Neogen Dermalogy Real Cica Pads

For insight into what's fueling skincare trends in Korea, we hit up Charlotte Cho, the founder of South Korean ecommerce website Soko Glam [4].

"I've been noticing a huge derma-cosmetic trend in Korea, and I think it has a lot to do with the severe pollution they're dealing with right now," Cho said. She said that micro-dust and yellow dust have gotten worse in recent years and that's really affected the beauty industry's objectives.

"People are really interested in calming irritated skin and treating redness. So basically they're looking for sensitive-skin-friendly ingredients. What I've noticed is that madecassoside and asiatica extract — two really calming, anti-inflammatory ingredients — are really trending."

Enter Neogen's Dermalogy Real Cica Pads [5] ($20). They contains the centella asiatica (also known as Cica) that Cho mentions, which smooths and soothes at the same time. The product is also nonfragranced and is formulated with chemical exfoliants to gently resurface the skin.

Banila Co. Dear Hydration Sleeping Mask

Banila Co. is the same brand that brought us the award-winning Cleaning Zero Cleansing Balm [6] ($21), and it's back it again with its Dear Hydration Sleeping Mask, which launches Spring 2018. It features what the brand refers to as an "Urban Water Guard System," which utilizes natural ingredients like basil, mint, and neem leaf. It's ideal for dry and sensitive skin and for anyone who wants to minimize exposure to pollution.

Whamisa by Glow Recipe Green Tea Routine

Korean beauty ecommerce site Glow Recipe just wrapped up its very first collaboration with Whamisa. Founders Sarah Lee and Christine Chang said it was a natural move for them, saying in a press release that Whamisa "is one of the most innovative K-beauty brands that we're incredibly passionate about."

For the collaboration, their goal was to utilize green tea to its max skin potential while still allowing the products to seamlessly work with your skincare routine. They created a total of three products, including the Green Tea Foaming Cleansing Gel [6] ($20), which boasts the benefits of double cleanser; the Green Tea Serum [6] ($22), which brightens and tones; and the Green Tea Moisturizer [6] ($18), which combines the star ingredient with broccoli and kale.

Dear Dahlia Dual Palettes

We see a lot of skincare products coming from South Korea, but definitely not as much makeup. The truth is that Koreans have purposefully placed a lot of emphasis on skin care, but a few brands that have funneled their energy into the beauty realm are emerging. One of those brands is Dear Dahlia, which makes some of the most beautiful products we've ever seen. Hello, marble and rose gold packaging!

Today we're highlighting its Dual Palettes [7] ($29 each), which are tiny compacts (smaller than your palm) that feature a multibalm on one side that you can use on your cheeks and lips and eye shadow on the other. The formulations are dreamy — not too sheer or too intense — and the colors complement each other well. Bonus: they're vegan and cruelty free.

Vitabrid Dual Serum

For years, beauty chemists have been trying to figure out the most effective way to stabilize vitamin C, a beloved skincare ingredient that tends to be pretty finicky. Korean beauty brand Vitabrid has developed an effective system that stabilizes active vitamin C via its Dual Serum [8] ($75). As the name hints, the product contains two different types of liquid (vitamin C and a peptide complex) that are only combined just prior to use via a twist and shake. Only then are the ingredients activated, ensuring you're getting the freshest product possible.

Dr. Oracle A-Thera Collection

The Dr. Oracle brand is very new to the United States thanks to Soko Glam's Cho, who discovered it during a recent visit to Korea and was instantly impressed.

"I went on this hunt to find a legit dermatologist that regular Koreans go to not for spa treatments to relax, but to actually get treatments done," Cho said. "There's this brand called Dr. Oracle that I found that has about over 40 clinics in Korea, and it's just a regular derm clinic that everyday Koreans go to. It's not a touristy place."

Cho said it was Dr. Oracle's philosophy toward treating acne that really attracted her to the brand.

"I think in the US, you're trained to believe that you have to beat your acne into submission by burning it with acids, but their philosophy is just using really gentle hydrating ingredients like bamboo extracts and calming the inflammation," she said. "There is no textbook manual for treating acne. It's really about 'how do you make your skin as healthy, hydrated, and less inflamed as possible?' because that's what triggers the acne. I really believe that, as an esthetician, and I like how the brand aligned with that mentality."

Shop the Dr. Oracle A-Thera collection [9], which ranges from $23 to $36, at Soko Glam.

Missha Moist Tension Blusher

A couple years ago, the Korean beauty market gifted us cushion foundation, which is essentially a BB cream that's been packaged into compact form. What really separates it from other compacts is the sponge — aka cushion — that allows you to build up to beautiful, airbrushed coverage.

Missha's Moist Tension Blusher [10] ($18) is essentially the same thing, only it's a blush. The blush itself is formulated with aloe vera and appleseed oil to nourish, and it imparts a supersheer, natural wash of color onto your cheeks.

IOPE Derma Gentle Cica Cream

Bring on the Cica with IOPE's Derma Gentle Cica Cream [11] ($32), which launches in June. It's a very mild, gentle cream formulated specifically for those with ultrasensitive and acne-prone skin. It's formulated with soothing madecassoside, panthenol, and cypress tree extracts and is hypoallergenic, dermatologist approved, and sensitive-skin-panel tested. We love that it's multifuctional, as well. You can use it as a spot treatment or an all-over mask as a pick-me-up for your skin.

EasyDew Ex EGF Collection

Cho said that epidermal growth factor (EGF) has become increasingly popular in Korea. For those unaware, it's a naturally occurring substance in our bodies (like collagen) that dramatically drops off once we hit age 29. Consider it a gentler but highly effective alternative to retinol.

A few brands use EGF in their products in the US, but those products tend to be pretty expensive at this point, so the ingredient hasn't become mainstream. That's about to change, though, Cho said, and she believes the brand EasyDew Ex will play a big role in that.

"This has been a really interesting topic that I've been keeping up with for a long time. I wanted to make sure that if we introduced a product to the store that it was well-vetted and well-studied," Cho said.

She explained that EasyDew Ex is a product line sold by the South Korean pharmacy that actually developed and patented medical-grade EGF. It does sell the technology to other companies, but because EasyDew Ex is able to create products itself using its own patented technology, it's able to sell at lower price points.

Soko Glam sells three EasyDew Ex products, including Repair Control Renewal Moisture [12] ($55), Repair Control Active Soothing Serum [13] ($78), and Repair Control EGF [14] ($88).

TPSY Be Gone Makeup Eraser​

Whether it's a cat eye gone wrong or a haphazard lipstick smear, we've all experienced our fair share of beauty snafus. Consider TPSY's Be Gone Makeup Eraser [15] ($20) the superhero product that's here to save the day (or at least your smoky eye). It's a makeup remover solution in pen form that gently nixes any beauty mishaps, which means no more angry scrubbing.

Huxley

It's easy to fall in love with Huxley's beautiful, streamlined packaging, but its products deliver on efficacy too. The brand, which utilizes ingredients from the desert in all its products, just released a trio of face masks meant to be used together.

Huxley Sweet Therapy Scrub Mask [16] ($32) is step one and exfoliates with sugar and walnut shell powder while prickly pear seed oil hydrates. Step two is the Keep Calm Healing Mask [17] ($32), which soothes and calms with more prickly pear seed oil, plumps and hydrates with hyaluronic acid, and brightens with citrus peel. Finally comes the Good Night Sleep Mask [18] ($32), a nourishing leave-on mask that's formulated with a gel texture that contains Cica to sooth, hyaluronic acid to further moisturize, and SC-Glucan to bolster the skin's barrier.

Venn Age-Reversing All-in-One Concentrate

The idea behind Venn's Age-Reversing All-in-One Concentrate [19] ($185) is to take the extensive, multistep K-beauty routine and reimagine it into a streamlined approach. The product — which just launched in the past few months — was developed by Brian Oh in conjunction with Venn's Korea-based proprietary research and development lab and scientific advisory board. It's been formulated to hydrate for 24 hours, improve elasticity, reduce fine lines, even out skin tone, and refine texture.