Your Actual Guide To Korean Skincare Routine
Our Local Editor Shares Her Step By Step Skincare Secrets. What's The Korean Skincare Hack That Only Requires Your Toner At Home?
What comes to your mind when you hear the phrase 'Korean skincare'? Do you think of a 10-step skincare routine or daily sheet masks?
Today, we'll list out the most important steps to follow in the Korean skincare routine with some product suggestions!
You don't have to follow every single step, but some are crucial. Let's take a more in-depth look.
STEP 1. Cleanser
Removing your makeup is the most important (and irritating) step among all steps included in this blog.
Koreans take the cleansing step seriously since removing your makeup right can lower the possibility of any acne or breakouts. There are different types of makeup cleansers to use, depending on your situation or your needs.
Also, this step is a two-step process, so make sure you follow them all!
If you simply wear sunscreen, I would suggest saturating few cotton pads with the cleansing water and swiping across the face until you see no residual dirt or makeup on the pad.
If you wear makeup with more than a layer of sunscreen, I suggest removing your makeup with cleansing oil or cleansing balm; they are more effective at removing and melt away your makeup.
When you use cleansing oil or cleansing balm, pump or scoop a generous amount of oil (4 to 5 pumps for cleansing oil) and gently roll on your face for 90 seconds.
Make sure to give extra roll in the middle of the forehead, nose, and chin. Next, emulsify with a small amount of lukewarm water and rinse until it cleanses out.
 | Removing Everyday Makeup Pure Cleansing Oil manyo Factory ￦19,900 |
 | Removing Light Makeup Green Tea Cleansing Water THE SAEM ￦5,500 |
 | Removing Everyday Makeup Clean It Zero (Cleansing Balm) Banila Co. ￦18,000 |
The next step is removing the remaining oil on your face with the correct type of face wash!
After removing your makeup with cleansing oil or cleansing balm, Koreans usually avoid using Low-PH face washes.
Low-PH face washes are more suitable to use in the mornings.
 | Face Wash Cleansing Foam manyo Factory ￦13,900 |
 | Morning Face Wash Low-PH Cleansing Foam beplain |
STEP 2. Toner
Using a toner is the following step after removing your makeup. You can simply apply 1-3 layers of toner to enhance the moisturizing level on your skin or soak a cotton pad to wipe down your skin.
 | Hydrating (Oily / Combination / Sensitive Skin) 1025 Dokdo Toner ROUND LAB ￦15,000 |
 | Hydrating (Combination Skin) Blueberry Rebalancing Skin Innisfree ￦8,000 |
 | Hydrating Cream Skin Laneige ￦28,000 |
A useful skincare hack is using these toners as a toner pack (or a toner mask).
A Toner pack is simply soaking up the cotton pads with the desired toner and place them on your face for 5-10 minutes to lower your skin temperature. This method is a famous skincare method among Koreans for both daytime and nighttime.
I even often use this to cool down my skin and soothe them. Also, when you are doing a toner pack, make sure to use spongy texture cotton pads!
Source: COSRX
Toner pads (or peel pads) are also a must-have item in the Korean skincare routine.
Toner pads are a set of pads that can help exfoliate and remove your dead skin cells during your skincare routine. I recommend having at least one of these products to use once in two days to make your life easier.
 | Acne (Combination / Sensitive Skin) Eggplant Clearing Peeling Pad Toner Papa Recipe ￦25,000 |
 | Acne (Oily Skin) One Step Original Clear Pad COSRX ￦17,500 |
 | All Skin Types Green Tea Moist PHA Gauze Peeling NEOGEN ￦22,900 |
STEP 3. Ampoule/ Serum & Essence
What are the differences between an ampoule, serum, and essence?
The main difference would be the concentration of the featuring ingredient from each product. The ampoule is the most concentrated one and essence has the least.
If you have used an essence before but couldn't spot much of the differences after, try serum or ampoule which are more condensed with the main ingredient.
It is extremely important (and essential!) to use one of the three to give the full nutrients that you are seeking.
In my case, I normally use essences or serum in the morning and ampoule at night.
 | Hydrating / Nutrient (All Skin Types) Propolis Energy Ampule CNP ￦25,000 |
 | Hydrating (Sensitive Skin) Pure Fit Cica Serum COSRX ￦23,000 |
 | Blemish Care (Sensitive Skin) Blemish Care Serum II iSOi ￦49,000 |
 | Hydrating (All Skin Types) Dive-In Serum Torriden ￦18,000 |
 | Acne (All Skin Types) Time Revolution Artemisa Treatment Essence MISSHA ￦42,000 |
STEP 4. Eye Cream
Eye Creams tend to lighter and thinner than face moisturizers, so make sure to apply them before using your creams and oils.
The most important skincare rule is to apply the lightest first and the heaviest last!
The professionals suggest starting to use them from the mid-20s to prevent wrinkles later on.
 | Night Time Only The Pure Real Eye Cream For Face AHC ￦58,000 |
 | Night Time Only Artemisia Eye Butter Be Plain ￦32,000 |
STEP 5. Lotion
The lotion (emulsion) is a lighter version of the moisturizer cream that you know of.
After applying a thin layer of eye cream on your eye area, the next step is putting on a layer of lotion depending on your skin type.
 | Acne (All Skin Types) The Simple Daily Lotion Scinic ￦18,000 |
 | Acne (Sensitive Skin) ATOBARRIER 365 Lotion Aestura ￦28,000 |
 | Hydrating (All Skin Types) Dive-In Cream Torriden ￦17,000 |
STEP 6. Moisturizer / Cream
I understand you will not be following all the steps here listed on your exhausting day, but you can't miss this step! No matter what, don't forget to apply a layer of moisturizer/cream depending on your skin type and condition.
Look for a light, gentle, hyaluronic-based moisturizer, which will keep skin hydrated without feeling heavy or greasy during the day.
This type of moisturizer is more suitable for combination with oily skins, during the warm-hot weather.
At night, your skin goes into repair mode and works extra hard to fix damages and boost regeneration.
I would recommend any night creams that are filled with all of the things that your body naturally produces and can use more of; for instance, hyaluronic acid, lipids, proteins, and more.
 | Hydrating (All Skin Types) Birch Juice Moisturizing Cream ROUND LAB ￦32,000 |
 | Hydrating (Oily Skin) Angel Aqua Moist Cream Beyond ￦25,000 |
 | Brightening (All Skin Types) Radian-C Cream Laneige ￦29,000 |
 | Hydrating (Dry Skin) Barrierderm Intensive Cream SKIN & LAB ￦23,000 |
STEP 7. Face Oil
The final step is using face oil indeed. Remember the rule of thumb for a skincare routine? 'Apply the lightest first and the heaviest last'!
Face oils protect and seal in all the ingredients and moisture that you just applied to your face to keep them from evaporating quickly.
 | Hydrating (All Skin Types) Organic Neroli Brightening Facial Oil AROMATICA ￦25,000 |
 | Hydrating (Oily / Combination Skin) Oil Essence: Essence-Like Oil-Like Huxley ￦43,000 |
 | Hydrating (Dry Skin) Soybean Energy Oil Innisfree ￦28,000 |
STEP 8. Sunscreen
Even though I said step 7 is about applying face oil, but technically sunscreen is the very last step.
Protecting your skin from UV rays is crucial to anything else!
Professionals suggest applying sunscreen every single day (even on cloudy days or during the winter) if you would like to prevent your skin from rapid aging.
Not a big fan of the grease and stickiness from sunscreen? The three selections below are the lightest and non-sticky sunscreens that I have used and loved!
 | Matte Finish Green Mild Up Sun + DR.G ￦28,000 |
 | Light Texture Blueberry Rebalancing Watery Sun Cream Innisfree ￦9,000 |
 | Light Texture (Oily Skin) UV Defense Me Blue Ray Sun Fluid Make Prem ￦28,000 |
You finally learned everything about the Korean skincare routine (with locals' product suggestions!).
You don't need to follow every single step and use all the products that are listed on the blog; the most important idea is to find out which products and routine suits you the best for your skin.