Anua Heartleaf Sunscreen Review: The 30% Depends on the Tube
Affiliate links below, but they cost you nothing extra. We only point you to what the ingredient lists actually back up.
Anua prints a percentage next to the heartleaf in its sun cream. Almost no brand does that, so it’s worth checking, and checking it took us to three separate ingredient listings filed under nearly the same product name. One prints 30%. Another prints no number at all, and the third turns out to be a different sunscreen wearing the same words on the front.
The short version: we opened the three ingredient-database listings we could find under this product’s name, and this Anua heartleaf sunscreen review found three different labels. The Korean sun cream lists Houttuynia cordata second and prints 30% beside it.[1] A second Korean listing puts the same extract eighteenth with no number.[2] The US listing is a separate formula using avobenzone, homosalate, octisalate and octocrylene, and heartleaf is twenty-first there.[3] None of those four filters appear in the Korean version. So read the actives before you decide which tube you want.
The US tube shares no filters with the Korean one
The Korean sun cream has five current-generation filters. The US version has four older ones, and the two sets have no overlap at all.
Anua sells five sunscreens through US retailers, and we opened every one of those ingredient lists in our Anua lineup comparison.
| Listing | UV filters | Heartleaf | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Cream (Korean)[1] | Ethylhexyl Triazone, Terephthalylidene Dicamphor Sulfonic Acid, Diethylamino Hydroxybenzoyl Hexyl Benzoate, Polysilicone-15, Bis-Ethylhexyloxyphenol Methoxyphenyl Triazine | 2nd, printed as 30% | 40 |
| Sunscreen (Korean)[2] | the same five | 18th, no number | 41 |
| Mild Sunscreen, Broad Spectrum SPF 50+ (US)[3] | Avobenzone 3.0%, Homosalate 7.3%, Octisalate 5.0%, Octocrylene 9.0% | 21st, no number | 47 |
The reason is regulatory, and the database says it in one line about Ethylhexyl Triazone: “It can be used up to 5% worldwide except for the US and Canada.”[4] A filter a brand can’t legally use in the United States has to come out of a US formula, and something else goes in. We told the full version of that story, with three other Korean brands measured the same way, in our piece on why the US version of a Korean sunscreen is a different product. Anua is a fourth case of the same pattern, and it’s the one where the botanical claim moves too.
We’re not saying the US tube is weak. Avobenzone plus octocrylene is a real broad-spectrum pairing, and the four percentages are printed on the label, which is more disclosure than the Korean tube gives for anything but the heartleaf.
The two Korean listings disagree about the heartleaf
They agree on everything except the thing the marketing is about. Same five filters, same two database tags, Cetearyl Alcohol thirteenth on both.[1][2] Then one prints “Houttuynia Cordata Extract (30%)” in second place, and the other lists the same extract eighteenth with nothing in brackets.
That gap matters because ingredient order is a rough ranking by amount. Second and eighteenth are not the same claim, and only one of the two pages lets you check it. Our guide to skincare actives inside sunscreen covers why a position tells you order and not dose.
We’ve counted this product before, on a different question. Our alcohol-free roundup counted two listings for it, 40 and 41 ingredients, and set the export version aside under a stated rule about titles that name a different product. That rule was right for that question, which was about which tags a formula carries. This piece is asking which tube the number belongs to, so the listing that piece excluded is the one this piece needs. On the alcohol and tag axis the two Korean pages really do agree, and on the heartleaf axis they don’t.
Our head-to-head with the Abib heartleaf sunscreen read the first of these three listings and quotes a Korean reviewer on how the Anua wears. We haven’t re-quoted that reviewer on this page.
The same ingredient list can be counted four ways
We got 40 for the Korean sun cream. Somebody counting the same list at the same retailer can honestly get 43, and the whole difference is three commas.
- 43 if you split the retailer’s list on every comma.[5]
- 42 after you notice 1,2-Hexanediol is one ingredient with a comma inside its name.
- 41 after you notice the retailer writes the dose as “Houttuynia Cordata Extract (300,000 ppm)”, and the comma in 300,000 is a thousands separator, not a divider between ingredients.[5]
- 40 after you notice Polygonum Cuspidatum Root Extract is printed twice in a row on that page, and once on the database page.[1][5]
Which listings we counted. Eight searches on the ingredient database, using the brand name alone, the brand with heartleaf, heartleaf with sun, the brand with sun, heartleaf with 77, silky with moisture, houttuynia cordata with sun, and the brand with silky. Three listings name this sunscreen and all three are read here, by slug, in the Sources below. No single search returned all three, and finding three is not the same as promising there is no fourth. Left out: other Anua sunscreens that are separate products, and every Anua listing with 77% in its title, because those are toners, pads and masks rather than sunscreens.
How we counted filters. By ingredient-page slug rather than by printed name, because printed names hide matches. On the US listing Avobenzone files under butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane and Octisalate files under ethylhexyl salicylate, so a name-by-name comparison would have reported filters that were already there. Totals come from counting ingredient links on the page, not commas. Where that undercounts: a link count misses any ingredient the database has no page for, which on these three pages was none, since the table rows and the links came to the same number every time. And two ingredient names on the Korean pages carry an invisible zero-width character inside them, which is enough to make two copies of the same name look like two different ingredients.
The 30% and the 300,000 ppm are the same amount. Parts per million is just a smaller unit: 300,000 out of a million is 30 out of a hundred. A reader flicking between the two pages would reasonably think they’d found two products at two different strengths.
Which one is in my cart right now?
The retailer we buy from sells both versions side by side and puts the difference in one of the two titles, so you can settle this before checkout.[5][6]
- The product title. The US one is listed as “Anua – Heartleaf Silky Moisture Mild Sunscreen OTC Version”, and OTC is short for over-the-counter, the US category that treats sunscreen as a drug.[6] The Korean one is titled Heartleaf Silky Moisture Sun Cream.[5]
- The PA rating. PA++++ is the Asian scale for UVA protection. It’s printed on the Korean box and doesn’t appear on a US one, which uses the words Broad Spectrum instead.
One caution about cross-checking: retailer lists and database lists can match each other and still both be describing an older box. The retailer says as much on its own page, that the list “represents all options or variants of this product” and that a given option may differ.[5] Two copies agreeing isn’t proof of what ships. The tube in your hand is.
Should I buy the Korean one or the US one?
Buy the Korean sun cream if the printed 30% is why you’re here, or if you want the newer filters that our filter guide explains. It’s the listing with heartleaf second, the five modern filters, and both the alcohol-free and the fragrance and essential oil free tags on the database page.[1] Check the price on YesStyle.
Buy the US version if you’d rather have the four active percentages printed on the box, or if you’re buying from a US shelf and want the version that was built for it. We’re not linking it, because it isn’t the one this page recommends and a link would say otherwise.
Two things stay open whichever version you buy. A tag describes what the database checked, which is a list of names and not how your face responds to them: the Korean pages carry an alcohol-free tag and still list Cetearyl Alcohol thirteenth, a fatty alcohol the database doesn’t count against the tag.[1] And if you’re choosing a sunscreen because your skin reacts to things, reading one product at a time is the slow way to do it. Start with our sensitive and acne-prone roundup.
What do I do if I already bought the US version?
Wear it. It’s a broad-spectrum sunscreen with four printed actives, and swapping it out mid-bottle buys you nothing you can measure. What changes is which reviews you should trust: a texture note written about the Korean tube describes a formula yours doesn’t contain.
What you can’t carry over is the heartleaf claim. The extract is twenty-first on the US list with no percentage,[3] so the number that made the Korean tube interesting isn’t on your box.
And on whether that number does anything: we don’t know, and we’re not going to invent an effect for it. What we could not find is a study of this extract in a finished sunscreen on people. Our searches of the medical literature returned 504 papers on Houttuynia cordata overall, 24 of those alongside skin, 6 alongside topical use, and 2 alongside erythema or photoprotection.[7] We opened both of the last two. One is a mouse-skin study of a fermented distillate of nine herbs mixed together, so it isn’t about this extract on its own. The other tested a hyperoside-enriched fraction on human skin cells in a dish, which is not the same as a face. Our review of the Abib heartleaf sunscreen came to the same answer about its own heartleaf.
FAQ
Is the Anua heartleaf sunscreen we found on a US listing the same one sold in Korea?
Often not. The US version is a separate formula with avobenzone, homosalate, octisalate and octocrylene, and none of those four appear in the Korean sun cream.[1][3] The quickest tell is the words OTC Version in the product title.[6]
How much heartleaf am I getting, 30% or 300,000 ppm?
They’re the same amount, written in two units. The database prints 30% and the retailer prints 300,000 ppm for the same Korean sun cream.[1][5] The number only appears on the Korean listing with heartleaf in second place.
Why does my ingredient count not match yours?
Probably commas. Splitting the retailer’s Korean list on every comma gives 43, and three of those breaks are false: the comma inside 1,2-Hexanediol, the thousands comma in 300,000, and one ingredient printed twice.[5] Counting ingredient links instead gives 40.[1]
Does the heartleaf in this sunscreen calm my skin?
We can’t answer that from the label or from the papers we opened. No source we read tested this extract in a finished sunscreen on people. The two closest papers our searches returned were a mouse study of a nine-herb distillate and a cell-culture study of a purified fraction.[7]
Am I safe assuming the alcohol-free tag means no alcohol?
No. Both Korean listings carry that tag and both list Cetearyl Alcohol thirteenth.[1][2] The tag covers drying alcohol, and it describes a database page rather than the tube you buy.
Sources
Ingredient listings (read directly on 2026-07-30, counted by hand):
[1] Anua Heartleaf Silky Moisture Sun Cream, listing slug anua-heartleaf-silky-moisture-sun-cream: Houttuynia Cordata Extract second and printed as (30%); five UV filters at positions 5, 6, 16, 17 and 29 (Ethylhexyl Triazone, Terephthalylidene Dicamphor Sulfonic Acid, Diethylamino Hydroxybenzoyl Hexyl Benzoate, Polysilicone-15, Bis-Ethylhexyloxyphenol Methoxyphenyl Triazine); Cetearyl Alcohol thirteenth; carries the alcohol-free and the fragrance and essential oil free tags, read by eye rather than by search; 40 ingredient links, matching 40 table rows; two ingredient names contain a zero-width character. link
[2] Anua Heartleaf Silky Moisture Sunscreen, listing slug anua-heartleaf-silky-moisture-sunscreen: Houttuynia Cordata Extract eighteenth with no percentage printed; the same five UV filters, at positions 4, 5, 16, 17 and 30; Cetearyl Alcohol thirteenth; Tocopherol fortieth; the same two tags; 41 ingredient links. link
[3] Anua Heartleaf Silky Moisture Mild Sunscreen, Broad Spectrum SPF 50+, listing slug anua-heartleaf-silky-moisture-mild-sunscreen-broad-spectrum-spf-50: active ingredients printed first as Avobenzone (3.0%), Homosalate (7.3%), Octisalate (5.0%), Octocrylene (9.0%); Houttuynia Cordata Extract twenty-first with no percentage; Cetyl Alcohol twentieth; 47 ingredient links. Filters identified by slug, which is how avobenzone was matched to butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane and octisalate to ethylhexyl salicylate. link
[4] Ethylhexyl Triazone ingredient entry, quoted complete for the sentence used above: “It can be used up to 5% worldwide except for the US and Canada.” link
Retailer product pages (read directly on 2026-07-30):
[5] Anua Heartleaf Silky Moisture Sun Cream, 50ml, catalog no. 1135246649: ingredient list opens “Water, Houttuynia Cordata Extract (300,000 ppm), Dibutyl Adipate”; Polygonum Cuspidatum Root Extract printed twice consecutively; page states the list “represents all options or variants of this product”; brand blurb on the same page names the bestsellers as the Heartleaf 77% Soothing Toner, the Heartleaf 80% Soothing Ampoule and the 5-Zero Mild Sun Cream, none of which is this sunscreen. link
[6] Anua Heartleaf Silky Moisture Mild Sunscreen OTC Version, 50ml, catalog no. 1132931908: title carries the words OTC Version and the page is tagged OTC; ingredient list opens “Water, Octocrylene, Homosalate, Ethylhexyl Salicylate” in cosmetic order with Houttuynia Cordata Extract twenty-first, which matches the order on the database listing at [3] after allowing for the actives-first arrangement there. link
Medical literature search (run 2026-07-30, counts recorded so they can be re-run):
[7] PubMed searches: Houttuynia cordata alone returned 504 records; with skin, 24; with topical, 6; with erythema or photoprotection, 2. The two in the last set were opened. PMID 33383913, Molecules 2020, tests a distillate of a fermented mixture of nine anti-inflammatory herbs on mouse dorsal skin. PMID 34961096, Plants 2021, tests a hyperoside-enriched fraction from Houttuynia cordata on ultraviolet-B-treated human fibroblasts. Neither is a test of a finished sunscreen on people. link
Topics: Alcohol-Free · Anua · Heartleaf (Houttuynia) · Ingredient Lists · Korea vs Abroad · All topics
