How To Make The Korean 10 Step Skincare Routine Work For You

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Just what exactly is this famous Korean 10 step Skincare routine? How can you start to incorporate some of the principals of Asian skincare into your own beauty regime from all the way over in the UK? Read on

Asian folk tend to take skincare a lot more seriously than we do in the U.K. and have the skin to show for it. South Korean women spend five times as much on skincare as women in Britain. Generally, us Brits think skincare means slapping on a bit of cream after a thorough soaping. This is starting to change and U.K. ladies and gents are getting wise to advances in skincare and the results it can bring.

How Can Us U.K. Ladies Make The Korean 10 Step Skincare Routine Work?

The principals of Korean skincare revolve around respecting the skin’s natural protective acid and lipid barriers. A Korean skincare regimen naturally involves more steps in order to pack as much moisture as possible into the skin. So it is a more time consuming process than we’re used to. I personally love a daily 20 minute skincare session, but I can understand that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

There are 10 possible steps to the Korean skincare routine. Of course, you can just pick and chose the parts that suit. The Asian beauty market is awash with different skincare brands, they tend to be of good quality and more affordable. Asian shoppers tend to have little brand loyalty, which makes the market competitive. Asian skincare addicts are not afraid of bizarre sounding additives, snail mucin is very popular as is donkey milk, fermented ingredients, snake venom, bee venom, anything in the name of beauty.

There are a few ways us Westerners can incorporate Asian skincare into our lives:

• Go online to source genuine Asian beauty products- Sites like Amazon, Cult Beauty, SoKo Glam, Peach & Lily and BeautyMart sell the whole gamut of Korean Beauty. SoKo Glam and Peach and Lily sell full ready made kits of all the products you will need for the 10 steps, which will give you a good starting point. But you will be paying the premium for having the products conveniently selected and delivered.
• Try Boots.com– Boots has cottoned on to recent trends and has started selling some Korean brands, you’ll find Masque Bar, Caolion, OhK and Tony Moly products at Boots.com Make western skincare work in the Korean style.
• Scour eBay and Depop for bargains. There will of course always be an element of “buyer beware” when purchasing directly from sellers.
• You will undoubtedly find perfectly suitable skincare from U.K. stores that will fit into the 10 step routine nicely. You probably won’t find the snail mucin in Tesco but there will be toners and hydrating serums in the shops. Do a bit of homework and make it work for you.

Here are the 10 steps:

You may well be doing some of these on a daily basis anyway and won’t raise an eyebrow:

• Makeup removal
• Facial cleansing
• Exfoliator
• Toner
• Essence
• Serums/ampoules
• Sheet mask
• Eye Cream
• Moisturiser
• Night cream

It does sound like a lot, granted, but it’s only the sheet mask that takes longer than a couple of minutes. I know a lot of people who have already made double cleansing a daily feature. The 10 step Korean routine takes this a little further with a toner, which is followed by hydration using essence and serum before the final moisturisers.

If you read the testimonials online there are a lot of positive stories. People absolutely swear by the Korean 10 step skincare routine philosophy. I will go into each step in detail in my next post later today (when it comes to skincare, I can’t seem to stop talking) into each step in detail in my next post later today (when it comes to skincare, I can’t seem to stop talking)

Nia x

More from Nia at her blog NiaPattenLooks