primera 3C-Hyaluronic Acid Hydration Surge Serum

What is this product?

The 3C in Primera's 3C-Hyaluronic Acid Hydration Surge Serum is the brand's shorthand for caffeine, ceramide and cica added on top of hyaluronic acid, which is how both the launch article and the mall's own product data define it, and all three are on the label at 11, 27 and 23. It happens also to be true that the hyaluronic family here runs to three materials, at 24, 26 and 29, but that is a coincidence of the formula and not what the name says. Only one of them carries an amount, 100ppm or 0.01 percent, and the bulk water holding comes from butylene glycol second, glycerin third and a sugar alcohol run higher up. The cooling on the listing is a real brand claim rather than a bundle artefact: primera builds it without menthol, the serum's list carries no sensate agent at all, and the brand reports a measured 6.6 degree skin temperature drop for it. Caffeine at 11 backs the puffiness half, where the brand's own four week figures mix instrument reported improvement with self scored satisfaction.

What makes it different?

The distinguishing choice is the pairing the brand names 3C: caffeine at 11, madecassoside at 23 as its cica material and ceramide NP at 27, placed around a hyaluronic set rather than around more hyaluronic acid, and primera prints an amount for one hyaluronic entry where most brands print none. The humectant build is unusual in reaching for sugar alcohols rather than more hyaluronic acid, with xylitol at 9, betaine at 10 and erythritol at 12. Meadowfoam seed oil sits fourth, high placement for a plant oil in a serum, with niacinamide fifth, and madecassoside and ceramide NP near the close. Both alcohols on the list, behenyl at 6 and arachidyl at 18, are fatty alcohols rather than the drying kind. One inconsistency is worth knowing: the 100ppm figure appears on the Olive Young listing but not on Amorepacific's own mall, which prints the same ingredient with no amount.

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 ingredient

• Water
• Butylene Glycol
• Glycerin
• Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil
• Niacinamide
• Behenyl Alcohol
• 1,2-Hexanediol
• Glyceryl Polymethacrylate
• Xylitol
• Betaine
• Caffeine
• Erythritol
• Phytosterols
• Jojoba Esters
• Carbomer
• Lactobacillus/Soybean Extract Ferment Filtrate
• Tromethamine
• Arachidyl Alcohol
• Glyceryl Caprylate
• Ethylhexylglycerin
• Arachidyl Glucoside
• Sodium Metaphosphate
• Madecassoside
• Hyaluronic Acid
• Propylene Glycol
• Sodium Hyaluronate
• Ceramide NP
• Tocopherol
• Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer-6

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

We could not place these in the list above: Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil, Jojoba Esters

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked 3 lines this product advertises against the ingredient list and public documents. One of them holds up. The rest are only partly right or have nothing behind them.

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