What hyaluronic acid boosters and PN injections improve, and what stays the same

"The dewy look only lasted a few days." I hear this often in skin booster consultations. Hyaluronic acid boosters, PN, Rejuran, Hyraura: there are so many names that many people cannot tell them apart.

A skin booster is not one treatment. It is the umbrella name for injections that place small amounts of an ingredient into the shallow layer of the skin. The hyaluronic acid type holds water; this is what Koreans call mulgwang, the "water glow" injection. The PN type is made of DNA fragments taken from salmon, which is why it is often called the salmon injection in Korea.

When someone asks whether hyaluronic acid boosters really work, I go through the research with them. A 2025 analysis gathered studies of hyaluronic acid injections. It found 12 studies comparing treated and untreated skin and pooled the 6 whose numbers could be combined.

This means a hyaluronic acid booster suits skin that you want moist and glowing, and falls short for skin that is sagging and lacks firmness. Only six studies could be pooled, so the authors also wrote that more research is needed to confirm it.

What about PN? A 2026 study followed 42 people who received PN for fine lines around the eyes for six months.

At one, three and six months, their own ratings of the under-eye area and crow's feet were better than before treatment, and side effects were minimal. The largest improvement and highest satisfaction came at three months, after two sessions.

But the study had no untreated comparison group, and the ratings came from questionnaires the patients filled in themselves. It is fair to say people improved. It is not possible to pin down how much better PN made them.

One injection is unlikely to handle hydration, repair and firmness all at once.

Even when someone arrives with a treatment name already chosen, the consultation starts with what state the skin is in now. See which of these is closest to you.

• Skin feels tight and flakes after washing
• Makeup lifts and the face has no glow
• The area around the nasolabial folds looks deep, but filler feels like too much

The first two are about water. The last is about the layer that supports the skin. If the skin is dry and dull, a hyaluronic acid booster fits.

If the area around the folds looks hollow, repeating shallow injections is not enough; the supporting layer has to be looked at too. If the folds come from sagging, lifting comes before filling. In that case a lifting treatment such as Ten Triple is considered alongside.

Many people who say their face looks the same after a hyaluronic acid booster were really bothered by lost firmness, not dryness. It is the same point as the analysis above, where elasticity did not change.

Some people say the area around the folds looks hollow and the skin texture is rough as well. When both concerns are present, I do Hyraura, a hyaluronic acid booster and PN together.

The hyaluronic acid booster handles water and glow in the shallow layer, and PN supports the skin's ability to repair. Hyraura is a skin booster designed to target the layer between the dermis and the fat beneath it, the layer that supports the skin. It does not fill in a lump, so a hard foreign-body feel or clumping is rare.

I am a key doctor for CHA Meditech, the maker of Hyraura. As chief academic director of the Korean Academy of Cosmetic Surgery and Aesthetic Medicine (KACS), I also lecture other doctors on skin treatments at academic meetings.

When someone asks which skin booster they should get, I ask two things first: whether dryness, fine lines or the area around the folds bothers them most, and, if they have had skin boosters or filler before, the name and date of that treatment.

An injection that raises hydration and one that supports firmness are different. So I recommend deciding after the skin has been examined rather than by the product name.