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The Ordinary

Sulfur 10% Powder to Cream Concentrate.

The Ordinary Sulfur 10% Powder to Cream Concentrate
Powder & Setting

About this product

A powder-to-cream concentrate containing 10% sulfur, designed to treat breakouts, reduce redness, and address congestion and sensitivity.

Full ingredients

Guru Score

78%

Yay

4 experts · Moderate agreement
4Gurus
2Yay
2Mixed
0Nay

What they liked

  • No sulfur rotten egg smell
  • Works under makeup and sunscreen
  • Powder turns to cream without pilling

What they flagged

  • Less effective than hydrocolloid patches for some

What the gurus are saying

This sulfur concentrate cuts blemish healing time roughly in half overnight and visibly reduces blackheads, all without the rotten egg smell traditional sulfur products carry because it uses colloidal sulfur instead. Gurus praise it for calming rosacea-prone redness and stopping new blemishes from forming, and note the powder texture works into a cream once rubbed on, so it layers smoothly under makeup and other skincare. Best suited to breakout-prone, sensitive, or rosacea-prone skin; apply after cleansing as a first step or spot-treat before bed for fastest results.
Synthesized from 4 expert reviews · most recent take June 2026

What the gurus are saying.

Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.

All takes Yay takes Nay takes Mixed takes Hide sponsored
Yay
"When this launched last year she had no interest in trying it because it's sulfur, which usually smells like rotten eggs, but [...] The Ordinary formulated it to eliminate that smell, and it doesn't smell like anything. It's exceptional for breakouts, helping heal the blemish and reduce redness and inflammation, and is also great to apply when [...] a blemish is just forming [...] to stop it becoming a whitehead. It's a powder that [...] turns into a cream once you rub it between your fingers, and [...] it never interferes with or pills against other skincare products used before or after it. It can also be used on general redness or rosiness, not just blemishes, and does a good job reducing that. She didn't think she'd need it, but now that she's used it she can't eliminate it from her routine, keeping it on hand for whenever she needs it, since it always heals up her blemishes quickly."
All 3 takes from Sincerely Miss Ash
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"This is the Sulfur 10% Powder to Cream Concentrate. It is really really good. Very unique and again there is no sulfur rotten egg smell with this. You want to use this prior to your moisturizer or prior to let's say retinol or before sunscreen because again it's powder that turns into a cream and you want that laid down first before a thicker occlusive product on top like a moisturizer or something. Great if you just have some rosiness to your skin as well."
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"You can use this morning and evening without having to worry about smelling that or having people smell that on you. It's also a product that can help to reduce the look of redness. So if you do have rosiness of the skin, then you can apply this to those areas. But it really does help to speed up the healing process of that breakout. It dries it up, but it also helps to reduce on that inflammation and the redness of that blemish as well. I actually really like this. I really do. I can't believe that I didn't try this a lot sooner than I did. And I'm going to rate this a 9 out of 10 because it really does work to heal up that breakout. And even before that breakout becomes a white head and you can feel it starting, I will start to use this in that area and it pretty much stops the process. It works pretty quickly."
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"When this launched last year she had no interest in trying it because it's sulfur, which usually smells like rotten eggs, but [...] The Ordinary formulated it to eliminate that smell, and it doesn't smell like anything. It's exceptional for breakouts, helping heal the blemish and reduce redness and inflammation, and is also great to apply when [...] a blemish is just forming [...] to stop it becoming a whitehead. It's a powder that [...] turns into a cream once you rub it between your fingers, and [...] it never interferes with or pills against other skincare products used before or after it. It can also be used on general redness or rosiness, not just blemishes, and does a good job reducing that. She didn't think she'd need it, but now that she's used it she can't eliminate it from her routine, keeping it on hand for whenever she needs it, since it always heals up her blemishes quickly."
Yay
"This isn't a universal product. I would say you need this if you have breakout-prone skin, rosacea or very sensitive redness prone skin. This actually goes on as a powder but works into a beautiful cream. And you can either use it on areas where you have redness and sensitivity. It works so so well to just calm and soothe. Sulfur is the best ingredient for doing that. Or you can use it on areas where you have a breakout. So if you get that offending pimple, pop some of it on and it'll just reduce the heal time by roughly half. Sulfur is fantastic as an anti-inflammatory, anti-redness agent, but normally it stinks. Sulfur, it smells like rotten eggs. Nobody needs that in their life. This one doesn't because they use colloidal sulfur. Not only is that better in terms of its anti-inflammatory, but it doesn't smell. So, if you want sulfur without the rotten eggs, this is it and I absolutely absolutely love it."
Top Pick: spot treatment
All 7 takes from Mad About Skin
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"The Ordinary sulfur paste actually is a real game changer. It doesn't strip and dry. It does actually reduce inflammation."
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"Is this The Ordinary Sulfur 10%. I use this for where I have spots. I've got a couple of active breakouts. I'll dab a little of this on in the mirror so I can be a bit more targeted. If you've got breakouts, get this. It's so so good. But just be precise. Dab a little on where you have those breakouts."
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING - The Ordinary Sulfur 10% Powder-to-Cream Concentrate
"If you put this on before you go to bed, put it on that offending pimple before you go to bed, when you wake up, it'll roughly be half the size that it was before you went to sleep. That is an amazing turnaround and far better than you're going to get from any pimple patches or any other drying lotions which just irritate and dry out the skin. This genuinely is one of the best products I've used for treating individual blemishes and acne breakouts. And they say that this has roughly the equivalent of 150 pimple patch applications in it. So definitely value for money because it costs £10 here in the UK. So often cheaper than most pimple patches, works better, and you get a lot more for your money in terms of application. You can use this on areas where you have blackheads or congestion because sulfur is great at just drawing out all that skin congestion. I've been using this on my nose where I get a lot of blackheads and I've seen probably a 50% reduction in those blackheads over a two week period. That's phenomenal. Again, better than any pore strips, better than any other salicylic acids that I've ever applied. Because this is a powder to cream option, it just makes it super easy. Dust a little on, work it until you get that cream consistency, and then you're done. You can put makeup on the top of it if you want. You can use other skincare products alongside it."
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"The Ordinary Sulfur 10% Powder to Cream Concentrate is the most effective spot treatment I have ever tried. If you have very reactive rosacea prone skin, put a little on where you get super red and it'll calm that down. Sulfur is a holy grail ingredient in skincare and it's nice to actually have a product with it. Normally sulfur stinks with a very rotten egg scent to it, but because they use colloidal sulfur rather than elemental sulfur in this, it doesn't have that rotten egg scent. So if you're somebody that likes the idea of sulfur but doesn't want the scent that goes with it, try this out."
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"This isn't a universal product. I would say you need this if you have breakout-prone skin, rosacea or very sensitive redness prone skin. This actually goes on as a powder but works into a beautiful cream. And you can either use it on areas where you have redness and sensitivity. It works so so well to just calm and soothe. Sulfur is the best ingredient for doing that. Or you can use it on areas where you have a breakout. So if you get that offending pimple, pop some of it on and it'll just reduce the heal time by roughly half. Sulfur is fantastic as an anti-inflammatory, anti-redness agent, but normally it stinks. Sulfur, it smells like rotten eggs. Nobody needs that in their life. This one doesn't because they use colloidal sulfur. Not only is that better in terms of its anti-inflammatory, but it doesn't smell. So, if you want sulfur without the rotten eggs, this is it and I absolutely absolutely love it."
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"Sulfur is amazing, but previously people were reluctant to use it because it stank. The Ordinary have fixed that problem. It is amazing. It's super inexpensive. I love the fact that it goes on as a powder and turns into a cream. That's really innovative. Nice to see this. 10 out of 10. This is an example of The Ordinary doing it right, doing going back to basics, doing what they did well previously. Innovation, addressing issues, and delivering affordable quality skincare."
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"Love this. If you have very blemish prone skin, this will be your best friend. If you have that pimple, you know, when you can feel the pimple emerging, you see, you feel it forming under the skin, pop a little of this on and it will disappear like that. It doesn't really ever come to anything, which is amazing. I like to use it before I go to bed so that way I can wake up in the morning and know that that pimple won't be the bane of my life for the rest of the day. But you can use it during the day if you want to just take the redness out of any emerging zit. Or even if you have an active breakout, you can put this on top to just reduce redness and inflammation in the area. Some people also use sulfur in a targeted way for rosacea. This would be a great option. If you have rosacea, very red cheeks, for example, you could put a little of this across it and it will just take down that redness. It'll help reduce any inflammation. It's one of those multi-purpose products that is really inexpensive anyway."
Mixed
"This is The Ordinary Sulfur 10% Powder to Cream Concentrate. I'm a big fan of sulfur, but I have to be honest, initially I didn't like this. Sulfur is a gentler approach for acne, but it's smelly, and I felt like a hydrocolloid patch or the Kate Somerville Eradicate was more effective for pimples than this at night, so I set it aside. But revisiting it, I realized this is actually amazing to use during the day as an alternative to hydrocolloid patches, since none of those are perfectly invisible. It does work under sunscreen too. That's 100% where this fits in for me."
Mixed
"The Ordinary released a 10% sulfur powder to cream concentrate spot treatment for $9.90. Sulfur is known to help with breakouts and things like that. After cleansing you just put a little bit on. They recommend with a finger, but I would probably recommend putting it with a Q-tip, since more bacteria in an area where there's breakouts is not the best idea. It contains a really high percentage of sulfur, 10%. So I'd probably recommend only using this once a day and probably at night, and being very cautious with it. Sulfur can help heal acne by lessening oil production, killing bacteria and sloughing off dead skin buildup. 10% does sound high, but I'm sure they've done research on it and it probably works well. And it's not very expensive."

What the evidence says.

Independent of what the gurus think, this is what the published research supports about the main active ingredients here.

Niacinamide

Niacinamide has evidence behind it for redness, uneven tone and supporting the skin barrier, and it is usually well tolerated even by skin that reacts to most things.

Source: DermNet

Frequently asked.

What is The Ordinary Sulfur 10% Powder to Cream Concentrate?

A powder-to-cream concentrate containing 10% sulfur, designed to treat breakouts, reduce redness, and address congestion and sensitivity.

Is The Ordinary Sulfur 10% Powder to Cream Concentrate worth it?

Mostly yes. 2 of the 4 gurus who reviewed it give it their stamp of approval, for a Guru Score of 78%.

What is The Ordinary Sulfur 10% Powder to Cream Concentrate's Guru Score?

The Ordinary Sulfur 10% Powder to Cream Concentrate holds a Guru Score of 78%. That is our read on how warmly the experts talk about it, based on the verdicts of 4 expert reviewers we have collected. At least one expert has named it a Top Pick in its category.

Who is The Ordinary Sulfur 10% Powder to Cream Concentrate best for?

The Ordinary Sulfur 10% Powder to Cream Concentrate is generally suited to oily skin, sensitive skin and acne-prone skin.

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