These Are the Best Korean Skin-Care Products to Shop Now

In our journey to discover the most effective beauty products, we’re eager to learn as much as we can about cosmetics. Right now, we’re delving into the best Korean skin care products.

Why Korean beauty?

Charlotte Cho, co-founder of marketplace Soko Glam, explains that Korean traditions are at the heart of the K-beauty philosophy and how good skin care is embedded into Korean culture. “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 co-founder 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 come from hanbang or traditional Korean medicine like ginseng, green tea, and lotus.

Beyond the ingredients, Glow Recipe’s other co-founder, Sarah Lee, explains how K Beauty also preaches tackling your specific skin-care concerns day by day. “Skin is different every day and instead of boxing yourself into a set skin type, it’s so important to listen to our skin and treat that day’s concerns with the right products,” she says. “Your skin will tell you how it feels each day and is influenced by many factors—how much sleep you had the night before, the climate, stress, and environmental aggressors can all affect your skin in a different way each day.”

This versatile, customized approach to treating skin can certainly aid anyone’s regimen. With that, read on to discover the best Korean skin-care products to add to your routine.

Neogen Day-Light Protection Airy Sunscreen

• Key Ingredients: A lightweight sunscreen infused with SPF 50 and 20 plant extracts like aloe, tea tree oil, and avocado.
• Skin Benefits: Not only does this offer UV protection without greasy residue or white cast, but it is also formulated to nourish and calm skin, too.

Then I Met You Living Cleansing Balm

• Key Ingredients: A sorbet-textured balm infused with vitamin E, olive oil, persimmon extract, and sea buckthorn oil, which is rich in fatty acids and antioxidants.
• Skin Benefits: “Cleansing with an oil-based cleanser and following up with a water-based cleanser is called a double cleanse, and is a foundational part of an effective multi-step skin-care routine,” says Cho, who prefers cleansing balms to remove makeup and oil-based impurities. This is crafted to cleanse and condition simultaneously, leaving skin soft and nourished.

Peach & Lily Glass Skin Refining Serum

• Key Ingredients: A lightweight serum powered by a blend of peach extract, niacinamide, East Asian mountain yam, madecassoside, peptides, and hyaluronic acid.
• Skin Benefits: “[This] become a cult-favorite for how visibly hydrating, firming, smoothing, clarifying and brightening this universal treatment is in one easy bottle,” says Alicia Yoon, founder of Peach & Lily. Suitable for sensitive skin, the serum is known to combat dark spots and loss of elasticity to promote even-toned, supple skin.

• Key Ingredients: A lightweight moisturizer powered by 73.55% mugwort extract, an ingredient that Cho explains has long been used in Korean medicinal and wellness practices. She says, “it’s also highly regarded for its healing properties, as well as its anti-inflammatory and soothing benefits.”
• Skin Benefits: With its healing properties in mind, this cream is meant to nourish and soothe stressed, sensitive skin while protecting against environmental stressors and stimulating collagen production.

Missha Time Revolution Artemisia Treatment Essence

• Key Ingredients: A concentrated essence powered by 100% artemisia extract (mugwort).
• Skin Benefits: “An essence is super helpful at kickstarting hydration in the skin,” notes Yoon. Through the featured mugwort, expect the essence to quell sensitivity and redness.

Benton Let’s Carrot Oil Toner

• Key Ingredients: “Benton’s latest, the Let’s Carrot Oil Toner, combines a layered water (with carrot water extract) and oil formulation (with beta carotene and carrot seed oil) to prepare your skin and control excess sebum production,” Cho explains.
• Skin Benefits: “Toning is an easily misunderstood step! Basically, toners serve as both a treatment and a way to prep your skin for further products in your multi-step skin-care routine,” she says. A solution for even oily skin types, this is formulated to help balance oil production, calm irritation, and plump skin.

Cosrx Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence

• Key Ingredients: A lightweight essence powered by 96.3% snail mucin—the buzzy K-beauty ingredient made popular for its resurfacing and hydrating properties.
• Skin Benefits: Applied post cleanser and toner, this works to fade dark spots, improve hydration, and smooth skin texture—leaving skin soft and dewy.

Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops

• Key Ingredients: A lightweight jelly, highlighting serum infused with niacinamide, watermelon, hyaluronic acid, and moringa seed oil.
• Skin Benefits: A viral TikTok pick, Glow Recipe’s Dew Drops can be applied as a serum, primer, or highlighter under or over makeup. Beyond its multipurpose uses, it’s formulated to brighten skin over time—revealing a glowy, glossy finish.

• Key Ingredients: A hypoallergenic foam featuring a blend of surfactants made of botanical extracts, hyaluronic acid, ceramide, and bitter orange extract.
• Skin Benefits: This non-irritating formula offers a deep cleanse while balancing skin’s pH, moisturizing, and protecting skin from external stressors.

Innisfree Pore Clearing Clay Mask

• Key Ingredients: Innisfree’s lineup is powered by ingredients sourced from Korea’s Jeju Island. This creamy clay mask is infused with volcanic clusters from the island and lactic acid.
• Skin Benefits: Utilize this clarifying mask to slough away dead skin cells, reduce the look of pores, and absorb excess oils in a 20-minute application.

Belif Moisturizing Eye Bomb

• Key Ingredients: A silky, lightweight eye cream infused with squalane, ceramides, and centella asiatica leaf extract.
• Skin Benefits: As the name suggests, intensive hydration is the targeted benefit of this eye cream meant to plump fine lines with 26 hours of moisture for a supple under-eye.

Amorepacific Youth Revolution Vitamin C Radiance Concentrator

• Key Ingredients: A facial serum powered by vitamin C, green tea, and white peony extract.
• Skin Benefits: This serum can be applied morning and night to brighten, soothe, and reduce the look of wrinkles for a youthful-looking appearance.

Sulwhasoo Gentle Cleansing Oil

• Key Ingredients: A lightweight oil formulated with apricot kernel oil and tangerine peel extract.
• Skin Benefits: This oil is an ideal first step in a double cleanse, as it emulsifies to wipe away impurities and makeup without stripping skin of its natural oils.

Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum

• Key Ingredients: A serum created with acne-prone skin in mind, powered by propolis extract and niacinamide.
• Skin Benefits: Ideal to heal stressed skin, add this into your routine to not only calm and soothe, but also brighten your complexion and protect against free radical damage.

Laneige Water Sleeping Mask with Squalane

• Key Ingredients: A gel-textured overnight mask infused with squalane and hyaluronic acid.
• Skin Benefits: This is crafted to give your skin a hydration boost while you sleep to reveal soft, bright, supple skin.

Hanskin Hyaluron Skin Essence

• Key Ingredients: A hydrating essence infused with an advanced form of hyaluronic acid, glycerin, hydrolyzed collagen, and zostera marina extract.
• Skin Benefits: Hanskin’s essence boasts five benefits in one: moisturizing, glowing, boosting, balancing, and softening to quench thirsty skin for a youthful complexion.

Klairs Midnight Blue Calming Cream

• Key Ingredients: A creamy moisturizer packed with Guaiazulene (an agent derived from chamomile oil), centella asiatic extract, and candelilla cera.
• Skin Benefits: This cream looks to relieve irritation and redness, especially for sensitive and acne-prone skin types.

Acwell Licorice pH Balancing Cleansing Toner

• Key Ingredients: Licorice water, peony flower extract, and green tea are at the heart of this toner.
• Skin Benefits: Apply Acwell’s toner to balance skin’s pH, reduce pigmentation, and promote a bright, radiant complexion.

The Plant Base Time Stop Collagen Ampoule

• Key Ingredients: Along with 76.52% mushroom extract, this ampoule serum is also formulated with panthenol, macadamia seed oil, aloe, and centella asiatica extract.
• Skin Benefits: Use this ampoule morning and night (on its own or mixed with your moisturizer of choice) to promote hydrated, firm skin.

Dr. Jart+ Cicapair™ Tiger Grass Color Correcting Treatment SPF 30

• Key Ingredients: A creamy treatment featuring a blend of tiger grass (centella asiatica) and broad-spectrum SPF 30.
• Skin Benefits: Dr. Jart’s color-correcting treatment became popular for its green-to-beige transformation that seamlessly neutralizes redness and evens skin tone. Thus, skin is left soothed, moisturized, and UV ray-protected.

Schwanen Garten Antioxidant Eye Cream

• Key Ingredients: A lightweight gel infused with lavender water, centella asiatica extract, and green tea extract.
• Skin Benefits: This quick-absorbing gel is gentle on sensitive skin, and is rich in antioxidants to treat dark circles and fine lines.