Essence essentials for your face: a hybrid of serum, toner and moisturiser first used by geishas, beauty essence keeps your skin in balance

A beauty essence is a lightweight, watery product packed with ingredients that boost your skin’s ability to absorb everything that comes after it

Dubbed ‘miracle water’, beauty essence has become a core product for many skincare brands, from SK-II and La Prairie to Sulwhasoo and Fresh

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Many beauty and skincare brands name essences as their top-selling product. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:00am, 19 May 2020Updated: 7:25pm, 19 May 2020

Australian skincare brand Jurlique grows many of the ingredients for its bestselling Activating Water Essence on its biodynamic farm in the Adelaide Hills.

They include 14 botanical extracts, among them marshmallow, calendula, lavender, lemon balm and sage leaf. The product, launched in 2016, has become the brand’s top-selling specialist facial skin product.

Charlotte Lyon, national education manager at Jurlique International, says the reason it has become so popular is because a beauty essence can make a real difference to your complexion.

“We think the reason it is resonating so well with our customers is the noticeable difference in your skin, even after the first use. It is a simple extra step in the ritual that yields big results,” she says.

Marshmallow root extract is the hero ingredient of Jurlique’s Activating Water Essence.

The beauty essence has become a core product for many skincare brands over the past decade, from Fresh to SK-II to La Prairie. So what exactly is an essence?