current US manufacturer page as a gel cleanser with a selected 200ML size. Its advertising discusses acne, oil and skin appearance. The posted labels contribute different information: active strength, complete inactive lists and dated identifiers. Reading those records together is useful only if each continues to speak for its own version.
This review follows the current page and two separate label records examined on September 30. It also preserves the conditions attached to the freshly displayed price and subscription offer. The page’s LHA highlight does not supply a second active percentage, and the older label is not automatically the label on a newly supplied container. No purchase or individual package was examined.
In this reading
Start with the selected cleanser
The manufacturer names Effaclar Medicated Acne Face Wash and displays 200ML as the selected size, with other size choices nearby. Its page calls the formula a medicated gel and describes a salicylic-acid face wash. Those details identify the advertised cleanser, rather than the separately named toner or serum elsewhere on the page. Current cleanser page.
A manufacturer display does not establish which label version accompanies a particular sale. For the broader identity question, the version-and-label guide explains why a page title, a dated listing and a physical package are separate records.
The offer has conditions next to its headline
The freshly examined page shows $18.99 for the selected 200ML size. Its subscription headline offers up to 15% off, but the explanation specifies 10% on the first and second orders and 15% on the third. It also describes samples and complimentary ground shipping on orders of $45 or more. These are dated display terms, not a total we obtained through checkout. Displayed offer.
Taxes, delivery, actual renewal and inventory were not tested. The conditions are relevant because an upper discount headline does not describe every order equally. The supply-term guide keeps an advertised charge distinct from an observed transaction.
Salicylic acid and LHA are separate entries
The dated labels declare salicylic acid 2% as the active ingredient. The 2025 inactive list separately names Capryloyl Salicylic Acid. On the manufacturer page, LHA is described as a derivative of salicylic acid with an exfoliating and surface-renewing story. The highlight gives no LHA amount. 2025 ingredient fields. Manufacturer LHA description. The highlighted ingredient may help explain the brand’s formulation story, but its placement in that story is not the same as the label’s active designation. Naming the derivative accurately avoids treating a familiar root word as another measured dose of salicylic acid.
Adding these names into a supposed combined acid percentage would invent information. An active field and an ingredient highlight have different roles. The two-percent guide offers a useful framework for keeping the stated active amount separate from the rest of a formula.
Two label identifiers remain two histories
The retained 2023 record uses NDC 49967-023. The 2025 record uses NDC 49967-402 and identifies SPL version 10 with an effective date of July 8, 2025. September 30 is the date these sources were checked, not the date either label was created. Those identifiers allow a precise account of the documents without assuming which one describes a reader’s container. 2023 label. 2025 label. The later record also lists several package presentations, including 200, 100, 15 and 50 mL. Those are entries in that label’s package table. The fresh manufacturer page’s selected size does not demonstrate that every listed package is currently offered through that page.
A similar version question can be explored in the Clean & Clear review. This is a link to another record-reading problem, not a transfer of its formula or effects.
The complete lists show a particular change
Both label records provide complete inactive declarations. Sodium benzoate appears in the retained 2025 list and is absent from the complete 2023 list. This is a specific documentary difference, rather than a claim that the cleanser has been independently reformulated or that every package changed on a particular date. Earlier base. Later base. Sodium benzoate is a useful example precisely because the comparison is limited and checkable. The observation does not require a claim about a reformulation date, a changed clinical effect or the quality of either preparation. Those would need additional evidence.
A list comparison establishes what the two posted records say. It does not measure ingredient amounts, inspect a batch or settle current fulfillment. The labels should not be blended into one historical-to-current formula assembled by the reviewer.
Sensitive positioning does not remove the caution field
The manufacturer page presents sensitive-skin, fragrance-free and oil-free positioning alongside its gel-result claims. The posted label retains a drying caution. Reporting both does not create a contradiction that we can resolve through personal testing: the positioning is a brand representation, while the caution belongs to the drug-label record. Manufacturer descriptions. Label cautions.
Neither statement guarantees comfort or gives an individual clearance. The Murad cleanser review is another place to examine how a comfort statement remains attached to its own source and qualifications.
Nearby products do not complete this formula
The current page names Effaclar Clarifying Solution Acne Toner and a separate 1.5% salicylic-acid serum beneath the cleanser. Their presence does not add the serum’s percentage to the wash or make the toner part of its ingredient declaration. FDA’s Drug Facts explanation separately defines active amount, purpose, use and inactive fields. Adjacent product cards. FDA label fields.
The remaining version question concerns the exact labeled cleanser, not a routine assembled from neighboring cards. The current offer, two full label lists and manufacturer highlight supply useful information while leaving the actual package and unreturned full clinical reports unverified.
Source records
- La Roche-Posay Effaclar Medicated Acne Face Wash: current US product page ↗Official manufacturer product and commercial record; selected returned context · Accessed 2026-09-30
- L’Oreal Effaclar Medicated Cleanser: December 31, 2023 US label, NDC 49967-023 ↗Official posted US product-label record; exact date, NDC and version scope · Accessed 2026-09-30
- L’Oreal Effaclar Medicated Cleanser: July 8, 2025 US SPL, NDC 49967-402 ↗Official posted US product-label record; exact date, NDC and version scope · Accessed 2026-09-30
- FDA: reading an OTC Drug Facts label ↗Regulator consumer labeling guidance · Accessed 2026-09-30