Korea has provided the world with a lot of its new favorite things over the last few years. We have Korea to thank for K-pop bands like BTS, Blackpink, and Red Velvet. Without Korea, we’d have no scintillating K-dramas like Divorce Attorney Shin and Byone Your Touch to watch on our girls’ nights in. There's one more Korean export that we in the US are supremely grateful for, and that's K-beauty. Korean skincare brands know a thing or two about how to create and maintain smooth, flawless skin, and here in the States, we love absolutely everything they do! We’ve done our research (so you don’t have to) and curated the ultimate list of K-Beauty trends that are big in the US in 2023.
Fermented Everything
Everything from your toning essence to your facial serum and resurfacing treatment can and should contain fermented ingredients! We’ve known for a while that fermented ingredients like Kombucha are excellent for maintaining the microbiomes in our guts. Still, it's a fairly recently accepted idea (at least Stateside) that fermented ingredients can be incredibly beneficial for your skin, too. Korean beauty companies ferment a lot of their ingredients. Things like red rice and lactic and glycolic acid are byproducts of the fermentation procedure. Fermenting an ingredient has been found to give it a far higher efficacy, which we love. Step aside gochujang, ganjang, and doenjang (delicious Korean fermented sauces and pastes): fermented face products are here to stay.
Waterless Skincare Routines
This may sound a little bit counterintuitive, but hear us out because we know it works. We’re not asking you to avoid getting water on your skin altogether — you’re not the Wicked Witch of the West, after all! What waterless skincare or waterless beauty means is just using products that have less water contained within them. What this trend embraces is the idea that waterless beauty or skincare products last way longer than those with higher water content, so you’re getting far more bang for your buck. You’ll see how right K-beauty fans are when you check the lists of ingredients on the products in your bathroom cabinet and see how many times “aqua” pops up. Many waterless skincare and beauty products come in powder or oil form, so be sure that you have an excellent understanding of the product and your skin type before using it because some may not work well together.
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Face Masks
Now we know that face masks aren't a new trend, but K Beauty does them so well that we thought they were definitely worth mentioning! In particular, K beauty favors a sheet type mask, but we like something that has a little bit more cleansing power. An umbrian clay mask is an excellent choice, especially the one by the brand Fresh, thanks to the clays deep pore cleansing properties. If a skin detox is in order, then take a little time out and apply a cleansing clay mask to your face and leave it on until it's dry. Once it’s wiped off you’ll have a shine free, sparkling clean face free of impurities. Choose a mask that incorporates soothing ingredients like lavender and chamomile for a little extra restorative power.
Double Up
In contrast to the previous trend, K-beauty lovers are doubling up on something very important: SPF. In places where fair, sparkling skin is highly prized, SPF is a particularly huge part of maintaining your skin's appearance and quality. Korean skincare lovers have taken a special interest in blue light (a spectrum of light that our eyes can't see but that can still do some damage to our skin) and using SPF products that offer protection from this and other kinds of sunlight. The first SPF used in this trend is a dedicated light-reflecting one. The second comes in the form of makeup or a product containing a sun protection factor. We are here for all the sun protection we can get! This applies to warm or cool weather, clear days, and cloudy ones: SPF is always, always, always a requirement.
Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels
Open the Floodgates
Though the “waterless” trend is huge, we’ve got one last K-beauty trend to share with you that takes a slightly different approach: skin flooding. If you have a TikTok account, chances are that you’ve already heard about this trend since it has 2.1 billion views and counting. The idea comes from the older, now less favored, multi-step K-beauty routine that we discussed earlier. In this particular case, you’ll essentially be repeating one specific step: hydrating. Skin flooding aims to quench your skin’s thirst for moisture by applying a number of different hydrating/ moisturizing products of different forms, weights, and textures over each other. Our advice is to wait a few minutes between products so that each product can sink into your skin properly for maximum efficacy.
Wrap Up
Korean beauty kings and queens know what they're talking about, which is why the trends that they create spread so quickly to the rest of the world. Here in the US, we can only listen and learn from these masters of skincare and beauty. Now that you’ve got a handle on the best of this year’s K-beauty trend currently making it big in the US, the question is: which one are you going to try first?
