Anua PDRN Serum, Cream or Spray: Which to Choose and in What Order

Open the Anua PDRN page and you’ll find more than ten products with near-identical names: PDRN, Hyaluronic Acid, ‘100’, Capsule. What they share is PDRN from salmon DNA, almost always alongside hyaluronic acid and collagen. What PDRN is and what to expect from it is covered in our PDRN guide; what this line promises, above all, is moisture and glow. To keep things straight, we’ll go through the products the way they sit on a bathroom shelf: from cleansing to cream. That’s the order Anua uses for its own five-step set: cleanser, toner, serum, spray, cream. The first two share a step, so that’s four steps in all. Whether you need one bottle, two or three will be clear by the time we reach the cream.

Step 1. Cleansing and right after it: foam, then toner or pads

The routine starts with the PDRN Hyaluronic Acid Moisturizing Cleansing Foam: gentle, slightly acidic (pH 6), suited to dry and sensitive skin, and it cleanses without leaving the skin feeling tight. It has a second use too: apply it to a dry face as a hydrating mask, leave for one minute, then rinse off. Next comes the PDRN 100 Hyaluronic Acid Booster Toner: it takes away the tight feeling after cleansing, and its ingredients gently lift away flakes of dead skin. Apply with a cotton pad or your fingertips, patting it in, morning and night.

Instead of the toner you can use the PDRN 100 Hyaluronic Acid Glow Pad: pre-soaked pads in a tub. On the Korean label they’re also the first step after cleansing, with the same job: taking away tightness. You don’t need both; that’s our reading of two descriptions that say the same thing. Each pad has two sides. Lay the smooth gel side on the skin for five minutes, like a mini mask. Then flip it over, gently sweep the textured fabric side across your face, following the skin’s grain, and pat the leftover liquid in with your palms. Avoid the eyes and the mouth area, and close the lid tightly so the pads don’t dry out. The description calls them a ‘quick morning mask’ and make-up prep: foundation goes on smoothly afterwards, with no caking.

Step 2. While the skin’s still damp: the PDRN Capsule 100 serum

While the skin is still damp from the toner, pat a few drops of the PDRN Hyaluronic Acid Capsule 100 Serum (30 ml) over the whole face, or just where it’s needed. Morning and night, before cream; in the daytime, sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher on top. This is the heart of the line, and in the five-step set its job is ‘concentrated hydration’. Inside is what Anua calls a triple complex: PDRN, hyaluronic acid and collagen, there to hold moisture in the skin and give it a glow. ‘Capsule’ in the name means microcapsules, which, according to the description, help deliver that moisture; what ‘100’ stands for, the description doesn’t say. There’s 3% hyaluronic acid here, by our reckoning from the Korean label, and on that label it’s the hydrating ingredient with the largest share in the serum. Suitable for all skin types, the label says. Two tips from the description: at night you can apply two or three layers, and for glow, mix it into your foundation.

Step 3. Daytime, the office, make-up: the PDRN spray instead of toner, or on top of everything

Three in the afternoon, your face feels tight, and out of the bag comes the PDRN Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Capsule Mist, 100 ml. It’s a liquid as light as water, with tiny droplets of oil for glow; they sink in and don’t feel sticky, the description says. Inside are PDRN, hyaluronic acid and collagen. For the spray, the PDRN content is given right there in the description: 0.2%. The cream has no such figure, and comparing products by that figure makes little sense anyway: the spray is water for the daytime, the serum a concentrate for morning and night.

The same description lists where the spray fits in: after cleansing instead of toner; before make-up and over it; when travelling, at the gym, on a plane, ‘whenever skin feels dry’. Spray evenly over the face; no need to shake. In the five-step set it sits between the serum and the cream as extra moisture, but it doesn’t replace either. On the global site it’s now called the PDRN Collagen Glow Facial Serum Spray; on the Korean site and on our product page it’s still the Hydrating Capsule Mist. Same product, and there’s a 30 ml mini too.

Step 4. Last of all, morning and night: the PDRN cream

Before bed, the PDRN Hyaluronic Acid 100 Moisturizing Cream, 60 ml, and that’s it; in the morning, the same cream under make-up. In the description it’s the final step, to lock in moisture. The texture is light, absorbs quickly, isn’t sticky and doesn’t pill under foundation, and the description singles out that last point. It’s built on squalane, a softening ingredient, and there’s centella extract too. For all skin types, according to the label.

As needed: mask, patches and lip serum

The PDRN Hyaluronic Acid Capsule 100 Serum Mask is a thin hydrogel sheet, like jelly, with hyaluronic acid and collagen. For dry and combination skin, and you can use it every day. How long to leave it on, the description doesn’t say; it only says the skin looks plumped with moisture within ten minutes, and you can leave it on overnight.

Each PDRN Collagen Melting Patch is a thin mesh-like film, 99% collagen and 1% PDRN, that melts on contact with moisture. Place it white side down on the smile lines and cheeks (the neck version along the neck) and soak it generously with the line’s spray. Wait for the film to melt, remove the mesh and pat in what’s left. The spray isn’t included with the patches; it’s sold separately. For the neck: in the evening, once a week; for the face, no timing or frequency is given.

The PDRN Lip Serum is everyday lip care by day and, in a thick layer at night, a lip mask; its job is to hydrate and smooth away flaky skin.

What to choose from Anua PDRN: one bottle, two or three

The foam and the toner (or pads) don’t count here: you’ll be cleansing, and easing that post-cleanse tightness, with something in any case. One: the serum, morning and night, for all skin types. The exception is dry skin that feels tight and flaky in the morning: for that, the one bottle is the cream, which keeps the tightness away until evening. That’s our own hunch, not the label’s: neither the serum nor the cream singles out dry skin. Two: the serum and the cream, which is exactly how Anua’s Korean ‘wrinkle care’ set is put together, with the spray added in the larger version. Three: add the spray for the daytime, to freshen up after lunch, revive your make-up and get through dry air in the office or on a plane.

Oily skin: serum morning and night, spray during the day; there’s only a drop of oil in it and, according to the description, no stickiness. The cream is light and not sticky; add it if your skin still dries out by evening (our hunch, not the label’s). Make-up every day: pads or the spray instead of toner in the morning, serum, the cream that doesn’t pill under foundation, and the spray over make-up during the day; that’s all four steps. First wrinkles: serum and cream, the very two Anua puts into the set it calls ‘wrinkle care’, plus patches for the smile lines. The patches need the spray, so that’s four purchases. If you’re buying the serum and the spray, a toner in the morning isn’t essential: after cleansing, the spray stands in for toner, according to its description. If you have the spray, it can take the toner’s place in the evening too: the description says ‘after cleansing instead of toner’, with no mention of time of day. The brand’s other lines are on the Anua page.

The whole routine at a glance. Morning: cleanse, pads or the spray, serum, cream, sunscreen. Evening: cleanse, toner (or pads, or the spray), serum, cream. Use the mask when your skin needs a lot of moisture at once; the patches on smile lines or, once a week in the evening, on the neck; and the lip serum whenever your lips flake.