Korean skin care

Jul 4, 2016

Liz S.

I love the TONYMOLY sheet masks in general, especially the panda's dream eye mask and the pureness100 caviar mask. The etude house wonder pore line is perfect for congested pores. As a word of warning check the ingredients for an existing alcohol or mineral oil content.

Jul 4, 2016

Kailey L.

Oh man I could talk your ear off about this. Korean skincare saved my skin. It's been awful since I was 11, and I am now 26 and it has finally become clear, and smooth, and radiant, and lovely. I use a mix of things. What has made the biggest difference in my skin is the Mizon snail line: the snail recovery cream gel, all-in-one repair cream, and eye cream. Sounds gross, but it's my little miracle worker. I also use their AHA 8% peelinh serum with lovely results. I follow that up with Etude House Honey Cera emulsion, which makes my skin insanely soft (without making me oily) and it smells divine. I quite like the hyaluronic acid serum by It's Skin, it's like a cross between a serum and a moisturizer, which is great in the summer for my oily skin. And lastly, Benton's Snail Bee High Content Essence is my HG morning serum. Clears up any redness instantly, plumps up my skin, and just feels great going on. And it soaks in quickly so it's great under makeup. Just be wary if you have an allergy to bees, of course. I hope this has helped some! You should check out the are/AsianBeauty reddit thread, those girls are insanely helpful and well informed and can get you started on your asian skincare journey :)

Jul 5, 2016

dalal a.

Kaily how does snail products feel in hands and on face.. is it slimy or how? I can't imagine the texture? I don't mind the source I'm just terrified by its texture.

Jul 5, 2016

Ealu T.

I'm so glad I came across this thread. I've been looking at Korean skincare too and I've just ordered the Mizon Snail recovery all in one repair cream and the Hyaluronic serum.

@Kailey Have you tried the Hyaluronic serum? I'm also looking to get an overnight sleeping mask too, do you have any recommendations? Have you tried Mizon 's AHA BHA toner? sorry for bombarding you with all these questions.

Jul 6, 2016

Kailey L.

@Ealu it's no problem! I haven't tried Mizon's hyaluronic acid serum, but I've yet to try a product from them that I didn't love, so I expect it'll be great! I haven't tried the AHA/BHA toner, but it's on my list. It's a lot of people's holy grail toner, everyone seems to love it. I'm just trying to find a place for it my routine since asian toners are what we would call lotions or emulsions, and I've got those in spades! As for sleeping packs it'll really depend on your skin type and what you want it to do, but for my oily/dehydrated skin I like Mizon Good Night White or Laneige Water Sleeping Pack.

Jul 6, 2016

Kailey L.

@Stacie, sorry this response is so late! I'm definitely no expert on the subject, but I'll do my best. The most basic philosophy of asian skincare is personalization. When you think about western skincare, it's all about efficiency. All-in-one, multi-purpose, "5 benefits in one" but unless your skin is very normal and you're just looking to keep it that way, the western approach (at least with some products) likely won't work, and you will go through LOTS of trial and error before you find something that works, and that trial and error can wreak havoc on your skin. What's great about asian skincare is how customizable it is. The multi-step product approach can be a little intimidating at first, but in my experience, at least with the products I've tried, everything absorbs sooo much faster than in western skincare, so even though I'm layering more products, I don't feel like it's taking that much more time to do so. Generally speaking, you'll want to introduce products one at a time, giving at least 2 weeks (preferably a month) before introducing something else, to give your skin time to adjust, to know if it works for you, and so you don't have to guess what is working and what isn't. If you want to go all the way with asian skincare, after slowly introducing all the products your routine would look something like this:
Emulsifying oil cleanser
Foam/milk/powder/gel cleanser
Chemical Exfoliator/Toner
Essence/Ampoule
Serum
Emulsion
Lotion
Cream
Facial oils
Sunscreen

Let me be the first to say, you DON't need all of that. You can sort of pick and choose, based on your skin type and concerns. For instance, if you have very, very dry skin you may want to use serum, emulsion, lotion, and cream. But you could also make the choice to use a western moisturizer during the day to cut out a few products, and a sleeping pack at night. Or if you're very oily, you may want serum and emulsion only. It's also really important in asian skincare to give your actives (retinol, glycolic acid, salicylic acid, etc) time to work, a minumum of 20 minutes, more if you can stand it. What else... oh, when you're looking at products, keep in mind that things do get lost in translation and they can use words for different meanings than we're used to. For instance, you'll see "whitening" on a lot of products. This is NOT skin bleach, by whitening it more often than not means brightening. Also toners, in western skincare are typically astringent and meant to dry up oily skin types which is a big no-no in asian skincare. Expect more of a thin, but milky texture to asian toners, typically meant to bring the pH of your skin back to normal to prep it for actives, but can also be used for other reasons.

That's all I can really think of at the moment, but there's so much more info out there. I highly recommend the are/AsianBeauty subreddit, there is so much useful information there. Just go there and search your skin type and that's a good way to get started. When you're ready to purchase, I would avoid places like Amazon or ebay, as they can have a lot of fakes and overcharge. I've really liked roseroseshop, but there are many other online markets to choose from. Good luck!

Jul 6, 2016

Kailey L.

@dalal it depends on the product but for the most part it doesn't feel slimy, like you might expect. Generally speaking, it makes whatever form it's coming in a little thinner. So it makes a cream feel more like a lotion, a serum more like an essence, etc.

Jul 6, 2016

dalal a.

Thanks kaily for painting a clearer picture.. mighy try some soon.

Jul 7, 2016

Ealu T.

@Kailey Thank you so much for your response, I will try to post an update once I start using the Hyaluronic serum. I have combination oily skin, and I've ordered Too Cool for School's Pumpkin mask, I have the Laneige one on my list too. also, thank you for listing the order in which to use these products, it's really helpful.
I'm also waiting on the Mizon black sugar Scrub which I've only read amazing reviews of. Can't wait!