How to do 10-step Korean Skincare correctly

Whether you have heard about the famous 10-step Korean Skin care routine or not, it is obvious to say that Korean are serious about their skincare and they contribute a lot of time and effort to achieve a healthy glass skin! The secret is not hard to find if you follow these steps in your skincare routine!

Step #1: Oil-Based Cleanser

This step will do an excellent job of removing makeup, dirt, oil, SPF, and pollution from the day. It goes deep into pores and draws out all the trapped gunk; it dissolves and breaks down makeup, sometimes even stubborn, waterproof makeup; and it sweeps away any excess sebum.

Step #2: Water-based Cleanser

Korean skin care products have a variety of water-based cleansers (like cleansing gel or foam) that ensure deeper cleansing of the skin compared to just using an oil cleanser by itself. It’s a mild yet effective way to rinse off the possible residue of the oil cleanser. Besides, many water cleansers contain ingredients that are beneficial to your skin: think of salicylic acid to purify, or aloe to soothe.

Step #3: Exfoliator

Exfoliants help to remove dead skin cells and debris that pile up on your skin and clog your pores, leading to a dull skin tone and blemished skin. Regular exfoliating will help to smooth out the skin while revealing your natural glow. Famous chemical exfoliants are BHA's (salicylic acid) and AHA's (lactic acid, glycolic acid), but there are many more, each with their own characteristics. Physical exfoliants (a.k.a. scrubs, peeling gel) use tiny particles like sugar grains or walnut shells to exfoliate the skin and make it feel soft and smooth.

Step #4: Toner

Toners will amp up the hydrating levels of your skin and help you achieve that dewy, healthy skin. They prep your skin for the following steps in your routine, ensuring that any serums or moisturizers you use afterwards will be absorbed in to the skin more effectively. Toners are generally geared towards hydrating the skin, but most Korean toners will contain antioxidants or soothing plant extracts that are beneficial in other ways.

Step #5: Essence

The primary purpose of an essence is to flood skin with hydration. Why is this such a vital step in a skincare routine? When you first prep skin with an essence, the essence drenches your skin with hydration, maximizing your skin’s ability to absorb all the goodness from the rest of your skincare routine.

Step #6: Serum or Ampoule

Serums tend to be more concentrated in its active ingredients, these emollient gel-like substances often feature heavy-hitting ingredients meant to really target and treat skin issues like dark spots, wrinkles and dullness. Usually, serums have a more viscous texture than essences.

Ampoules are considered to be more concentrated version of a serum, think of it as a booster shot. They often contain a higher concentration of active ingredients and are used for a finite amount of time. For example, you may want to use a weekly ampoule pack so you can get big results before a big event or after a major skin crisis. You may often see them in smaller vials or dropper bottles as a little goes a long way here.

Step #7: Sheet Mask

Ahh, the face mask! It's like a perfect marriage of skincare and relaxation. There are lots of different face masks, all geared towards different skin types and skin issues. Sheet masks do two main things: they flood your skin with hydration and other active, beneficial ingredients, and they create a barrier over your skin so that those active, beneficial ingredients can better sink into your skin. Most often soaked in an essence, the sheet mask itself prevents all the hydration packed into that essence from simply evaporating away into the air. Instead, because of that barrier, the essence ideally has nowhere to go but into your skin.

Step #8: Eye Cream

The skin around your eyes is delicate and thin. It's where the first signs of aging usually creep up: hello fine lines, eye bags and crows feet. Applying an eye cream before or after moisturizer is OK – whatever feels best for your routine based on what moisturizer and eye cream you’re using. Having said that, we typically recommend applying an eye cream before your moisturizer so that the eye area is treated prior to your moisturizer which you may apply over your eye area as well, if that’s your preference for your particular moisturizer.

Step #9: Moisturizer

Hydrating is basically about giving skin the water it needs to be, well, hydrated. Moisturizers do introduce more hydration into your skin, but it’s important to note that moisturizers come last, after super-hydrating products like essences and serums and oils, because many moisturizers contain these things called occlusive. Occlusive is ingredient that creates a hydrophobic film on the surface of skin, which is a fancy way of saying that they create a seal by forming a thin layer of oil that prevents water from evaporating out of your skin. In other words, occlusive helps prevent transepidermal water loss.

Step #10: Sunscreen (Day Time)

Sunscreen isn't just important during those sunny days at the beach. During the colder months the UV index may be low, but if you're outside all day or your office is located near a sunny window, consider wearing sunscreen all year round. There are two types of UV that affect our skin: UVA and UVB. UVB is the kind that causes skin burning in the form of redness and blistering, so those negative results show up pretty quickly. UVA is the sneaky form of UV that penetrates deeper into the skin, to destroy collagen and make your skin age faster. The harm done by UVA tends to show up later in life, manifesting itself in saggy skin, uneven skin tone, wrinkles and even an increased risk of cancer. Therefore, during day time and on a daily basis, sunscreen is a must in order to protect skin from harmful UV rays!