Review: Goodal Moisture Barrier Liquid

Ooooh I’m excited to write this- after just over a months use, this is my new favourite product! The Goodal Moisture Barrier Liquid was something I’d had my eyes on for a while, and when it was on sale at Watsons, I grabbed it. Here’s the rundown.

What is it?

The box information:

So it might seem a little confusing as to when you use this in your routine because the box states to use it at the first step of skincare, but the texture is not that of a thin and watery first essence- it’s a thicker gel/liquid hybrid. Therefore I use it after my first essence because I stick with the general rule of using products in order of thickness, despite the advice on the box. For my current routine, I’ve been going with :

First Treatment Essence (Kiehls Iris Extract/Purpletale Setting the Scene/Sulwhasoo First Care Serum) > COSRX Snail Essence/Belif Numero 10 Essence > Goodal Moisture Barrier Liquid. 

The aim of the liquid is to provide an intense hydration layer to fill ‘skin densely with moisture’. I LOVE lighter layers to get my hydration, so it really appealed to me. My expectations were therefore that it would give my skin a real moisture boost in a quick and easy step.

Ingredients

The ingredients list is pretty long, and contains both great and not so great elements. There are plenty of moisturisers and emollients, plus some anti-inflammatories. However there’s also alcohol denat. pretty high up, as well as some red flags on preservatives and fragrance. Here’s the cosdna link.

The star marketed ingredient is the mistletoe complex- “mistletoe from Gangwon province with added Lectin ingredients and ceramide, an epidermal composition, covers skin with firm moisture barriers”. I hadn’t heard of mistletoe in skincare before, but from the information I can find, it seems that is has antioxidant qualities and there is discussion of it’s uses in healing and wound care. I can’t for sure comment on it’s effectiveness, but it sounds promising for protecting the skin’s moisture barrier. 

I’ve suffered no irritation, and definitely no dryness, but this is of course a personal skin consideration, so take note of the ingredients before you try it.

Packaging

I really like the dispenser of the bottle. It’s kind of like a pipette, and makes it very easy to hygienically dispense the amount of liquid desired. The bottle itself is smooth beige plastic with green detail, and fairly simple. I like the colour combination. The bottle is a reasonable size containing 120ml of product.

Texture, Scent and Application

As I said, the liquid is like a liquid/gel hybrid. It’s such a great texture and is one of the things I love about this product! (EDIT October 2017: as my understanding of ingredients has grown, I’ve realized how silicone-y this texture is. I still like it, but it’s definitely got that silky silicone texture, so that’s something to bear in mind, depending on your tastes). It’s easy to work with and apply, and easy to dispense because of the pipette type top. I apply the amount shown in the photo to my fingertips, and then massage and pat onto my face. It feels incredibly smooth and soothing on my skin when I apply it.

The scent is very fresh with subtle floral notes. It’s a fairly strong scent at first but I do really like it, and it fades with application.

For me, the absorption time is a really important aspect of a hydrating layer- I want a quick and easy product for a morning routine. It should absorb quickly, providing adequate moisture but with zero residue, so I can swiftly move on to the next skincare step and my make up application. This liquid absolutely ticks those boxes. 

This photo shows no product on the left, and the barrier liquid immediately after application on the right.

This second photo again shows no product on the left, and then the liquid on the right, about 30 seconds after application and patting.

You can see how quickly it absorbs and my skin is ready for my moisturising cream. It’s so convenient, yet provides what I need.

Results

The aim of this product is to moisturise, and it achieves that so well. Years ago, before I got into skincare, the word ‘moisturising’ kind of scared me, because I didn’t have dry or tight feeling skin, and many creams I’d tried left my face feeling greasy, a little tacky, or broke me out, so I just felt like I didn’t really need a moisturiser. I didn’t realise that my skin was probably very dehydrated as well as generally suffering from lack of moisture, and a great way to achieve hydration without the unpleasant creams (clearly not all creams, I just didn’t know what to look for or try) was with lighter layering products, something I find Korean companies produce very successfully. My skin drinks up these liquidy layers, and using them has drastically improved my skin texture, hydration and overall skin health. For me, this product is a fantastic addition to my line up. The texture feels gorgeous on application, and my skin instantly feels smooth and hydrated. I don’t actually own many products that give me such an immediately fabulous feeling after use (remember all skin is different, this is just based on my own normal/combo face). It’s rare these days for me to repurchase products, as I’m always testing and trying new things for the blog and instagram, but I really think I will with this barrier liquid. I’m obsessed, and will definitely be recommending it to my mum and sister when they arrive in Korea ready for some serious shopping in a few weeks time (yeesssssasadjsjdfejfnjkr so excited). 

Where can you buy?

If you want to purchase this in Korea it’s very easily available in Watsons (and I think probably in the other drugstores like Olive Young/LOHBs etc?) as well as the Club Clio stores dotted around. I believe regular price is 20,000 Won but I got an incredible deal where, if I remember correctly, it was around the 12,000 mark- an insane bargain. I would however definitely repurchase at regular price.

If you’re an overseas buyer, a quick search brought up Ulta, ClubClioUSA and Amazon, all between $20-$30, but I’m sure it’s available more widely. 

Goodal are quickly becoming one of my favourite skincare brands- have you tried any of their products? I’d love some recommendations!