Dr. Althea and Principia are two thoughtful skincare brands known for precise formulas and gentle cleansers. The first brand is widely beloved for soothing moisturizers, effective makeup removers, and nourishing serums driven by calming ingredients like amino acids, 345 relief complexes, and vitamin C. Meanwhile, the second brand offers precise cleansers such as the Gel de Limpeza GL-01. Dr. Althea suits dry and acne-prone skin best, while Principia suits balanced to oily skin, differing primarily in their ideal skin types and targeted solutions.
Dr. Althea is a Korean skincare brand founded in 2014 and owned by The Pure Lab Co., Ltd..
This page compares some of the most popular Dr. Althea and Principia products; for every product of both brands, with a fit score for your own skin, use the Lovi app.
Dr. Althea is better for most skin types, featuring products on this page like the 345 Relief Cream which achieves a Superior Lovi fit for acne-prone skin, whereas Principia offers a more limited selection with lower fit levels.
What is the difference between Dr. Althea and Principia?
Dr. Althea offers a wide range of fragrance-free cleansers, moisturizers, and treatments with Superior to High Lovi fit levels for many skin types, whereas Principia currently features only a single cleanser on this page with Average to Caution fit levels. Both brands exclude added fragrance from their products.
Dr. Althea or Principia: which cleanser is better?
Dr. Althea is better because its cleansers have superior Lovi fit levels for acne-prone, oily, combination, and dry skin, whereas Principia's cleanser only reaches average or lower ratings across those skin types. Reviewers also mention that Dr. Althea features gentle and soothing cleansers.
Which is more affordable, Dr. Althea or Principia?
This page does not provide pricing information for either Dr. Althea or Principia.
Which causes fewer breakouts, Dr. Althea or Principia?
Dr. Althea is a better choice for avoiding breakouts, as the products on this page achieve a Superior fit for acne-prone skin, whereas Principia's cleanser has a Low fit for that skin type. However, reviewers sometimes note that Dr. Althea products can cause breakouts.
Between Dr. Althea and Principia, which brand offers fragrance-free products?
Both Dr. Althea and Principia offer fragrance-free products, as every product on this page for both brands lists no fragrance in its ingredients.
How do the founding years and countries of origin compare between Dr. Althea and Principia?
Dr. Althea was founded in 2014 in South Korea, while Principia was founded later in 2020 with its country of origin not provided.
Which brand has a wider variety of products listed on the page for oily skin?
Dr. Althea has a wider variety of products listed on the page for oily skin, including cleansers, moisturizers, and serums with Superior and High Lovi fit levels, whereas Principia lists only a single cleanser with an Average fit.
Sodium laureth sulfate · International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 2026
Behind this comparison
Lovi compares products by their fit scores, calculated from the full ingredient list with brand-independent rules our dermatologists and cosmetic chemists build and review, and personalizes every pick with AI trained on the real results of millions of users. Lovi trains its fit score models on a proprietary dataset built from more than 10,000 expert-labeled products and more than 100,000 simulated examples, following an internally consistent methodology presented at Cosmoprof, AMWC, and Skin of Color Update.
