LANEIGE Cream Skin Cerapeptide™ Refiner

What is this product?

Laneige's Cream Skin Cerapeptide Refiner is the one to reach for when dry skin needs its toner to do a moisturiser's job, and the reason is on the label rather than in the name: meadowfoam seed oil is fourth of 26 ingredients and squalane seventh, in a milky 170ml emulsion with no fragrance, no essential oil, no alcohol and no exfoliating acid. Do not buy it for the CeraPeptide, though, because the ceramide and the peptide the name is built on are printed 23rd and 26th of 26, and the page's claim of two peptides is contradicted by a label carrying exactly one. It also refills from a pouch instead of being rebought whole, which is rare at this step.

What makes it different?

Real lipids high on the list are what separate it from ordinary hydrating toners: an oil at fourth and squalane at seventh of 26, held together by three emulsifiers, which is why it behaves like a thin lotion instead of a splash. Weigh the efficacy numbers against how they were produced, because Laneige publishes that too: four single-arm panels of 30 to 36 women with no untreated comparison group, and the two biggest results, an eight-fold jump in skin moisture and 47.64 percent less flaking, were both measured immediately after applying the product, when a lipid film on the surface is what the instrument reads. The gentleness is the better-founded half: 12-FREE with dermatological, hypoallergenic and sensitive-skin panels completed, and a 40.76 percent redness-recovery figure from an infrared-challenge study on 36 women.

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
• Isopentyldiol
• 1,2-Hexanediol
• Squalane
• Polyglyceryl-10 Stearate
• Glyceryl Stearate Citrate
• Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate
• Inulin Lauryl Carbamate
• Glyceryl Caprylate
• Ethylhexylglycerin
• Propanediol
• Disodium EDTA
• Carbomer
• Mannitol
• Acrylates/Stearyl Methacrylate Copolymer
• Tremella Fuciformis Sporocarp Extract
• Hyaluronic Acid
• Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract
• Xanthan Gum
• Ceramide NP
• Camellia Japonica Flower Extract
• Tocopherol
• Acetyl Tetrapeptide-11

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, Polyglyceryl-10 Stearate, Glyceryl Stearate Citrate, Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked 14 lines this product advertises against the ingredient list and public documents. One of them looks likely, though none are proven outright.

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

What else is worth seeing?

Products we read alongside this one.

• LANEIGE Gel Cream SkinAnother product in the same category

Which articles cover it?

Articles on this site that write about this product.

• What does a Korean toner do, and why is it not the toner you remember?The word covers four different products in Korea, one of which is a moisturizer. Four labels read end to end, including a toner with oil fourth on the list.