Name: Haru Haru Black Rice Probiotics Barrier Essence
Brand: Haru Haru
Rating: 92.0 (5 reviews)

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Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.

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Dr Dray

2.66M subs · 34k devotees

✓Approved

"This has to be one of my all-time favorite Korean essences, milky toners, whatever you want to call this type of skin care product because it just cloaks your skin. It's very emollient. It's very soothing. It plumps. It hydrates. It has very minimal ingredients. There's ferment filtrates, rice extract, so hydrating, enriched in antioxidants, anti-inflammatory compounds, soothing properties, and very supportive of the barrier. It is a little thicker in comparison to a watery essence, but it's not as heavy as a full-blown moisturizer. It's even a little thinner than a serum. If you're like me and you've discovered a similar product, you hate the price point on it and you want to try something of a similar consistency that offers a similar glowy wow factor, try this. It's very good."

Liah Yoo

1.19M subs · 6k devotees

✓Approved

"There's a lot of rice derived ingredients, a lot of nourishing emollient and it even has shea butter. It also has sunflower seed oil, meadow foam seed oil as well for that extra nourishment and emollient type of experience. Despite all the ingredients, I wouldn't say this is the heaviest formula. This is definitely still a very fast absorbing, almost like a hydrating serum like formula that instantly just melts into the skin leaving your skin pretty dewy and glowy, but it's not like overly greasy or heavy."

Gothamista

685k subs · 45k devotees

✓Approved

"This is a well-aging powerhouse for those with very sensitive skin. This has also gone through skin sensitivity testing. From the minute you apply it you already feel the difference it makes. This doesn't just absorb and disappear, it just makes everything better. This is not just hydrating, it keeps everything as well. It's got probiotics. I love this."

All 3 takes from Gothamista

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"My new favorite rice toner is from Haruharu Wonder, their Black Rice Probiotics Barrier Essence. This is less rice water and more like rice cake in liquid form. This makes my skin even look like rice cakes, it's brighter, it's plumper, it's bouncier, it's hydrated, it even feels slightly moisturizing. Love it."

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"This is the rice toner of my dreams and is so perfect for right now. I love rice in skincare, and they use fermented black rice but it also has ferment filtrates like galactomyces. I think that's such a wonderful combination because both ingredients, at least for my skin, are great at just refining the texture and brightening the skin tone. This also contains the powerful barrier fortifying trifecta of ceramides, cholesterol, and fatty acids at the golden ratio of 3 to 1:1. It's also made using a patented process of creating evenly sized microparticles so it can be light and absorb really nicely in the skin. It definitely feels moisturizing though it's not greasy at all. It's just a beautiful, beautiful formula."

Mad About Skin

720k subs · 10k devotees

✓Approved

"This is the Haru Haru Black Rice Probiotics Barrier Essence. This was a revelation when I tried it, it is the most hydrating toner or essence you are ever going to use. I love the viscosity of it. It's thicker than your average toner or essence and that's a good thing. It's packed full of so many beneficial ingredients. It's almost like a hybrid between a toner and a serum in terms of its texture. It's like a drink for the skin. You can put multiple layers of this on if you want that maximum plumping and hydrating effect. It's got so many different ceramides in it. I think this would be a great dupe for any heavy products that you're using at the moment and want something a bit more exciting. Alongside those ceramides, you've also got a beautiful blend of calming ingredients, great hydrators and humectants, and some great skin softeners too. Using this, you will have the softest, smoothest, plumpy skin of your dreams. There's no stickiness, it's not one of those toners that leaves any stickiness whatsoever. And it's not actually that expensive, which I love, because it looks a lot more luxurious than the price point actually implies."

Top Pick: toner and essence

Kelly Driscoll

90k subs · 5k devotees

✓Approved

"This is the Haru Haru Black Rice Probiotics Barrier Essence. I'm obsessed with this. I have been for a while now. I've gone through a lot of bottles of this. This is an amazing barrier strengthening product, particularly for damaged skin barriers, like extreme cases of your barrier needing a lot of repair, right? Not just a little pick me up, but like repair. This is a great product for that. It does come in this cream essence format. This is very creamy. It's not milky, light, watery, runny. It is truly silky, thick cream. Therefore, it's not going to be appropriate for all skin types. This is getting into skin types that are struggling with some dryness, right? This is really good for me, particularly combo skin with some dry areas in the winter time especially. It feels amazing. It can feel heavy in warm weather."

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"I do enjoy this, but please know this is incredibly rich and it could trigger acne or clogging. I used this all last winter, 2024 into 2025, and I used it a little too deeply into the spring of 2025, and I started to get whiteheads. Once those temperatures start to warm up, my skin's not behaving that way anymore. I don't need as much richness. And then this combined with my other products just started to overwhelm my skin. I started to get congestion on my skin and some whiteheads. So I took this out and whiteheads went away. I know when to take this out of my routine. It is finally empty and I feel good about this."

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"This is a little bit of a newer addition to my favorites category but quite honestly I am in love with this product. It wasn't love at first use but this product grew and grew and grew on me. By the time my bottle was empty I didn't want to let it go. This Essence contains five different varieties of ceramides, we have cholesterol and we have fatty acids. Those three ingredients are what I call the Holy Trinity of barrier care ingredients. These are the three main lipids that make up the skin barrier. Your skin barrier is made up of about 50% of ceramides, and then 25% of cholesterol and 25% of fatty acids. These lipids help to create that strong structure in the moisture barrier that helps to keep all the moisture or the hydration deep within your skin. It's a two-way barrier so it holds all the good stuff in, but it's also a protective barrier that keeps all the bad stuff out."

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"Haru Haru Black Rice Probiotics Barrier Essence, look at this texture, it is creamy, it is silky, it is rich, it is moisturizing. This packs a rich moisturizing punch and it's exactly what my skin has been needing over the last month and a half. I'm crushing on this hard right now. It's also bringing some great barrier strengthening ingredients: ceramides, cholesterol, fatty acids, the rice, the probiotic content. It is unlike a lot of the milky and creamy toners or essences that are available in K Beauty which tend to have a wateriness or a lightness to it, this is very rich. It's truly a cream, it's not milk. It is definitely a heavy cream, but it feels so nourishing when your skin needs that nourishment. It is truly a masterclass in some fantastic humectants for the skin. The beautiful hero ingredient here is the 5% of urea that they're using. This is a fantastic humectant that is great for skin that is feeling dehydrated because it is a natural moisturizing factor, it hydrates the skin, it supports your skin barrier, it's just very good for skin health."

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"This is the Haru Haru black rice probiotics barrier Essence and this is so creamy so moisturizing OMG. It's definitely starting to get cooler and so my skin is needing this extra moisture. As I have gotten older, especially going into my mid-thirties, I've noticed that my skin and my body just in general needs a lot more moisture as each year goes by."

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"The Haru Haru Black Rice Probiotics Barrier Essence. This is the creamiest, the richest, the most moisturizing essence that I've ever tried in my life. It's been my ride or die since last winter. It's so nourishing. If you have really oily skin, I don't know that it would be my recommendation for you. I have combination skin that can start to get a little bit more oily in warmer temperatures, and once my combo skin started to kick in with the oil production, I started getting whiteheads around my nose when I was using this. That's how rich it is. If you do have oil on your skin, this is not where I would suggest you start."

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"I am deeply truly madly in love with this product. When I first got this it was the end of August and it was very moisturizing but a little heavy, a little too rich for my skin at that point in time. I have combo skin and it fluctuates with the season, so I was a little bit more oily at that time. But then in November when it was getting cold and chilly, my skin was starting to feel really dry, and I brought this out and it has been in my routine ever since. My skin just drank this luxurious creamy silky moisturizing Essence up so much. However, I do recall a time when this felt thick, it felt heavy."

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"This is something that you have seen in all of my skin care routines all throughout the winter. I am deeply truly madly in love with this product. When I first got this it was the end of August and it was very moisturizing but a little heavy, a little too rich for my skin at that point in time. I have combo skin and it fluctuates with the season so I was a little bit more oily at that point in time. Then in November when it was getting cold and chilly, my skin is starting to feel really dry and so I brought this out and it has been in my routine ever since. My skin just drank this luxurious creamy silky moisturizing Essence up so much. However I do recall a time when this felt thick, it felt heavy, it felt greasy for my skin in the warm months, so should I really be investing my money in this knowing that spring is coming."

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"This would be it for very dry skin because this is the thickest, the most luxurious, the most moisturizing, nourishing, really rich product. It's all about the barrier. As the name suggests, we do have ceramides, cholesterol, and fatty acid content in here. Those are the three lipids that you really need to not only strengthen your skin barrier, but to help repair it if it has been damaged from overexfoliation or maybe your skin barrier is really worn down by the weather fluctuations. This can be a great product for that because not only does it help to address the dryness and maybe the flakiness or the redness that you're getting or even the irritation, but it actually gets down to the source, which is your moisture barrier. They're not only using all three of those ingredients, they're actually using the golden ratio of them, which basically mimics the ratio of those particular lipids within your skin barrier. They're just a little bit better for helping with repairing the barrier or helping to strengthen it up or keep it strong."

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"It's rich and moisturizing and it feels amazing on my nose, that area when I woke up this morning I was seeing some little flakies because that area is just feeling so dry, so I'm really pressing it in and making sure it gets there but it just feels so good. I've been really obsessed with this over the last two months or so. It really started to impress me in November, really started to become a staple for me all through December. I've been using this almost continuous morning and nighttime use, and my bottle is more than halfway gone. Even for two months of nearly continuous use, this is really something special. It's so rich that even though it seems like a standard size, you don't need much, and because a restrained amount really does bring full benefits to your skin because it's so rich and moisturizing, I find that I'm using the appropriate amount and the product's actually lasting me a lot longer."

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"The Haru Haru Black Rice Probiotics Barrier Essence is probably the thickest, creamiest essence I've ever used. I could not stop using this. It's so moisturizing that I tried to stop in early spring because I knew it wouldn't be a good match for my combination skin once warm weather came around. But I stopped using it for a few weeks in March or April, and I couldn't deal. My skin was missing this product so hard. I just couldn't go without it."

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"It makes your skin feel very soft. If your skin is very dry, I think it's going to feel great, but if your skin's not dry, it's going to feel oily and overwhelming. It's not sticky and doesn't leave your skin too shiny, but you can definitely feel that there's a layer of it on top of your skin. I have mixed feelings on this one. It's slowly starting to grow on me, but I struggled with this product when I first started testing it out because it felt too moisturizing, it felt too thick, it kind of overwhelmed my skin. When I first started to use this, I didn't even want to put a serum on top of it because it was just feeling like so much on my skin. It was feeling thick and it wasn't quite absorbing as well."

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"Haru Haru Black Rice Probiotics Barrier Essence, OMG it's so silky, it's so rich, it's so creamy, it's so nourishing for the skin, and it's giving you all of those good lipids that help to support the moisture barrier. This is a particularly good essence to add into your routine if you're also suffering with dryness and flakiness on your skin. This is a very rich product, and I would never recommend this for folks who do have oily skin, it's going to feel too much, it's going to be very heavy and rich for your skin type. I personally do have combination skin, but once winter comes I almost treat it as borderline classically dry, and that seems to work really well for me."

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"This is the Haru Haru Black Rice Probiotics Barrier Essence and this is a very creamy, milky type of essence. It's very moisturizing. My skin has gone through it this winter for sure, but this has definitely helped it get through a lot easier. This is really focused in on strengthening your skin barrier, but there's also some great antioxidants in here, some fermented content, and some rice, which is a great strong antioxidant. It's the kind of product that can play into that healthy lit-from-within glow. It's not just about having even skin, it's about having healthy skin. That's truly the difference between people who just have clear skin and people who have bright skin, really feeding the health of your skin with antioxidants, amino acids, peptides, vitamins and minerals and all of those good micronutrients that help to protect and rejuvenate the skin."

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"This is extremely rich and creamy and moisturizing. It has a little bit more moisture and it's a little less wet, so I use it in conjunction with other hydrating layers."

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"This is the HARU HARU Black Rice Probiotics Barrier Essence, and OMG this is thick, creamy, rich, luxurious, and ultra moisturizing. I actually started using this product at the end of summer 2024 and I was like this is too heavy for me right now, and so I put it on my shelf. Then the deep fall months rolled around and then winter came and I was like this is it, this is your time to shine, and it did not disappoint me. I am obsessed with this. My skin drinks this beautiful creamy luxurious essence like nobody's business. It feels amazing. It's so barrier restorative, it's so moisturizing, it's so skin softening. It feels awesome. I absolutely love the ingredients here because there's such a really great mix."

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"The Haru Haru Black Rice Probiotics Barrier Essence because OMG, didn't I slam through like three bottles in a row this past winter, right? I was obsessed with this product. I still am obsessed with this product. This is a straight up cream essence. There's really no hydration here. This is all about moisture. This is all about richness. This is all about comfort for the skin. And this is absolutely the type of essence that is for dry skin. It is silky rich. I've never tried an essence that is this rich. This emollient, this luxurious, this elegant quite honestly because while it's rich, it doesn't feel overly greasy. It does still have a great absorbency. It still sinks into the skin like gorgeous thick creamy milk. Like it is just such a beautiful texture, such a beautiful experience, and such amazing moisturizing results."