Anua Heartleaf 77% Toner: What's Inside the Bottle Everyone's Using

Anua's Heartleaf 77% Soothing Toner is a watery, pH 5.5 toner built around a 77% concentration of houttuynia cordata extract, known in Korean skincare as heartleaf, alongside centella asiatica, panthenol and betaine. It comes in 40ml, 250ml and 500ml sizes, with the 250ml bottle running about $23 in the US and £18 in the UK, and it is marketed as suitable for every skin type including sensitive and blemish prone skin. If you have seen it all over skincare TikTok for the better part of two years, this is what is actually in the bottle.

Who Makes Anua, and Why Is Heartleaf Everywhere?

Anua is a South Korean brand founded in 2019 by The Founders, a Seoul based brand building company, and it built its identity around heartleaf, a plant long used in Korean folk remedies for calming irritated skin. The brand entered the US market in 2022 and has since expanded onto Amazon in Europe, the Middle East and Australia, growing largely through online retail and social platforms rather than department store counters. Heartleaf 77% Soothing Toner and the brand's Heartleaf Pore Control Cleansing Oil are consistently named as its two bestsellers, and the toner is usually the first product people try before moving on to the rest of the heartleaf line.

What Ingredients Are Actually in It?

The full ingredient list on US retailer Vitacost opens with heartleaf water, followed by plain water, glycerin, butylene glycol and betaine as humectants. Panthenol, which is provitamin B5, shows up for its moisturizing role, alongside hyaluronic acid derivatives further down the list. Anua also includes centella asiatica extract and a handful of other plant extracts, plus 1,2-hexanediol as a preservative and disodium EDTA to stabilize the formula. UK retailer John Lewis lists the headline actives more simply as heartleaf, panthenol, sugar cane extract and centella asiatica.

There is no added fragrance in the formula, and several retailers note it is alcohol free, which is part of why it gets recommended so often for reactive or easily irritated skin. The sugar cane extract is a source of natural AHAs, though at the low percentage used here it functions more as a supporting ingredient than an exfoliant you would plan a routine around.

How Much Does It Cost and Where Do You Buy It?

In the US, Vitacost prices the 250ml bottle at $23 and a 500ml bottle at roughly $24.55, which makes the larger size a noticeably better deal per milliliter. In the UK, John Lewis and Boots both list the 250ml bottle around £17 to £18. Stylevana also sells Heartleaf 77% as part of bundle sets rather than always as a standalone bottle, so pricing there depends on what else is included in the set at the time. Prices on any retailer page can shift with sales, so treat these as a current snapshot rather than a fixed number.

How Do You Use the Anua Heartleaf Toner?

The standard use is straightforward: after cleansing, apply a small amount with a cotton pad or your hands, patting it into the skin before the next step in your routine. Its thin, almost water like texture is also why it gets used for the seven skin method, a layering technique where you apply several thin passes of toner one after another to boost surface hydration before serum and moisturizer. You do not need the seven skin method to get value from the product, a single layer after cleansing works as a normal toning step.

Soothing gentle toner great for everyday use, filled with heartleaf water for even texture and hydration.

Who Is This Toner Commonly Recommended For?

Retailers list it as suitable for combination, dry, normal, oily and sensitive skin, and several specifically describe it as fitting for blemish prone or easily irritated skin given the alcohol free, fragrance free formula. The common listed concerns are redness, dryness and general skin troubleshooting rather than any single specific issue. As with any skincare product, these are brand and retailer descriptions rather than independent clinical claims, so patch testing a new product before adding it to your full routine is always the safer move.

What makes Heartleaf 77% an easy entry point into Anua's wider lineup is that it slots into almost any existing routine without asking you to change anything else. It sits after cleansing and before serum, it does not contain active exfoliants strong enough to clash with retinoids or vitamin C, and the lack of fragrance keeps it low risk for people who react to scented products. For shoppers comparing it against other heartleaf toners on the market, the 77% concentration figure is the number worth checking on competing bottles, since some use heartleaf as a minor ingredient rather than the base of the formula.

If you are deciding between the 250ml and 500ml sizes, the math favors the bigger bottle if you already know you like a watery, layerable toner and plan to use it daily, both for the seven skin method and as a one step morning toning product. If you are trying heartleaf toners for the first time, the smaller bottle or a travel size bundle is the lower commitment way to see whether the formula and texture suit your skin before buying the larger size.