It’d be safe to claim that K-Beauty has become a force to be reckoned; successfully solidifying its existence in the mainstream world of cosmetics and skincare industry. According to Wikipedia, K-Beauty is an umbrella term referring to Korean cosmetics and skin care from South Korea (that’s obvious…) and the wave has reached far and wide to many parts of the world in a short pace of time.
For a while now, Korean cosmetics and skin care products have topped the shopping list of tourists who visit Korea. The main characteristics of K-Beauty products are that they’re mild, high-in-moisture, natural, dewy with less pigmentation than the standard western cosmetic products. In this article, we’ll cover the basics on what K-Beauty can offer you.
1. K-Beauty is Unique & Diverse…
Whether you’re in need for an excellent anti-aging factor or just looking to try out something new, you may want to try out K-Beauty for a change. Simultaneously, I really do advise you to choose wisely when selecting K-Beauty products, especially when (or you’re a newbie) you decide to settle with a new item. There are countless Korean brands and products that are reliable, certified, top-class quality manufactured by established businesses
but I personally would not advise anyone to just grab an item, just because it has “MADE IN KOREA” on its packaging or website description. Don’t let that fool you.
Do your research and watch/read a lot of unbiased reviews before making the wise purchase. If something is ridiculously cheap, then there’s probably a good reason why that may be so. A great product consisting a lot of natural ingredients, ability to preserve the skin and not cause any irritations or problematic issues, is basically what I look for. Read the description and ingredients. Some might have dodgy English translations but they will more or less convey their meaning to the reader.
As with selecting any other skin products, the trick is to find the right K-Beauty product that matches and suits your skin type – which is not easy as it sounds– I also recommend that you find separate skin and cosmetic products for each season, as your skin condition shifts. If something works well for you all days of the year, that’s really great but the intensity of the heat, humidity, the exposure to the sun should all be taken into consideration when picking the right K-Beauty products that truly benefit and elevate the well-being of your skin.
2. Innovative
Koreans are very sensitive to trend and love coming up with new and innovative ideas for products. The same goes for K-Beauty.
You can find wide range of unique skin products of all kinds of ingredients like fruit, veggies, stem cells, mugwort, gold, nano, honey, pearl, ginseng, green tea and other things that you probably never even imagined being used for skincare. It’s also fun to pick out different mask sheets and other basic skin care products that are mild and soothing to the skin tone and provides moisture… It’s hard to keep up with all the new products emerging all the time, but with K-Beauty, it definitely adds more fun to your daily skin routine. It’s a no brainer why certain K-Beauty products have a cult following.
3. Moisture, Dewy skin, Glass Skin…
If you have intensely dry/sensitive skin, you’d need to get the inner skin hydrated, moisturized and revitalized first. The quicker you start the better. Don’t wait until you get wrinkles, because dryness of the skin can hasten wrinkles and make one look older than they are. I’m quite convinced that Korean skin care and cosmetics will assist you in this department, since they are designed to promote the soft moisture and dewiness that keep you from getting chapped lips or itchy forehead for instance. What you apply before you go to bed is super crucial, as you all know. Vast change rarely happens overnight, but in some cases, it could.
The majority of Korean cosmetic brands are created to produce what we call ~ glass skin (flawless, translucent skin) because clean, bright shine bring out the best in your skin tone and boost your appearance in many forms and ways. Some say, beauty is only skin deep – and they may be right about that, ha-ha.
4. Advanced Science Technology
K-Beauty skin brands are very competitive and they drive hard to produce the most effective skin item that becomes the next big thing and recognized for their uniqueness and level of performance. These might be one of the factors that makes Korean skin products reliable, safe and effective to the skin. Skin experts and professional marketers work to tackle and resolve skin troubles via vast amounts of scientific research and experiments.
Korean labs for cosmetics aim to develop new and innovative skin products with natural, organic, healthy ingredients and contents to bring the best to their clients with the help of modern technology. Many of these labs oppose testing on animals too, and we predict to find more vegan products to emerge.
5. Korean Herbal Medicine…
Korean herbal medicine – a.k.a Oriental medicine – skin products are known to be antioxidant, effective in calming inflammation, with amazing anti-aging effects that are full of nutrients and organic ingredients. Anything that protects the skin from air pollution should be immensely praised, and Korean herbal medicine is trusted to protect your skin from harmful substances, germs and all types of pollution.
Korean medicine brand cosmetics are usually pricey, compared to the rest, especially the oldest Korean herbal medicine brand (yes, that brand that starts with a “S”) created in the mid 60’s, but it definitely has reasons for being steep in terms of the cost.
The primary ingredient, which is ginseng, is extremely rare and takes many years to cultivate. It took a lot of time in the laboratory and years of research to come up with the first ever Korean herbal medicine brand that the world has ever seen. Korean Herbal Medicine skin products are highly recommended to people who want to remove wrinkles and maintain a youthful look, and those with various skin complications. There are a few other Korean Herbal brands of a considerably lower range price available too.
6. The cost
Most of you’ll agree that K-Beauty products are overall ~ affordable. Most legit items actually perform beyond their cost. Just because something is moderately priced, it doesn’t necessarily mean the effects are less than mediocre, and vice-versa.
Since there are so many K-Beauty brands competing with one another, many tend to price their products at the minimum price range. The price would not only vary depending on the content, but other aspects like packaging, the promotion, the endorsement and more would be taken into consideration.
Established cosmetic companies do tend to have higher range of products available but one company will own few to several brands targeting different age groups… I’ve witnessed middle-aged youtubers reviewing “K-Beauty makeup products” that’s usually targeted for teenagers and I found that somewhat strange. You don’t want to purchase something just because it looked cute and on a bargain. Look into the ingredients before making a purchase; anything full of chemicals and artificial which is harmful for your skin shouldn’t really be on your radar.
If you search the brand or the manufacture online and it’s not available, even in Korean, then you could assume the company isn’t established (or reliable), for that matter. A reputable cosmetics company would never do business without a website in the 21st century.
7. K-Beauty for Men
It’s no secret that a lot of young millennial men in Korea choose to wear concealers, BB cream, foundation and whatnot… Due to that reason, K-Beauty products for men were able to strive to develop products suitable for the male consumers. These days, skin management requires more than just dabbing aftershave and sunblock cream. Grooming is now considered as mandatory and no one of any gender would want to accelerate skin-aging… Of course, you can find skin products for men elsewhere as well ~ but quite a number of K-Beauty brands create their products exclusively to suit the male skin and tone, by using natural, organic and beneficial-to-the-skin formulas for men.
As the days are growing hotter and more humid this season, more people are looking to protect their skin from sun damage, and through this article, I’m suggesting that this might be a good opportunity to search for what could become your next must-have K-Beauty item.
— J. Chung.