For some of us, adhering to a skin-care regimen doesn’t come naturally. I wish my mom had spent half as much energy on skin care as she did indoctrinating me to brushing my teeth day and night. So while I’m pretty safe from my teeth rotting and falling out anytime soon, I’ve still got training wheels on when it comes to getting through the annoying-as-hell process of maintaining my skin, especially at the end of a long day when all I want to do is dive into bed and binge-watch Made in Chelsea until I pass out.
So I was ecstatic to discover something that was essentially the easy button of skin care. The J.One Hana Cream comes in spherical "eggs" of supercharged skin food that burst and glide on to impart an essential dose of nutrients. These capsules also resemble some of my favorite foods: salmon roe, Dippin’ Dots ice cream, tapioca balls (Hi, Hillary!), or cottage cheese, even, and they’re super satisfying to pop, kind of like bubble wrap. All you need is one little bead to create a sheer film of face fertilizer. It’s like the One a Day vitamin of skin care.
In Korea, these potent little beads fall under the revered category of nourishing creams, though its peers on the market typically don’t look this weird. Whereas your typical moisturizer only hydrates the face, nourishing creams are the fake-it-til-you-make-it helpers that impart moisture-retaining and free-radical fighting benefits. They often come at the end of your skin-care routine to seal in all the goodness.
One little bead of the J.One Hana Cream is able to cover the entire face while imparting the exact dose your skin actually needs. This means no guesswork and no wasted product, which comes in handy with this cream category, since it's on the more expensive side and every little bit counts. Anyone who has ever used a cotton swab to dig out the very last smidgen of a beloved product knows that all too well.
The supporting ingredients alone are stellar: fermented black tea and water lily for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory powers and niacinamide and sea daffodil extract to play down hyperpigmentation. It’s also formulated with proteins and peptides to improve the elasticity of skin. But the real all-star is fullerene, a Nobel prize-winning ingredient that acts like a powerful free-radical sponge, mopping up these skin-damaging time bombs. Fullerene's nano size also allows it to act like a miniature Trojan horse, going deeper into the skin and letting loose those powerful complexion-saving actives. The biggest benefits I saw were velvety texture and a noticeable blurring of fine lines.
The potent product's efficacy can be seen on the face of actress Ha Ji Won, who created it as her skin-secret gift to the world. I suspect capsule creams to be the next big thing if Face Shop’s version and this version that literally looks like salmon roe are any indication. And if you don't know, now you know.
J.One Hana Cream, $50, available at Sephora.
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