What is the difference between essence and cream

Creams provide a physical barrier on your skin to help seal in moisture, making them ideal for dry skin types. A properly-formulated barrier repair cream such as Zerafite is an effective treatment for dry, cracked, itchy, and flaky skin. Unlike creams, lotions have a high water content and are usually lighter-weight and non-greasy. These qualities make lotions a good choice for very oily skin types, as they are less likely to clog pores and leave a heavy residue on the skin than creams.

Moisturizing lotions can help to keep oily skin hydrated, especially in dry climates or cold, dry winters. Some lotions also contain treatment ingredients to address skin concerns like wrinkles, uneven skin tone, and other signs of aging.

Revision Skincare Vitamin C Lotion, for instance, contains vitamin C to encourage a brighter, smoother complexion, while also imparting light hydration. Gels generally contain even more water content than lotions and are usually oil-free, making them a good moisturizing choice for oily skin types. Gels also tend to have a thinner consistency than lotions, so they generally do not leave a film or greasy feeling on the skin. Some cleansers such as Medature Plantract Cleansing Gel and Revision Skincare Purifying Cleansing Gel have a gel base to help lightly hydrate the skin while cleansing pores.

Similar to gels, serums are water-based skincare products that are usually meant to be used under a moisturizer.

Essence or serums are essentially clear, thick, liquid moisturizing products. Some companies tend to label their products as serums, while others label them as essences.

The essence or serums may or may not target a specific problem, such as help fight the signs of aging such as lines, wrinkles, and dark spots.

They may or may not help brighten the skin, help firm and tighten loose skin, define face contours, prevent skin sag, fight pigmentation, excessive dryness, and enlarged pores, or any other numerous amount of things that companies claim their beauty products can do. Essentially, at its base, serums or essences are moisturizers; however they tend to have smaller compact particles and are lighter than traditional moisturizers. This allows them to get absorbed faster and more effectively into the skin.

They also get absorbed deeper into the skin allowing more effective cell regeneration and reproduction. In case, a same company sells both essence and serums, there may be certain differences between the two products. Serums would probably be lighter than essences.

Serums, on the other hand, would contain concentrated ingredients that would target a specific problem on the skin, such as blemishes, wrinkles or dark spots. Furthermore, essences usually come in the form of thin, watery, milky lotion like consistency, while, serums can be available in gel, liquid, oil, cream, or lotion like consistency.

Emulsion, on the other hand, is practically a type of light moisturizer. Generally, a serum contains a few key active ingredients to address specific issues like brightening, dark spots, wrinkles, etc. Serums are a bit thicker in consistency -- almost oil-like -- and usually come in a bottle that's much smaller than a toner or cleanser bottle.

Often the bottles have droppers to dispense the product, though I've seen serums that are opaque and almost lotion-like, in small pump bottles. So, what the hell IS an essence then? This is going to be controversial, but here goes: An essence and a serum are essentially haha pun! Mind-blowing, right?

There are some important caveats to note. According to Lee, essences traditionally were more lightweight and less concentrated than serums, and were used after a toner to add another layer of hydration before you applied serums. SK-II's essence is a classic example of the texture. Now, however, while you can still find the more watered-down essences and I frequently see this type of product called an "emulsion" as well , that line is completely blurred.

Serums are getting more lightweight and essences are getting thicker, and they both can contain high concentrations of active ingredients.

In fact, the very words "essence" and "serum" are nothing but marketing words now. Lee tells me that she read a paper by a professor of cosmetics science in Korea that noted as much. It's all marketing. There may be small differences in texture, but now the lines are increasingly blurry," Sokmin Yu, the head of Korean cosmetics lab Cosmax USA, explains. He continues, "In leading beauty markets like Korea, there are many new developments in essences, which are bringing even more steps such as the pre-essence and post-essence to the skincare routine.

Oh, please no. This is probably also a good time to mention treatment toners, also called essence lotions or essence toners. These have a consistency that people more traditionally associate with an essence -- thinner but with a bit of body.

Clinique's recently launched version is a perfect example.