BEAUTY
BEAUTY
The Korean 10-Step Skincare Regime
The 411 ' s Reshma Madhi investigates Korea ' s beauty obsession
Within the global market, Western names in fashion and beauty have, for a few years now, paid serious attention to the Korean approach to skincare and the cutting-edge products the country has produced.
Korean culture places a huge importance on skincare, which in its increasingly modern society has led to an appetite for consumer beauty products. Korean beauty houses have responded with a fast-paced delivery of inventive formulas in a modern youth culture known for loving its overnight fads. Korea has brought to the world products, now considered mainstream essentials, such as BB creams and sheet masks.
Products often follow the rules of traditional Chinese Medicine, with natural ingredients providing healing and therapeutic benefits. This, combined with the influence of Western ingredients and a wide plethora of product types, means there are some innovative and inventive ingredients used, like snail mucus or bee venom.
What has been widely referred to in recent years as the 10-step beauty regime, outlines the routine used by Koreans. It has created great intrigue and a multitude of tried and tested versions of the socalled‘ regime’. It may sound complex and overwhelming to many, but it ' s basically cleansing, exfoliating, treating, moisturising and SPF-ing.
Korean culture skincare is about self-care, using the benefits nature provides to nourish the body inside and out. It ' s about your true skin health and there ' s respect you can’ t ignore for how these women see flawless, radiant, healthy skin, as a sign of true beauty. Having a deep heritage, this ethos is ingrained in the society- think traditional communal bathhouses. Koreans therefore place an importance on skincare from a young age and is seen as something to devote time to, forming a key part of your daily routine.
I travelled to South Korea late last year, and gallivanting around Seoul, I observed the fashion forward and consumer trends and how they had influenced our Western culture, unknowingly. Think oil cleansers, sleep masks and brightening serums- all from Asia. Next to translucent complexions and smooth hair, I felt a little scruffy in my casuals and bed hair! Suddenly I felt I wanted to shop for local products, listen to some K-pop or K-hip-hop, watch some soap operas and get translucent, glowing skin. Many back home would perhaps find the beauty regimes here high maintenance but surrounded by it, it does start to rub off on you as they seem to do it so well.
The 10-step theory is not necessarily a hard and fast rule, but more about finding the steps that work for your, however many that may be. It’ s a holistic approach, finding what suits you as an individual.
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