All women want to have great skin. Whether you are young and still get pimples or are older and starting to see sagging skin, we all want to have clear, firm, glowing skin.

Without a doubt great skin looks better; you can wear less makeup or no makeup and feel more confident.

There is so much advice about what are the best products and so many YouTube videos online that you could be overwhelmed by all the advice.

The Korean skin care routine is considered one of the best skin care routines to help improve your skin and maintain it in its better condition.

Maybe you have heard about it, maybe not.  In this blog post, we will break down the case for and against the Korean skin care routine.

KOREAN SKINCARE ROUTINE; WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?

The routine is a multi-step routine that involves 6 – 10 steps. 

The full routine is 10 or so steps (the products are layered on the skin) but if you are short on time you can reduce the number of steps and still get very good results.  The routine can be increased with more steps if you want to add more product to the skin.

Don’t panic if you think that it’s too much work.

Applying a toner only takes 10 seconds; my toner is in a handy spray bottle and I simply spray it on and then pat it in.

Applying a layer of serum or essence is also very quick.

To be honest, the routine is slightly more time-consuming than what I was doing before, but the condition of my skin is much better.

What are the steps?

1. Cleanse; with an oil cleanser
2. Cleanse; with a water/foam-based cleanser
3. Exfoliate
4. Tone
5. Essence
6. Serum
7. Mask sheet
8. Eye cream
9. Face Cream
10. SPF cream

When it comes to reducing the number of steps for convenience; this is what you can do:

1. Cleanse – with a product that turns into a light oil/cream texture when applied to the skin and then apply a warm face washer to my face to get it off.  It’s brilliant.
2. Exfoliate – 2 times per week only
3. Tone – with a spray toner
4. Essence – I use 2 essences and layer them. 1 is a snail essence and the other is a bee essence.
5. Mask sheet – 2 times a month
6. Face Cream – every day
7. SPF cream – in my liquid foundation

So as you can see I have adjusted the full routine to something that is more convenient for me and I maintain my skin condition and look/feel.

So let’s go through the Pros and Cons of this routine;

Pro’s Of The Skin Care Routine

1. It’s thorough and you see improvements in your skin. Most people don’t think cleansing is that important, but it really is. You have to get all traces of product off your skin.  Even though currently I am not doing a double cleanse the product I use is far better than what I was using before.  I use to work in a beauty salon and we always double cleansed; now I am at home and getting the same result with 1 product.
2. The routine uses essences and serums every day.  Typically we only use a product to treat a skin concern when the issue gets out of control.  Koreans don’t wait until the issue arises they keep their skin in great condition so they don’t get the problem in the first place.  That philosophy is very different from the way we in the West or Europe think.
3. Korean products are better.  The Korean skincare industry is also known as the K beauty industry makes some of the best products in the world.  Koreans like to have very good skin and if you do an internet search on K beauty you will find that Koreans have better-looking skin in general than the rest of the world.  They also look young for their age because their skin is so good.
4. Korean products are affordable.  You may look at the list above and think “Wow, all those products are going to cost a lot”.  But Korean skincare is very affordable.  You can buy a mask sheet for $2.
5. The toner I am using right now (Pyunkang Yul Essence Toner) cost $19.00USD, I’ve been using it since the 1^st December 2019 and I haven’t even used 1/5^th of the bottle.  I am happy that it is going to last many months.  Likewise, the bee and snail serums that I have only needed 1 ½ pump of product and that does my face, neck, upper chest, and the back of my hands.

CON’S OF THE SKIN CARE ROUTINE

Many products to use.  Yes, there are many products that you need.  If you are using just a makeup remover and face cream, then you will need to accept that you will need more products to get better skin. 

But the advantage of using more products on your skin is that the different products do different things.  There are many serums and essences that treat all different types of skin issues. 

I have found that layering 2 serums have improved the look and feel of my skin drastically.

1. Korean skin care products are available online.  This K Beauty shop is extremely popular and affordable but sometimes the wording in the product descriptions is a bit off. This is because the conversion of Korean to English isn’t 100% all the time.  So when I buy from this online store I always read the customer reviews, product descriptions and look at the images too, because they usually have descriptions on the images to help as well.
2. Product shipping costs. To me, this is the only thing that stops me from ordering every week! I live in Australia and in my last purchase I bought a lot of stuff…it was my birthday so I thought I deserved it!  My products came to $140AUD and the shipping cost another $40AUD.  So all up I spent $180AUD…but it was my birthday and I did get a lot of products!  Normally I would not spend that much, I try to spend just over $100 so I can get the cheaper shipping costs.  The site I listed above also does monthly free shipping, so I make sure to look out for that so I can save some money.  I have looked in stores in Australia and there are a few K Beauty items I could buy, but I want the real deal and chose to buy from Korea.  By the way, Korean products are so much better quality than Chinese products. There really is no comparison.

There are my pros and cons onI consider to be the best skin care routine. I want good skin. The older I get I realize that it is a gift to have good skin.  I have just hit middle age and I look at my school friends on Facebook and you can see which ones have not paid any attention to their skin.  I think the time, cost, and effort are all worth it!

If you want more info read this post here: Korean skin care routine