LeeGeeHaam ~ Grow that Hydration with Hyal B5 Toner & Ampoule Review

Back in November, I received a fantastic HUGE PR package from LeeGeeHaam. For those who are not familiar with LeeGeeHaam, you might have known them as LeeJiHaam (LJH), infamous for their Tea Tree Essence and Propolis Ampoule. After chatting with the lovely and knowledgeable folks at LGH, telling them about my oily skin that gets dehydrated in the winter, they said they knew the perfect skincare items to send me.

Skin Type/Concerns: oily, blemish prone, aging concerns, pores, fine lines/wrinkles, hyper-pigmentation

I have already reviewed the wonderful oil controlling Hope 5α Control here and now I am ready to review their Grow Hyal B5 line, which is tailored for dry or dehydrated skin. You might be thinking, Michele ~ you have oily skin ~ why do you need this line? Well, good question!! Oily skin doesn’t mean it is hydrated ~ it just means that it is oily. Oily skin can get dehydrated and once it does, the skin thinks it is needs more oil, so guess what happens? You are correct ~ your skin will get even more oilier ~ thick, greasy oil that causes clogged pores and then horrible blemishes. In the winter-time, I suffer from dehydrated skin, due to competing dry temperatures ~ cold, frigid air outside and dry, hot forced air inside cars, homes, offices and other buildings.

Why is this called Grow Hyal B5? With skin-friendly ingredients derived from the nature, Grow is the signature brand line of LGH’s principle theory of “botanic science.” The Grow line includes CICA products, which focus on centella ingredients, propolis and matcha, which is a green tea ~ a most excellent antioxidant. The Hyal B5 line contains 5 (FIVE, count ’em!) types of hyaluronic acid along with pro-vitamin B5 and B3 extracts.

Ingredients

As I mentioned, both of these products contains five different types of humectant hyaluronate acid in a compound called Penta-Hyaluronic Acid ~ made up of sodium hyaluronate, hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid, hydroxypropyltrimonium hyaluronate, ascorbyl propyl hyaluronate, sodium acetylated hyaluronate. This complex will help attract moisture and deeply improve hydration to your skin. Fourth generation moisturizer polyquaternium-51 (lipidure) retains moisture better than beta-glucan. Niacinamide, also known as vitamin B3, is a powerful antioxidant that acts as an anti-inflammatory, improves your skin elasticity, enhance the skin barrier function and also it helps to even out skin tone and reduce post-inflammatory hyper-pigmentation Vitamin B5 ~ panthanol ~ and trehalose will help to strengthen your moisture retention barrier , deeply condition your skin and make sure your skin does not loose all of that hydrating water all while leaving it soft and supple.

These two products also have beta glucan, another amazing skin conditioning and repairing, moisturizing ingredient that helps stimulate the production of collagen, speeds up wound healing, soothes and calms skin due to its anti-irritant and strong anti-inflammatory properties. Centella is a common herbal ingredient that is used medicinally to help speed up wound healing, such as blemishes and skin rashes. It also helps minimize the appearance of pores. Vanilla is an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, which helps heal blemishes and soothe skin. It also has powerful antioxidant benefits due to vanillin, which contains polyphenols.

Biosaccharide gum-1 is fermented plant ingredient polysaccharide and is known for its moisturizing and skin soothing benefits. It binds water to your skin, creates a film on your skin, leaving it soft and smooth, without irritation. Yeast derived adenosine contains anti-wrinkle and anti-inflammatory properties.

Both of these products have a lovely light spicy scent with I attribute to the nutmeg and cardamon oils ~ it is so relaxing and I wish all skincare products could smell like this!! They are both free of silicons, mineral oils, artificial fragrance and coloring and alcohol.

The packaging on these two items is really nice ~ they come in clear bottles with the simple LGH logo and a forest green stripe running along the top of the bottle. I love the clear bottles as you can really see how viscous the liquids are.

Grow Hyal B5 Toner comes in a tall clear bottle with an easy to use pump applicator. In the bottle, this look like it a gelly-toner and very thick, but it really isn’t! This is a thicker, yet still lightweight, watery toner that has a bit of viscous quality to it, but it spreads easily onto my skin, absorbs quickly and does not leave a sticky or tacky residue. This toner is supposed to infuse and deeply moisturize into your epidermis and dermis for an intensive, long lasting hydration. It contains 10,000 ppm of provitamin B5 and 100 ppm of sodium hyaluronate.

This look so gelly and thick in the pump applicator bottle, but as you can tell in the above photos, it does move around and run a bit ~ but slowly! It absorbs very quickly into my skin, leaving no sticky or tacky residue. I would say that my skin feels immediently hydrated and soft. I have not noticed any brightening effects with this toner but I love the watery cooling feel of it on my very dehydrated oily winter skin. This toner increased my moisture level by 38% while reducing my oil level by 35% and did not leave my face feeling too moist or dewy as my skin just sucked it right in. This also has a pH level of about a 5, making it a balanced toner for your skin, mildly acidic and gentle.

Ingredients: water, glycerin, methylpropanediol, propanediol, 1,2-hexanediol, niacinamide, glycereth-26, panthenol, dioscorea japonica root extract, arctium lappa root extract, phellinus linteus extract, coceth-7, betaine, ethylhexylglycerin, piper methysticum leaf/root/stem extract, centella asiatica extract, panax ginseng berry extract, vanilla planifolia fruit extract, hydrogenated lecithin, PPG-1-PEG-9 lauryl glycol ether, polyquaternium-51, tromethamine, glyceryl glucoside, olea europaea (olive) fruit oil, glycosyl trehalose, adenosine, hydrogenated starch hydrolysate, biosaccharide gum-1, raffinose, beta-glucan, PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, acrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer, xanthan gum, sodium hyaluronate, cellulose gum, hydroxypropyltrimonium hyaluronate, lecithin, michelia alba leaf oil, myristica fragrans (nutmeg) kernel oil, daucus carota sativa (carrot) seed oil, elettaria cardamomum seed oil, michelia alba flower oil, tagetes minuta flower oil, butylene glycol, hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid, ascorbyl propyl hyaluronate cosDNA analysis

Grow Hyal B5 Ampoule comes in a short, squat bottle and it is deceiving ~ I though this was going to be a pump applicator as it has a nice white cap on top. However, remove the cap and this reveals the eye drop applicator, which I do feel is a bad design choice here. This is more jelly like in texture than the toner and it is thick, so using the eye drop applicator makes it slow going to apply. However, you do not need a lot of this ampoule, so if you can get two or three drops out of the applicator, that should be enough to cover your face.

Now this ampoule contains a lot more sodium hyaluronate than the toner, which explains the jelly texture ~ this one has 10,000ppm of the stuff and it also contains 10,000 ppm of panthenol as well. This ampoule is supposed to tightly adhere to your skin for intense hydration, nourishment and will help reduce flakiness, tightness and plump up your skin, so fine lines and wrinkles are less noticeable. It is known as the “moisture retaining ampoule” and whereas it is good for dry skin, it is also great for oily, dehydrated winter skin too. It has saccharomyces ferment filtrate, which means this anti-aging, moisturizing, nutrient dense ingredient can penetrate deeper into your dermal layers.

I was worried that this would have a sticky finish and initially it is a bit tacky, but within a minute or two ~ or until I put something else over it ~ it is not sticky on my skin. Now, this is the winter time, so my skin is dehydrated as anything, so I am sure this is not an ampoule I would want to use in the hot humid summertime. But for winter? You bet!!

My skin is certainly plumped up with moisture and feels very supple ~ chok chok skin (lol). It increased both my moisture and oil levels by about 23% but my skin was balanced and not oily ~ that said, this is more for winter time use for me. This has a mildly acidic, pH balanced level of 5.

Ingredients: water, glycerin, methylpropanediol, 1,2-hexanediol, niacinamide, dioscorea japonica root extract, sodium hyaluronate (10,000ppm), panthenol (10,000ppm), saccharomyces ferment filtrate, octyldodeceth-16, PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, polyquaternium-51, hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid, piper methysticum leaf/root/stem extract, centella asiatica extract, panax ginseng berry extract, vanilla planifolia fruit extract, hydrogenated lecithin, glycosyl trehalose, glyceryl glucoside, ethylhexylglycerin, hydrogenated starch hydrolysate, adenosine, biosaccharide gum-1, raffinose, disodium EDTA, olea europaea (olive) fruit oil, lecithin, carbomer, tromethamine, beta-glucan, michelia alba leaf oil, myristica fragrans (nutmeg) kernel oil, daucus carota sativa (carrot) seed oil, elettaria cardamomum seed oil, michelia alba flower oil, butylene glycol, tagetes minuta flower oil, hydroxypropyltrimonium hyaluronate, ascorbyl propyl hyaluronate, sodium acetylated hyaluronate cosDNA analysis

Final Thoughts

My thoughts from over a month ago on these two products have not changed ~ If you have oily and dehydrated skin, you most certainly can use this! This is really a nice, non-sticky or greasy hydrating duo and it is perfect for the winter time ~ although if you skin is not dehydrated, you might find that the ampoule does leave a more tacky finish. One thing you should be aware of when using hyaluronic acid products is that you need to top them off with a nice moisturizer of your choice if the air outside is really dry. Even though these have some nice moisture strengthening ingredients in vitamin B3 and B5, it is not enough to prevent water loss and actually make your skin be drier, as a lack of moisture in the air means that the hyaluronic acid has to draw the moisture from somewhere ~ and that somewhere will be sucking it out of your skin!

So please make sure that you add a good moisturizer that is suitable for your skin type after applying the toner and ampoule to damp skin ~ I love using the Hope 5α Control Emulsion by LGH ~ and that will lock in the hyaluronic acid into your skin and prevent it from drying out your skin. I love toners and ampoules like this ~ full of hydrating ingredients which is great for layering on my oily skin ~ and all skin types! I do believe that barring any issues with the ingredients list, these two products are great for all skin types.

Where to Purchase

Glow Recipe carries both of these products under their old brand name LeeJiHaam (LJH). You can save 15% off your first purchase at Glow Recipe with my referral link (click here)

Grow Hyal B5 Toner 120 mL RV $30.00
Grow Hyal B5 Ampoule 40 mL RV $33.00

eBay (click here) also carries the Grow Hyal B5 line, including the cream.

If you cannot find it or those stores do not ship to your country, you can order it via the Korean LGH website (click here) via a shipping service. I use Korean Buddy and have been very happy with their service. You just send them the link for the product you want and they will invoice you for the product. Pay and they will order. Once they get the order in, they weigh it and invoice you for shipping ~ you can use standard, airmail or EMS. If you use my blog url (https://beautyfindsforme.wordpress.com) as a referral, you can save 50% off your first purchase handling fee.