I recently read this article from Marie Claire (below) which I thought was pretty interesting. I personally do not use Korean skincare products but my mom and the women in her family use them. I have been to South Korea twice recently and have noticed Korean women have such flawless skin. Its too bad their products and skincare regimen require a lot of money to maintain (6 week supply for $2000 WHOA!!). Check out Korean brand
AmorePacific at Sephora. It may be worth looking into. More to come on Korean skincare trends!!
Ninety percent of the
skincare products
I use are imported from South Korea. They're about 12 years ahead of
the States in terms of technology," says Mary Schook, the beauty guru
and New York-based owner of M.S. Apothecary. In the skincare world,
South Korea has become the new France. It's outpacing other countries in
beauty innovation faster than you can say "glycolic peel" (which in
Asia is totally démodé, by the way).
"Koreans aren't about stripping the skin until it looks like
something you want to ice skate on. They're into nurturing it," says
Schook, who also introduced eyelash extensions (yup, a South Korean
invention) to New York almost a decade ago. She's like our Christopher
Columbus to Korea's New World.
For the past decade, South Korea has been a buzzed-about secret among
beauty diehards. "It's so funny that Americans are only now getting
wind of it," says Sang A Im-Propp, a Seoul-born, Manhattan-based handbag
designer who has modeled in ad campaigns for AmorePacific, a popular
Korean cosmetics brand. (She swears by the Time Response Skin Renewal
Crème.) But the secret's out.
Korea's skincare boom goes back to its famous beauty regimens, which,
for the average Korean woman, includes roughly 18 products per day. Dr.
Seung Yoon Celine Lee, a dermatologist based in Seoul, attributes the
obsession with flawless skin to royal aspirations. "Bright skin meant
that you came from a noble family. The concept carries on," she
explains.
"The demand for whitening helped create new technology treatments,
such as lasers and photo facials," adds Dr. Susanne Bennett, a
Korean-American holistic doctor who lives in California and specializes
in antiaging skincare. (Lee points out that laser treatments in Korea
are so omnipresent, they now cost 80 percent less than they do in the
U.S.)
You can also walk into a Korean drugstore and find at least 15
versions of an over-the-counter cream just as potent as a pro-grade
treatment in the U.S. One such product is Blemish Balm cream, better
known as "B.B. magic cream." Originally formulated in Germany as a
healing ointment for patients' post-laser treatments, the Koreans took
the idea and turned it into a unique, more sophisticated version that
acts as a tinted moisturizer, zit zapper, sun protectant, and antiaging
treatment all in one. Korean women have been using it for the past four
years, and it's just starting to crop up on sites catering to Americans.
Then there's the miraculously skin-plumping mask and serum that
Schook calls one of the industry's greatest breakthroughs. Bennett
discovered the highly soluble formula — first engineered for bone and
tissue regeneration — being sold cosmetically in Korea, and quickly
snapped up the rights to distribute it stateside under the name
Purigenex. It's the only topical medical-grade collagen sold in the
U.S., and it's flown here straight from a Korean lab.
But the innovation that Schook considers the holy grail is stem cell
media skincare — Koreans have taken it to radical levels by using actual
media, or extract, of stem cells from adult bone marrow and excess body
fat tissue, rather than the synthetic stuff you see in most Western
products. Schook just began selling a regimen called Beaucell that she
swears takes years off and "basically makes your face look like it's had
fat injections."
But it doesn't come cheap. A six-week supply of Beaucell costs
$2,000. Korean women, who typically spend about $130 a month on
skincare, aren't fazed. "It's hot right now," enthuses Lee.
How do you say "Let's go shopping!" in Korean?
