Makes the skin soft and tender
“A very, very good cream, makes the skin soft and tender, helps and supports, I really like using it in my skincare routine”
Hyejin
THE SKIN REPORT
By Erin Calloway
SKININGREDIENTSROUTINE
100M+ tubes sold in Korea
Rated 4.8/5 across 748 reviews
30,000ppm TECA, not a token amount
Since 1968 four patents on the extraction
ROUTINES · WHAT ACTUALLY SURVIVES
5 Reasons Nobody Finishes A Ten Step Routine, And The Two Steps That Replaced Mine
(#2 is why the formula was never the problem)
By Erin Calloway · Last Updated September 2026 · 7 min read
Nine days in, and the essence already has a ring round the cap.
100M+Tubes sold in Korea
30,000ppmTECA in Time Reverse
20,000ppmPDRN in Active Renew
1968Dongkook Pharmaceutical
30 dayMoney back guarantee
Everyone starts a ten step routine in January.
Toner, essence, ampoule, serum, eye cream, sheet mask twice a week, the lot. You buy them together, you line them up on the shelf in order, and for about nine days you are a person who does this.
Then a late night happens. Then another. By March the essence has a dried ring round the cap and you have gone back to washing your face and going to bed, quietly assuming you lack discipline.
You do not. The routine was badly designed for a human being, and here are five reasons almost nobody finishes one.
The Madeca Best Duo
PDRN repair cream, then 30,000ppm TECA firming cream. Sixty seconds a night, in that order.
See the current offerDongkook, est. 1968 · Free express shipping · 30 day guarantee
It did not fail on the formula.
- ×Ten steps takes twelve to fifteen minutes, always at the end of the day.
- × You choose it on a Sunday and have to keep it on a Wednesday at half eleven.
- × A product abandoned in week two does nothing, whatever is in it.
- × Skin works in weeks and months, so four good nights is not a slower result.
- × And eight of the ten steps were never the structural part.
See what women are using instead
Buy 2 Get 1 Free, thirty days to decide
#1
Ten steps is a commitment you make at your best and keep at your worst
(nine days is the usual number)
A ten step routine takes twelve to fifteen minutes when you are paying attention. Call it an hour and a half a week, always at the end of the day, always when you are least inclined.
You choose it on a Sunday afternoon feeling organised. You have to keep it on a Wednesday at half past eleven, and the version of you making that decision is a different person with different priorities.
Any routine that only works when you are at your best is going to spend most of the year not working.
#2
It does not fail on the formula. It fails on a Tuesday.
(this is the whole thing)
Almost nothing in skincare fails because the ingredients were wrong. It fails at the point it becomes a chore.
A product you abandon in week two does nothing at all, regardless of what is in it, and skin works on a timescale of weeks and months rather than days. Four good nights and a fortnight off is not a slower version of the result. It is no result.
Which means consistency is not a virtue you bring to the routine. It is a property the routine either has or does not have.
What two steps cost against ten
What ten steps costs to set up and keep
- Toner, essence and ampoule$90 to $210
- Serum and eye cream$110 to $270
- Sheet masks, twice a week for a year$100 to $260
- Moisturizer and night cream$80 to $240
- Replacements across the rest of the year$380 to $980
A typical year of ten steps$760 to $1,960
The two creams, six months$74.99
Typical US retail ranges. The time is separate, roughly eighty hours a year at twelve to fifteen minutes a night. Ours is the Buy 2 Get 1 Free price and it is not a subscription.
See what women are using instead
Buy 2 Get 1 Free, thirty days to decide
#3
Two of those ten steps were doing most of the work
(and they were not the expensive ones)
Strip a long routine back and what survives is a repair step and a firming step, in that order.
The repair step is PDRN. It appears on an ingredient list as sodium DNA, and it came out of wound care rather than cosmetics, which is why Korean clinics apply it the moment a laser treatment finishes. It works on the layer underneath, the one a moisturizer never reaches.
The firming step is TECA, the concentrated form of centella asiatica, at 30,000ppm. Firmness, lines, tone, on the surface.
Order matters. The second one plateaus if the first has not been done.
- Step one, PDRN. Rebuilds the layer underneath
- Step two, 30,000ppm TECA. Firmness, lines, tone
- Everything else in the ten was supporting these two
Side by side, honestly
| Ten steps | Two steps | |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs | $760 to $1,960 a year | $74.99 for six months |
| Time at night | 12 to 15 minutes | 60 seconds |
| Steps to remember | Ten, in order | Two, in order |
| On a late night | You skip the lot | You still do it |
| Still doing it in March | Almost nobody | The point of it |
| If it does nothing | You blame yourself | Thirty days, money back |
#4
What the other eight steps were actually for
(mostly hydration and habit)
Toner adjusts pH for a few minutes. Essence and ampoule are lighter, wetter versions of the same hydration the cream gives you. Eye cream is usually moisturizer in a smaller jar at four times the price. Sheet masks are a delivery method, not an ingredient.
None of that is fraud and some of it is pleasant. It is simply not the part doing the structural work, and it is the part that makes the routine long enough to quit.
Cleanse. PDRN, pea sized, patted in. Time Reverse straight over the top. Bed. Nothing to rinse, nothing to plan an evening around, and nothing that stops working if you skip a Tuesday.
Both creams are made by Centellian24, owned by Dongkook Pharmaceutical, who have been working on centella extraction since 1968 and hold four patents on the extraction alone. The cream has sold over 100 million tubes in Korea, a country of 52 million people.
Sixty seconds, every night
- Step 1Cleanse and leave the skin slightly damp
- Step 2PDRN repair cream first, a pea sized amount, face and neck
- Step 3Time Reverse over the top, same amount
- MorningSunscreen. Nothing else changes
- PDRN at 20,000ppm, the repair step Korean clinics inject
- 30,000ppm TECA, the concentrated Centella fraction
- Madecassoside, the wound healing compound in both creams
- Niacinamide for tone and pores
- Four patents on the extraction, held since 1968
What is actually in them
What to honestly expect
- Week 1 to 2Skin feels calmer and less tight. Nothing you could photograph yet
- Week 3 to 5Redness settles and texture smooths. Most people stop here and should not
- Week 6 to 8Firmness is the slow one. This is where the jawline shows up
- Week 8+It compounds. This is the point of doing it nightly rather than sometimes
See the current offer
Free express shipping, three to five days
4.8748 Reviews
The Cream That Changed Everything
The texture is as always phenomenal
“I have their normal moisturizer and wanted to get the PDRN one too. The texture is as always phenomenal. The smell is strong in this one too but it goes away.”
Deja
89%
of users noticed calmer, more hydrated skin within the first week
I still appreciate it's texture especially for nighttime
“Though I have been trying this moisturizer during the summer, I still appreciate it's texture especially for nighttime. It has that bodied comfort that prevents TEWL and holds moisture till the next morning. It's not at all that heavy, sticky or stuffy. It's also easy to work in.”
Siobhan
My sensitive skin absorbs it quickly
“Light & nourishing with a slightly herbal scent. My sensitive skin absorbs it quickly.”
eleanor M.
91%
of users noticed firmer, smoother skin within the first two weeks
Who this is actually for
- You have started a long routine more than once
- The essence on your shelf has a ring round the cap
- You want the two steps that were doing the work
- You will do two steps at night and nothing more
- You would rather finish something for $74.99 than start another shelf
This is for you if
The part nobody puts on the page
A ten step shelf is rarely under two hundred dollars to assemble, and most of it expires before it is finished.
The two creams together are $39.99. Retail for the pair is $66.50, and the gap is there because we import direct rather than through a US distributor.
Two 50ml tubes used once a night is roughly two months. That works out at under seventy cents a day.
Most people take the Buy 2 Get 1 Free, which is six months of both creams for $74.99. That is forty two cents a day, and six months is long enough that consistency stops being a question.
- 4.8 out of 5 across 748 reviews, the critical ones still up
- 30,000ppm TECA, not a token amount added for the label
- Over 100 million tubes sold in Korea, a country of 52 million
- Made by a pharmaceutical company working on this since 1968
- Free express shipping, three to five days
- Sixty seconds a night, and it survives a skipped Tuesday
Free express shipping, three to five days
What about SPF?
Keep it. Sunscreen in the morning is the one step worth protecting from any simplification, and these two are a night routine, so they do not compete with it.
Can I just buy one?
You can, and plenty of people start there. But the firming cream on its own plateaus, because the slackness is coming from a layer it cannot reach, and the repair cream on its own does not touch the lines on the surface. One gets you half.
How fast will I see anything?
Calmer skin in the first week or two. Texture around week three to five. Firmness is the slow one and it lands closer to week six to eight. Anyone promising a jawline in seven days is selling you another lap.
Do I have to do it every night?
Nightly is what the reviews are based on. Five nights a week still moves. Twice a week does not, and I would rather tell you that now than take your money.
Is PDRN safe, and what actually is it?
Polydeoxyribonucleotide, derived from salmon DNA. Korean dermatology clinics have used it for years and it is what they inject in the repair step. This is the topical version at 20,000ppm from Dongkook, a pharmaceutical company established in 1968. It is a cosmetic, not a drug, and it is not intended to treat any condition.
Will it break me out?
The firming cream is rich, which is why it is a night cream. Patch behind the ear for two nights if you are reactive. Both passed skin irritation testing. Skin is skin and mine is not yours.
What if it does nothing for me?
Thirty days, money back, and you are not asked to post the creams back. That is the only reason I tried it instead of keeping the appointment.
#5
Thirty days, and you keep the creams
(no form, no return label)
This is the part most pages bury and it should not be buried.
Use it for thirty days. If nothing has changed, email and you get your money back. You keep the creams. There is no form, no return label, and nobody asking you to explain yourself.
Thirty nights of a sixty second routine is a fair test in a way that thirty nights of a ten step routine never was, because you will actually have done it.
4.8 out of 5 across 748 reviews, and the critical ones are still on the page because deleting them would tell you less than leaving them up.
What women actually wrote
Night Cream with Niacinamide, Panthenol, Centella Asiatica, Hyaluronic Acid, Ceramide NP & Retinol. My favorite anti-aging cream. It's hydrating without leaving a greasy feel. I use it in my evening routine because it goes well with the peptide serums I use at night. I definitely recommend it.
Harper, verified buyerLayered with peptide serumsThis Centellian24 Madeca Cream is lightweight and fast absorbing. It hydrated my skin. It contains Active TECA. It has been working great for my combination skin especially during the winter season.
Tammy West, verified buyerCombination skin, winterthis product has a really nice smell.. and it is so moisturising.. makes the skin feel soft and glowy.. works well under makeup.. I apply it day and night
Emma, verified buyerElasticity and glowThe shelf is not a discipline problem.
Two creams, sixty seconds a night, and thirty days to find out what happens when you actually finish something.
See the current offer
4.8 from 748 reviews and a 30 day guarantee
Sources
- Centellian24 is made by Dongkook Pharmaceutical, which has worked on centella asiatica extraction since 1968 and holds four patents on the extraction.
- Review figures are taken from verified purchases on this store and were 4.8 out of 5 across 748 reviews at the time of writing.
The customer reviews shown here are real and unedited, taken from verified purchases on this store. Individual results vary. This is a cosmetic product and nothing here is medical advice.