Anua

Anua is a Korean skincare brand that organizes its range by ingredient rather than by concern. Its own site sorts cleansers, toners, serums, moisturizers, sunscreens, masks and peels under eight named ingredient lines: PDRN, azelaic acid, heartleaf, niacinamide, retinol, rice, peach and ceramide. It calls this ingredient-focused care.

The figures it publishes are worth writing down. The Heartleaf 77 Soothing Toner is named for its headline number: 77% heartleaf, or Houttuynia cordata. The Heartleaf Pore Control Cleansing Oil is presented as a short formula — twenty-two ingredients in the declaration — and Anua's own directions pair it with a water-based cleanser afterwards, the standard Korean double cleanse.

The rest divide by job. Niacinamide and azelaic acid sit in the tone lane; PDRN, paired with hyaluronic acid, sits in the hydration lane.

Three of those are worth unpacking: what a 77% figure on a toner buys you, what a twenty-two-ingredient list gives you, and what an ingredient line named for niacinamide is offering.

Start with the 77%. Most toners are built on plain water; here heartleaf extract stands in for the bulk of it, so the base itself carries the ingredient. That is a real formulating choice, and what it buys is comfort. Heartleaf soothes rather than acting like an acid or a retinoid, so you can judge it within a wear or two. The calming birch-sap toner below is where we'd start.

Twenty-two ingredients is genuinely short for a cleansing oil, and what that buys is easier troubleshooting: fewer candidates to work through if something disagrees with you. The oil cleanser below is that idea done well — light and watery, with LHA and niacinamide doing the pore work.

A line named for niacinamide is the sturdiest of the three: niacinamide is well tolerated, with better evidence behind it than most cosmetic ingredients for the look of uneven tone. The limit is pace — months of consistency, supported by daily sunscreen. The tone-evening serum below runs on niacinamide with a stable vitamin C derivative and licorice root.

PDRN paired with hyaluronic acid is the hydration lane, and the two work together: the humectant base holds water where you put it, with the PDRN carried in it — exactly what dry, tight skin wants. The hydrating pre-serum below delivers that base directly, and goes on first so the rest of the routine has something to sit on.

We don't carry Anua itself. For each of these jobs, though, we send an alternative we rate highly.

For Anua's Heartleaf Pore Control Cleansing Oil: dispense two to three pumps, massage onto a dry face in circular motions, emulsify with water until the makeup melts away, rinse with warm water, then double cleanse with a water-based cleanser. For the Heartleaf 77 Soothing Toner: after cleansing, apply with a cotton pad or your fingertips and gently pat it all over the face, morning and night. The picks above run in routine order: cleansing oil, toner, hydrating pre-serum, tone-evening serum. Sunscreen goes last in the morning.