HANYUL Ssukhyal Cream

What is this product?

Hanyul prints exact amounts for three of this cream's 28 ingredients, which is rare disclosure and also quietly self defeating. Mugwort leaf water is declared at 10,554 ppm, about 1.06 percent, sitting sixth in the list, while the hyaluronic side of the name comes in at 100 ppm and 1.5 ppm, together around a hundredth of a percent. So the mugwort half of the name is real and the hyaluronic half is a flourish, the plumpness people feel comes from butylene glycol, glycerin and betaine near the top, and one thing will rule it out for some people: it is fragranced.

What makes it different?

The oil control this cream advertises is physical, not biological: silica dimethyl silylate at 11 and silicones at 4 and 8 absorb and blur shine, while nothing among the 28 ingredients acts on sebum production. It is also strikingly lipid free for a cream, with no plant oil, no triglyceride and no fatty alcohol anywhere in the list, which is why nothing in it feeds malassezia and nothing carries a mid band comedogenicity rating. Three free amino acids, arginine, aspartic acid and glutamic acid, run together at 19 to 21, with fermented lactobacillus, inositol and hydrolyzed gardenia behind them. It comes in 60ml.

What is in it?

The full ingredient list as the brand publishes it, in the printed order. Each name links to what we know about that ingredient.

This brand publishes its ingredient list in Korean only. Names below are the matching INCI names from the Korean Cosmetic Association ingredient dictionary.

Key ingredientWorth a closer look

• Water
• Butylene Glycol
• Glycerin
• Methyl Trimethicone
• 1,2-Hexanediol
• Artemisia Argyi Leaf Water
• Betaine
• PCA Dimethicone
• Isopentyldiol
• Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/VP Copolymer
• Silica Dimethyl Silylate
• Tromethamine
• Carbomer
• Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer
• Glyceryl Caprylate
• Ethylhexylglycerin
• Fragrance
• Sodium Metaphosphate
• Arginine
• Aspartic Acid
• Glutamic Acid
• Hyaluronic Acid
• Inositol
• Lactobacillus Ferment
• Maltodextrin
• Hydrolyzed Gardenia Florida Extract
• Propylene Glycol
• Sodium Hyaluronate

Ingredients with no mark are ones we found nothing notable about, and when marks overlap on one ingredient we show the caution first.

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked 2 lines this product advertises against the ingredient list and public documents. None of them hold up on their own. They are partly right at best.

Claims translated from Korean, originals preserved.

Each line is quoted as the brand published it, and each one was read on its own against the ingredient list and the documents the brand publishes.

How we read these lines