Product: HadaLabo GOKUJYUN Super Hyaluronic Acid Moist Emulsion
Price: USD 16.20 @ Sasa
Review:

You all have already seen my review of the lotion, so here goes my review of the emulsion. In most Asian skincare lines, the lotion is usually equivalent to the toner while the emulsion is equivalent to the moisturizer. I had pretty high hopes for both of the products in the line but sadly to say, this emulsion seemed to disappoint me the most out of the two.

As you can see, this emulsion has a simple list of ingredients and is similar to that of the lotion. Moisturizing ingredients include the glycerin, sodium hyaluronate (hyaluronic acid) and the sodium acetylated hyaluronate (the “super” hyaluronic acid). I went over these ingredients in the past reviews, so I won’t go over them again.

Ingredients: Water, Dipropylene glycol, Glycerin, Alcohol, PPG-10 Methyl Glucose Ether, Xanthan Gum, Methylparaben, Carbomer, Sodium hyaluronate, Disodium EDTA, Triethanolamine, Sodium Acetylated Hyaluronate

The part that jumped out at me the most about this product was the fact that it contains alcohol. Products that contain alcohol can dry out and irritate sensitive and/or acne-prone skin. My skin always felt a little itchy or “weird” when I used this emulsion and now I know why! My skin doesn’t like alcohol very much. I won’t go as far as to say that this emulsion worsened my acne but it surely did not help it like I hoped that it would.

The emulsion comes in a 140 ml bottle with a flip cap. The packaging for this product was actually pretty poorly designed, in my opinion. I’m not sure if you can tell in the picture but the emulsion comes out in a white, thick gel-like consistency. It kind of reminds me of Elmer’s Glue. The product doesn’t easily pour out of the bottle and due to the hard plastic of the bottle, you can’t really “squeeze” the product out easily either. A dime-sized dot of emulsion was enough for me to fully cover my entire face.

As I had mentioned before, this product did seem to irritate my skin a little bit (most likely due to the alcohol). In addition, the emulsion takes a little while to absorb and fully dry. While patting it into my skin, you can definitely feel the sticky consistency – it really felt (and sort of smelled) like I was patting glue in my skin. My skin did feel more plumped up after using this emulsion though, despite the “weird” feeling I had after using it.

I took off two points for the alcohol and the poor packaging of the bottle. I don’t think I’d repurchase this. For a lot of other people (all those who gave it high reviews online), perhaps the alcohol didn’t bother them. I wouldn’t really suggest this for people who are worried about exacerbating their acne though!

Again, I have about half the bottle left and probably am no longer going to us it. I’d be happy to send people samples of it in contact lens cases if they want to give this a try on their own. Just make a comment below to get in touch with me about it!

Initial Rating: 3/5