Before my time with K Beauty, my skincare looks like this: a soap and a moisturizing cream with SPF! That was it! It was the simplest routine I carried for many years when I came to Switzerland. I wanted to expand, because my skin was not happy, but I didn’t know where to begin. To tell you the truth, I gazed the long aisle full of skincare products a hundred times and left empty handed every time. I was confused! That was before, but not anymore!
Let me lead you to the 5 most important lessons I learned through my journey to K Beauty:
First is knowing the concept of the 10 steps in Korean skincare routine! When you learn this by heart, you can easily mix and match the products that your skin needs. These steps had opened my eyes that skincare is not basically a cleanser and a moisturizing cream, but more than that. If you are willing to change your skin condition to the optimum, then expand and embrace these steps.
Second, you can have the best and the most expensive skincare products and yet no results happen! The secret lies on your cleanser! Stubborn me, I did not believe this at first because my long-time cleanser was a great exfoliator. Over time, it became clear to me, that, my soap was just scraping off the outer surface of my skin but was not unclogging my pores! The result was of course white and blackheads, followed by acne!
Learned from that experience, do your double cleansing specially at night! In the morning, get a great cleanser to wash off all your skincare products you applied in the evening, then follow with a cleansing water. There are many great cleansing water out there like Missha Clear Toner, Son & Park Beauty Water, Benton Tea Tree Cleansing Water, and Some By Mi AHA BHA PHA Miracle Cleansing Water. It is when your skin is clean that you’ll see amazing results from your skincare products, because clear pores can absorb so much more nutrients effectively. You’ll know you are on the right track once your skincare treatments just “disappear” when you apply them on your skin!
Third lesson I learned is to not fret acids! Chemical exfoliator is your best friend for life! But, the journey is a little tricky. It’s a trial and error kind of way. You have to find out yourself the right frequency of application. Once a week, daily, every other day? Which of the acids is great for your skin, AHA, BHA, Vit C? You’ll need to observe your skin everyday until you find the right plan. Every skin is different, so listen to your skin, not what others tell you! Luckily, the chemical exfoliators you find in K Beauty are mild which are great for all beginners. I love the COSRX AHA 7 Whitehead Power Liquid and COSRX BHA Blackhead Power Liquid. These 2 are my BBF for life. I use them daily, meaning I interchanged them every other day. It’s like this: day 1 is AHA, day 2 is BHA, and again AHA, then BHA… but note that I also started from one acid only, once a week for many weeks, and gradually increased the frequency and eventually added a new acid.
The secret in using your chemical exfoliator for your skin to love it, is lots of hydration! Remember this always! If you think you over exfoliated grab more hydrating products! You can achieve this easily with your existing skincare products, by adding more layers, having an SOS moisturizing cream or introducing sheetmasks in your weekly routine. It’s that easy!
Fourth is, exfoliating regularly. What I mean here is using physical exfoliators like scrubs. You might want to ask, “Do I need to scrub if I already use chemical exfoliators?” I asked this too myself. My answer is yes, but be careful, never over do or else you’ll get the reverse of what you want to achieve. Once a week or at least once every 2 weeks is what I do, to free the skin from dead skin cells accumulating on the surface. I think you’ll also notice it when it’s needed 😊
Fifth is, face oil is God sent! Honestly, I snubbed the idea of face oils! Why oil, when my skin is already oily! My false logic! If you google though, you’ll get great feeds discussing the importance of face oils even to oily skin! Intrigued why K Beauty gurus raving the goodness of face oil, I too took the plunge! And I’m glad I did! Now hooked for life! Let me share you why: 1. Face oils now a days are formulated light, absorb fast without being greasy! 2. They are great anti-aging. They could mimic fine lines immediately and gives you a natural glow! 3. They contain cocktails of nutrients like Whamisa Face Oil to create a healthy skin. 4.They are great in locking moisture and especially helpful during cold winter days! It’s just an amazing product you can easily layer with your daily routine!
There are more to learn in K Beauty and to the new products and innovations coming, but if you know the basic routine and stick to them, you have a base you can easily adjust and expand so that you’ll achieve your skin goals!
