25 Best Korean Skin-Care Products of 2024 Loved By K-Beauty Experts and Vogue Editors
In our journey to discover the most effective beauty products, the best Korean skin-care products are top of mind. Why? According to Charlotte Cho, cofounder of marketplace Soko Glam, good skin care is embedded into Korean culture.
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Why Korean beauty?
“At a young age, Korean children are taught the importance of moisturizing, exfoliating, cleansing the skin thoroughly, and protecting their skin with SPF,” she says. And these beauty traditions, she explains, are passed down through generations.
“For example, a common bathhouse tradition is to splash spoiled milk onto faces after cleansing as milk contains lactic acid, which helps smooth and brighten skin,” says Glow Recipe cofounder Christine Chang. “This tradition is an example of the Korean consumers’ approach to gentle exfoliation over harsh, physical exfoliation.”
These traditions are coupled with innovative technologies to create products that are beneficial to treating an array of concerns. The result? The entrance of new ingredients like snail mucin or categories like essences. Cho notes that many of the ingredients we’ve come to associate with K-beauty products come from hanbang, or traditional Korean medicine, like ginseng, green tea, and lotus.
