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The South Korean beauty industry has made its mark on the global stage, quickly gaining popularity for its high quality skincare, makeup and assortment of cosmetics made from natural products.
Korea’s beauty culture is known for its multi-step skincare routines, including face washes, liquid toners and toner pads, sheet masks, serums, and supplements that can create what’s dubbed as “glass skin,” meaning a flawless face complexion.
Whether its using what the most popular K-Pop idols use or leaning into a specific skin type need, K-beauty has something for everyone. In fact, choosing the right brands and products can be overwhelming as the multi-billion dollar industry continues to expand.
Fortunately, we traveled to South Korea ourselves to see which K-beauty brands and products stand out against the rest. While most K-beauty products are generally effective, we wanted to find exceptional products that truly transform the skin with the best ingredients.
Here are 5 K-beauty products and brands for a range of prices that we fell in love with during our visit to South Korea, including where we bought them!
1. EasyDERM Beauty Spot Patch + Cica Ampoule
Early into our trip to South Korea, we discovered the holy grail of all pimple patches.
The EASYDERM Beauty Quick Calming Care Spot Patches utilize shockingly effective needles that penetrate the skin (similar to a traditional microdart pimple patch) but with a much more powerful attack on those pesky pores (without being painful).
What’s possibly the most striking thing about these patches is that instead of only containing the typical hydrocolloid most other pimple patches have, these patches pair magnesium oxide hydrocolloids with a centella asiatica extract ampoule (a highly concentrated formula) for groundbreaking results.
Compared to typical hydocolloids, which draw out toxins and impurities from acne and quicken the healing process, magnesium oxide hydrocolloids take things a step further by doing all of that, plus reducing oil, eliminating bacteria, and soothing irrirated skin.
The centella asiatica, which is actually an herb that’s a member of the parsley family and a staple in K-beauty, is a rockstar ingredient because it strengthens the skin barrier and reduces inflammation, redness and signs of aging. The patches can be used with or without adding the centella asiatica ampoule.
We found these skin lifesavers at every local pharmacy in South Korea that we visited as well as the popular Korean cosmetics store, Olive Young. You can order them online through Olive Young for about $16 for 8 patches (plus shipping).
2. Vaseline Sheet Masks
We can’t express how excited and curious we were about these viral Vaseline sheet masks from the Japanese retailer, Daiso. While Daiso isn’t a Korean company and Vaseline owned by global skincare brand, Unilever, these masks are manufactured in South Korea. In fact, they aren’t products that you can typically find at Daiso locations in Japan, the United States or other Daiso locations.
These Vaseline masks have become extremely popular across social media for their quality and affordability. Each mask is a hydration powerhouse with hyaluronic acid, aloe vera, vitamin C, and, of course, Vaseline, which works to seal in moisture.
When we tell you that these masks are the most hydrating that we’ve ever used, that is not a joke or exaggeration. These creamy masks go beyond any other hydration mask we’ve ever tried for just a portion of the competitor prices.
We only found these hot commodities at Daiso stores for the wonderful price of around $1.60 USD. Sadly, outside of South Korea, these masks seem almost impossible to get your hands on. So, if you go to South Korea (or know another girlie going)—stock up!
3. VT Cosmetics Vita-Light Reedle Shot
The VT Cosmetics Reedle Shots have been trending in the K-Beauty world, but we needed to know if the skincare product that utilizes a microneedling system is worthy of all the acclaim. Spoiler alert!–It is.
South Korean beauty is truly living in the future with cosmetic technology like the Reedle Shot, which contains tiny, needle-like particles called spicules. Spicules increase the absorption and penetration of the centella asiatica, niacinamide, and hyaluronic acid within the shot.
This products is known for the tingling or pinching sensation that mimics the feeling of microneedling and a signals that the product is effectively penetrating the skin barrier.
Reedle Shots have different intensity levels. The Reedle Shot 100 is recommended for beginners for daily use while the 300, which has a much higher concentration of the Cica Reedle, is recommended for use every 3-5 days by those that are accustomed to the product already.
There are many different variations of the Reedle Shots that can be found online at Olive Young, Amazon and other online retailers as well as in local Korean beauty stores. They are also available as Reedle Shot Sheet masks. Prices vary depending on location.
4. Whipped Vegan Cleanser
We never thought we’d have to stop ourselves from eating our skincare, but when it smells this good and has so many natural ingredients like the Whipped Vegan Cleanser does, we had to resist.
Our favorite scent, the Ddvalva (strawberry) whipped cleanser, that can also be used as a face mask, contains strawberry and vanilla bean extract for skin calming, niacinamide for brightening, and vitamin C for skin brightening. The cleaners also comes in Mugtree (mugwort and teatree), Jojovender (golden jojoba and lavender), Lavocado (lime and avocado) and Muhwabutter (fig and cacao butter).
The cleaner is ideal for all skin types, as it’s light, creamy, buttery, and has minimal irritation. Plus, it’s made through an advanced whipping process that lasts 48 hours with over 500 rounds of whipping for optimal skin hydration (and ultimate luxurious vibes).
You can find this vegan cleanser online at Olive Young for about $27 (plus shipping) and on Amazon for about $26.
5. Biodance Gel Toner Pads
While most K-Beauty lovers know and love Biodance for its popular Bio-Collagen Real Deep Gel Sheet Mask (which is dubbed as the most popular sheet mask in Korea), we found that we had even more adoration for the brand’s gel toner pads.
The texture of the gel sheets feels immediately cooling and soothing to the skin, which already puts it ahead of typical toner pads. They also come in different varieties depending on skin needs, including the Collagen (boosts skin elasticity), Sea Kelp (skin calming and oil control) Vita (skin tightening and texture control) and Cera-nol (moisturizing and anti-inflammatory).
They cost about $26 on Amazon and at Sephora and $27 at Olive Young (plus shipping).
