Why Etude House?
I wrote recently about how a stripped back formula without a lot of extracts can be a real saviour for sensitive skin in my Pyunkang Yul toner article.
I am a super fan of all the wonderful K-Beauty extracts and ingredients but when my skin is breaking out and especially sensitive, it needs intensive moisturising: creams that have a lot of emollients which to soften and support my skin.
There’s lots of Korean skincare with extracts that will help with breakouts, such as propolis, and sensitivity, such as centella. I’ll look for a high concentration in my toner and serum, particularly ones that have an otherwise short ingredient list.
Complex products with long ingredient lists can bother my skin whilst it’s healing – particularly if it’s a multi-level breakout that features pimples, closed comedones and texture.
For creams, Etude House has exactly what I’m looking for: classic moisturising ingredients that help my skin recover.
Etude House Moistfull Collagen Emulsion
Texture
This is my first ever emulsion and I adore the stretchy texture! It’s runnier than a lotion but also more gloopy – I’m such a fan of these gloopy, stretchy lighter products like Cosrx Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence and Mixsoon bean essence.
I think of this emulsion as a very thick essence that moisturises, rather than a light cream, because it reminds me of those thicker essences I mentioned. As my skin benefits from multiple light layers, it definitely fits my needs.
Ingredients
Collagen is one of the key ingredients in this emulsion, I wrote about it in my Mary & May Rose Collagen mist serum article. It’s great because its hydrating and smoothing.
For the Etude House emulsion, hydration and skin smoothing are the immediate effects I notice. I’m ok with waiting for other benefits, like well-aging, that will take longer to show up as it does a great job right now!
It has a nicely balanced combination of hydrating ingredients, like glycerin, and moisturising emollient ingredients, like propanediol, and of course the collagen, which does both! I’m going to talk more about emollients when I review the Etude House Soon Jung Hydro Barrier cream below.
All of these ingredients together make it ideal for me as a great first moisturiser that will prep my skin for my second, thicker cream.
Experience
It’s very easy to smooth this on my skin and it feels immediately softening – an emulsion was definitely a product category my skin didn’t know it wanted!
I tend to apply my hydrating steps pretty quickly so moisture doesn’t evaporate from my skin. But I find I can’t put cream onto skin that is too damp: the emulsion is a great in-between because it can be applied to very moist skin without dissolving and it forms a creamy layer that stops my skin drying out.
Whilst thicker creams will lock in hydration, I like my first moisturiser to supplement my other hydrating steps and begin the process of locking in moisture immediately.
This emulsion is very spreadable, which is one of my favourite things because it means it’s easy to use and emphasises it’s soothing effects. I tend to find moisturising products that don’t spread well won’t feel as soothing.
Whilst I prefer tube packaging generally, I can see why a tube wouldn’t work for this product – it’s too runny! But I’ll forgive it for not being in a tube because it’s an excellent first moisturiser step and it’s an enormous 180ml. The size means I can use it very generously without it running out too quickly and because it’s thinner than a traditional cream, using a generous amount is unlikely to be clogging for me.
Etude House Soon Jung Hydro Barrier Cream
Texture
This is a lotiony moisturiser – it’s viscous for sure but still very lightweight. It glides over the skin like a gel cream, and it even has that glossy gel cream appearance – and it gets extra points for being like a gel cream but in a tube. I will begrudgingly accept jar packaging but it means I’m always having to make sure I’ve got a clean spatula (which I don’t always have to hand).
It feels weightless and that means it soothes like a gel cream yet packs more moisturising power!
Ingredients
It’s packed full of emollients! I didn’t realise how important this was until I tried something that didn’t have any classic emollients recently.
Emollients soften skin and they’re one of the things that make a moisturiser capable of nourishing your skin:
Like the emulsion, it has a good balance of hydrating and moisturising ingredients. It feels soothing to apply, like the emulsion, and it also has ingredients that support longer lasting soothing effects. For soothing, the cream has panthenol towards the top of the ingredient list and features madecassoside (one of the key things that makes centella asiatica great for irritated skin).
Experience
Although this cream is light, it does a good job of moisturising my skin – it’s nourishing and feels like a proper moisturiser, despite its super light texture.
It’s a classic second moisturiser for me and it’s especially good after using the emulsion. Admittedly, because my neck skin is so very dry, I need a third cream that is occlusive, too. But if you have oily skin, this could be a good one-and-done because it’s not heavy, despite being an effective cream.
Although I keep trying creams with oil, which makes sense for my dry neck, I just don’t love oily creams. You might have seen me say it in other reviews, but I like to get my oil in well-formulated serum or essence, especially in products from Isntree, Dr Ceuracle and Mary & May.
I find both of the Etude House moisturisers I’m reviewing here are very effective at locking in the oil from my more watery oily products. I’ll use an extra occlusive at night like this or this, and of course a good sunscreen in the day like this or this.
Final Word
I’m a little annoyed I didn’t try these sooner! My skin feels very soft, perfectly moisturised and happy when I use these.