Review and Comparison of O HUI and IOPE gel creams

Today I'd like to compare two of O HUI gel creams - Hydra Formula Vital gel cream and Miracle Aqua gel cream, and IOPE Essential Moisture Relief cream. I've been working on decluttering  my bathroom's shelves, and there are a few products that I've been using for a while, long enough to form an opinion about them, but stopped using for various reasons. I though it might be a good idea to swatch and briefly review some of them. As always, this post is not sponsored in any way, shape or form; I purchased all products myself and all opinions are my own.

Last summer I was into gel creams, and I ended up accumulated quite a few of them, including a few that hardly ever mentioned on English-speaking blogs. I was looking for a lightweight gel that would not feel heavy on my skin in hot weather, but would be moisturizing enough for the whole day. I wanted to find a product that would absorb quickly and have matte or satin finish, since I don't think radiant, dewy, or "water skin" finishes work for oily skin. Also, some gel creams leave a sticky residue on my skin after drying up,; I can't stand it in summer, so I had to find one that does not leave any residue. And as usual, I was looking for a formulation with clean ingredients without any irritants, because my skin gets even more sensitive in summer. It's quite a list, so I went through a lot of products before I found a few that worked out for me.

IOPE Essential Moisture Relief cream - note the color difference on my skin and in the jar

Let me start with IOPE Essential Moisture Relief cream. While IOPE (one of Amore Pacific brands, along with Sulwhasoo, Innisfree and HERA) is most famous for its cushion foundations, it has a few bestselling skincare lines. I haven't tried that many products from IOPE, so when I saw IOPE Essential Moisture Relief cream on Memebox,  I was interested enough to try it. Since then it appeared on both eBay and YesStyle, so now it's rather easy to find. IOPE website describes it as "moisturizing cream that forms a moisture-locking membrane for long-lasting moisture, soothes skin and improves skin firmness" (here). It does not have word "gel" in it's name, but it is a gel in texture.

IOPE Essential Moisture Relief cream - texture after absorption

It has a fairly decent ingredient list (CosDNA here); it has dimethicones, preservatives, PEGs, cetearyl alcohol, fragrance and questionable solvents that I would rather avoid, but it also has a few plant extracts. Also, it has added pigments, so it looks light blue in the jar, and personally I don't appreciate adding synthetic pigments to skincare products for appearance reasons. It was very moisturizing, but unfortunately I started having breakouts after using it for a a few days in a row; it might be due to any of irritating ingredients, but I blame perfume. It's an intensely fragranced cream, and the perfume is noticeable for at least an hour after application; unfortunately, my skin is very sensitive when it comes to added fragrance. Also, despite its light texture, this cream was not absorbing fast enough for me; it would stay sticky for a long while, interfering with sunscreen application. I ended up giving it to my husband, who has perfectly resilient skin, and the cream worked very well for him; he used up most of it, which for him is a sign that he actually really liked it. I'll have to get rid of it now because it's almost expired; I don't think I'm going to repurchase it, since I will not be able to use it and he has a few other creams that he also seems to like. Overall, it's a nice gel cream that works, but not a good choice for someone with sensitive skin.

O HUI Miracle Aqua gel cream

Let's move on to O HUI, which is in the same price range as IOPE; it's owned by LG Household and Health Care (along with The History of Whoo, Su;M37 and Belif). O HUI Miracle Aqua gel cream is part of Miracle Aqua line, formulated for oily and combination skin; supposedly it's lighter and less dewy than Miracle Moisture, O HUI's bestselling hydrating line. It seems to be rather popular as well, and you can find it on YesStyle, Amazon and eBay. I bought it without checking the ingredients list, since I could not find it in English and I can't read it in Korean; I should make it a rule to avoid buying products that don't have ingredient list available in English... [EDIT: I finally managed to translate the full ingredients list from the official O Hui website and uploaded it on cosdna here. Sure enough, it has quite a lot of questionable ingredients, starting with denatured alcohol in top 3 ingredients, dimethicone in top 10, plus a wide array of fragrances and pigments.] O HUI describes it as "a compactly textured, plentifully moisturizing gel cream. Aurora Hyaluronic acid™ intensively provides moisture to the skin, from the surface to the inside, to keep the skin smooth and tight, so this skin-hydrating cream helps your makeup seamlessly blend into the skin without getting caked". It has very light texture; it's semi-transparent and slightly pearlescent in color, and it does not seem to have any pigments in it.

O HUI Miracle Aqua gel cream has satin-to-natural finish and leaves no residue

Just like IOPE cream, Miracle Aqua gel is heavily perfumed and the smell lingers after application; it's more feminine kind of perfume than IOPE's, which is more unisex type, but it seems that they both break me out. Actually, Miracle Aqua broke me out even faster than IOPE - I had cystic acne next day after I tried it; I stopped using it, waited for a couple weeks and tried again, with the same result. I was very upset about it, because an unscented version of this gel would be perfect for my skin. It absorbed well enough, unlike some hyaluronic acid-based cream, and left no filmy residue on my skin; it had satin-to-natural finish and it was very moisturizing. But this perfume overkill was so horrible, it made me remove the rest of Miracle Aqua line products from all my wish lists, along with Miracle Moisture line, which is probably just as fragranced. It's a very nice and effective gel, but I would not recommend it to anyone with sensitive skin.

O HUI Hydra Formula Vital gel cream

O HUI Hydra Formula Vital gel cream was another impulse buy. It's a bit harder to find than Miracle Aqua, but eBay and Rakuten carry it. It comes with extensive PR claims, but again, without ingredients list in English. On the bright side, it did not seem to have much added perfume, since it was almost scentless, and it did not break me out. However, it was less moisturizing than Miracle Aqua.

O HUI Hydra Formula Vital gel cream PR claims

It comes in three versions - regular, oil-free and deep moisture, and all of them got h-ESCP (recombinant Human Epidermal Stem Cell Protein) and ESC-SM as main active ingredient. While it's not immediately obvious how h-ESCP affects hydration and moisture control in skin tissue, there are some publications that suggest that h-ESCP might be involved in hyper-pigmentation in epidermis (here) and melanocyte homeostasis (here), and  might accelerate wound healing (here and here).

O HUI Hydra Formula Vital gel cream stays slightly sticky after application

It felt like it did not absorb fully after application, just like IOPE cream, and it stayed almost as sticky; it had satin finish, as you can see in the picture above. It was somewhat moisturizing, but not enough to last the whole day, and it had to be supplemented by other moisturizers. I can't say I noticed any changes in skin pigmentation or skin healing speed while I was using it. I bought it last year, used for a short while, and after somewhat lackluster performance it ended up in far corner of my moisturizer shelf, where it expired in peace and quiet. It was a rather disappointing performance for a gel cream with high-tech scientific claims, so I'm not going to recommend it to anyone.