Juju Aquamoist Moisture Lotion Review and Ingredients Analysis

Lotion products have been really popular over the past few years, and new to me is another one - Juju Aquamoist's Moisture Lotion. Juju is actually a Japan-based brand of drugstore products featuring hyaluronic acid. Over time, Juju has expanded to include not just the moisturizing range, but also a whitening range, as well as a range geared towards natural product customers.

Juju Aquamoist Moisture Lotion: One of the key products from Juju's range.

Despite these new developments, the Juju Aquamoist Moisture Lotion still remains one of the hero products in the Juju Aquamoist range, and so I thought I'd take a look at it, and also take the opportunity to delve into the ingredients!

So we start off with the ingredients list. The first thing I noticed about Juju is that unlike most other Japanese brands of skin lotion that I've come across (such as the Hada Labo SHA Hydrating Light Lotion, and the Hada Labo SHA Hyaluronic Acid Lotion, both of which I've reviewed before), is that it contains alcohol.

Now I know that alcohol is one of the ingredients that gets a bad reputation due to a lot of misinformed online opinions, but the truth is that how drying alcohol is for your skin depends largely on how the end product is formulated. Alcohol will be drying to your skin if a product is formulated with very high levels of it and not much else, but in most products I've seen, the alcohol serves a useful purpose. Because alcohol is a good penetration enhancer, it often is used in skincare products to deliver the active ingredients to the skin, which would otherwise sit on top of the skin and not yield much benefit. A notable example is the gold standard for Vitamin C serums, Skinceuticals, which uses alcohol to enhance penetration of the Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in the product. A second use of alcohol that is beneficial in skincare is to thin out products. So if you have a product that is formulated with a lot of oils or waxes or heavy-feeling ingredients, you can add in some alcohol to thin out the product and make it easier to apply on the skin. So to sum up, yes - while it is true that alcohol by itself can indeed dry out the skin (for sure I wouldn't recommend that anyone take 100% alcohol and swab it over their face!), it actually has beneficial uses in skincare, depending on the formulation. You can't just pick out one ingredient and then conclude that the entire product is bad - instead, for a more holistic assessment, it's best to consider also what else it is formulated with, what benefits it brings to the product, the overall formula, as well as your own skin type.


Juju Aquamoist Moisture Lotion ingredients: The alcohol may alarm some, but don't be worried - it will be fine for oilier skin types.
So, how does this apply to the Juju Aquamoist Moisture Lotion? Alcohol is the third ingredient, after Water and Glycerin, and before Dipropylene Glycol. The product appears to be formulated mostly with humectants - Glycerin, Dipropylene Glycol, and PEG/PPG/Polybutylene Glycol 8/5/3 Glycerin are all examples of that, and they all make up the bulk of the product, in addition to the alcohol. So I guess it seems to me that the main function of alcohol is to thin out the product and make it easier to spread on the skin, as well as make the product seem less sticky. Other than that, to be honest, the formula doesn't look all that different from some of the Hada Labo products I described - some of the Hada Labo products I've encountered also contain Dipropylene Glycol and PEG/PPG/Polybutylene Glycol 8/5/3 Glycerin. So the main benefit of this product over others would be its lighter, less sticky feel, while still offering good moisturizing properties.


Juju Aquamoist Moisture Lotion: A light liquid that doesn't feel sticky on skin, and sinks in fast.
And indeed, it seems that my little bit of skincare science geekery is borne out by my actual use of the product. The Juju Aquamoist Moisture Lotion is indeed a light lotion that doesn't feel sticky. When used on the skin, I feel like it sinks in quite fast. I think that those who have tried other Japanese brand lotions but find them to be still too heavy or sticky, this is probably a good choice. In particular, girls with oily skins might find they prefer this formulation. On the other hand, if you have dry or very dry skin, then it might be better to go for an alcohol-free formula. Weather would also have an impact on how useful you find this product - since we have a hot and humid climate here, I imagine that the alcohol wouldn't trouble as many people's skins as compared to a location where the skin is already aggravated via a very dry climate.

To me, the Juju Aquamoist Moisture Lotion works just fine as a moisturizing lotion - it's essentially based on the same types of humectants that you find in other Japanese-brand lotions, but with a splash of alcohol to thin out the texture. So if you have oily skin, and have found other types of lotions too heavy and sticky, this might be a good addition to your skincare routine, as it offers some hydration without feeling weighty. But on the other hand, if you have dry skin, or if you have skin that's being irritated by a dry climate, then you probably might want to look at another formula.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)