Korea's consumer agency tested 10 water creams at 30 minutes and at 4 hours. All looked fine at 30 min, only 5 stayed top at 4 hours

I'm Korean and I read Korean government test reports on skincare for a small blog I run (English isn't my first language, so sorry if something reads a bit off). This one seemed useful for anyone picking a gel or water cream for the dry months.

The Korea Consumer Agency tested 10 popular water creams sold in Korea (bought July 2019, report published January 2020). They applied each cream to the inner forearm of 30 women and measured skin moisture before, at 30 minutes, and at 4 hours. Ratings are relative, three steps: top / middle / bottom among these 10.

Results (30 min / 4 hours / price per 10 mL in won, 2019 prices):

• Missha Super Aqua Ultra Hyalron Cream: top / top / 4,000
• The Face Shop The Therapy Royal Made Moisture Blending Cream: top / top / 7,000
• Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream: top / top / 8,000
• IOPE Hyaluronic Cream: top / top / 8,400
• Biotherm Aquasource Cream: top / top / 10,800
• Mamonde Floral Hydro Cream: top / middle / 4,400
• belif The True Cream Aqua Bomb: top / middle / 8,400
• CNP Dual-Balance Water Lock Moist Cream: top / middle / 9,000
• Innisfree Artichoke Layering Intense Cream: middle / bottom / 1,467
• Dr.Jart+ Vital Hydra Solution Biome Moisture Cream: middle / bottom / 9,000

What I noticed:

• At 30 minutes every cream rated "excellent" or better. The differences only showed up at 4 hours. So if a brand shows you a hydration number, look at the time point.
• Price didn't predict anything. The cheapest one (Innisfree) and one of the priciest (Dr.Jart+) were both bottom tier. Missha matched Kiehl's and Biotherm at about half of Kiehl's price per mL.
• How moist it feels and how moist it measured were different lists. A separate panel of 50 women scored feel from 1 to 5. Kiehl's felt below average (3.54, average 3.77) but measured top tier. Mamonde felt very moist (4.10) and measured middle tier.
• Four of them say "gel" on the pack (The Face Shop, Biotherm, belif, CNP). Two were top, two middle, so gel vs cream didn't sort anything here.

Caveats: bottom tier means last among these 10, not "doesn't moisturize". These are 2019 batches, Mamonde told the agency it planned to discontinue its cream in early 2020, and formulas may have changed since. It was forearm skin, not face. I couldn't find the raw moisture numbers in the report, only the stars.

Official report (Korean): https://www.consumer.go.kr/user/ftc/consumer/cnsmrBBS/79/selectInfoRptDetail.do?infoId=A1078077&page=1&row=10&searchGbn=REGIST_DT&rnum=1&cntntsId=00000566&searchRange=searchRangeAll

My longer write-up with the feel scores for all 10: https://seoulskinnotes.blogspot.com/2026/09/korean-water-cream-test-10-creams-at-30.html

Has anyone used the Missha Super Aqua through a whole winter? Curious if it holds up on the face the way it did on arms.