You might have heard about K-Beauty – a manner of skin care and a variety of cosmetics from South Korea. The K-Beauty phenomenon has gained popularity worldwide, particularly in East, Southeast, and South Asia, as well as in the United States.
But what is K-Beauty, really? One might think that it just means putting on some face masks and following an extensive skin care routine for both the morning and the evening – but it is more than that. While it is true that skincare products play a vital role, K-Beauty culture goes beyond them; it is a holistic practice that involves a healthy lifestyle. Combining a healthy lifestyle with quality products like those from COSRX in the Philippines is one of the many secrets of K-Beauty
When it comes to topical skin care, though, there are several K-Beauty steps and methods that contribute to the overall goal of healthy and beautiful skin.
Skin Goals
K-Beauty is not all about the products; it’s a mindset. What everyone should remember about K-Beauty is that its ultimate goal is healthy, pristine, glowing skin. This involves analyzing your skin and determining its problem areas so that you can buy the appropriate products and plan out your skincare regimen and treatments. K-Beauty doesn’t rely wholly on makeup to cover up blemishes. It aims to remove those blemishes – or even prevent them, in the first place.
The Ten-Step Routine
The ten-step routine is a popular aspect of K-Beauty. There are four main aspects to this routine, namely cleansing, skin prep, nourishment, and protection.
Cleansing involves using both an oil cleanser and a water-based cleanser, as well as an exfoliator, to ensure that your skin is completely free from dirt, makeup, and any other residue. Next, to prep your skin for other products, you will have to use a toner, which further cleans the face while it prepares your skin to easily absorb the products that follow.
Nourishment makes up the bulk of the ten-step routine. For this section, firstly, you will have to use essences, then boosters, serums, and ampoules, to give your skin its much-needed nutrients and vitamins. Afterwards, you’d want to make use of a sheet face mask to moisturize your skin. Lastly, to hydrate and prevent dark circles from forming, you should pat eye cream to the areas around your eyes.
Finally, the ten-step routine concludes with the application of products to help protect your skin. These products include moisturizers, which can come in many forms such as lotions, gels, creams, and sleeping masks, and sunscreen.
If following these ten steps seems daunting, don’t worry. You don’t have to do all of them; just the ones that target your own particular skin problems. After all, everyone’s skin is unique. No one routine can fit everyone.
Use the Products Right
K-Beauty employs a lot of products. Typically, these products are specially created to treat particular skin problems. However, using the right products for your skin condition isn’t enough – you should also know the right order in which to put them on. There is a specific order for each layer of product, in the ten-step routine.
Other than knowing when and where to put your skin care products, you should also be aware of how you put them on. You can’t just smear those products on your face – you should pat on your eye cream, for instance, and dab the essences. Haphazardly slathering these creams and toners on your face is not the best approach.
Following K-Beauty practices is just one way to achieve healthy, beautiful skin. In the end, skin care is a trial and error process. There’s no way you can get it right the first time, or copy someone else’s skincare routine and expect to get the same results. Your skincare routine should be customized to your own particular skin type and skin problems.