How Long Does It Take for Korean Skincare to Work?

Before you get started with Korean skincare, it’s important that you know what works and what doesn’t. Don’t waste time, money, and energy on products that’ll never work.

Make sure you get it right the first time and get the results you desire. I surveyed over 25 different people who got started with Korean skincare. In this article, I will share the details of what I found out.

Let’s get started.

Effectiveness of Korean Skincare

When you look at the effectiveness of Korean skincare, it’s mainly the ingredients that make a huge difference. Compared to Western products, you often see fewer harmful ingredients in Korean skincare.

This makes it more appealing to people with sensitive skin care, for example. This is also the reason why I’ve been using Korean skincare for quite some time now.

It’s less harmful to the skin, making it one of the most effective skincare routines ever.

There are alternatives out there that are also quite good, but nothing comes close to Korean skincare.

Especially when you find products that suit your skin type. Then it’s basically game over. 

But finding these hidden gems is hard because there are so many skincare products out there it’s all about trial and error while making sure you avoid bad ingredients.

How Many Skincare Steps?

In theory, there are 10 steps, but you don’t have to follow all these steps to get great skin. It’s a made-up number to sell you more products. I use about 5 to 6 steps, which is enough for you to get started.

The people that actually follow the 10-step Korean skincare routine are using too much. And using too many products is not too good for the skin. [1]

It can make the skin very oily and greasy.

10-step Korean skincare routine:

• Oil Cleanser
• Water-based Cleanser
• Exfoliator
• Toner
• Essence
• Serum
• Sheet Mask
• Eye Cream
• Moisturizer
• Sun Protection

Avoiding this is important. And if you do use a lot of products, make sure that you don’t use the ones that make the skin very oily. Going for more lightweight skincare products should be the way to go.

Especially when you’re just getting started. There have been many people impulse buying a lot of Korean skincare products and never using them in the first place.

I’m not sayin’ that it won’t work if you follow the 10-step routine, but there will be products in there that you won’t even need. 

Why Korean Skincare Works So Well

Korean skincare works well because of the ingredients; when compared to Western skincare, you see that they use fewer parabens and other harmful ingredients, which could be bad for the skin.

For people with sensitive skin, it’s a no-brainer.

When you dive deeper into the products themselves, you see that they tend to use a lot of antioxidants like retinol, vitamin C, and green tea. These have a great impact on the skin, making it healthier.

Something that you can’t forget is SPF/sunscreen.

Almost everyone in Korea uses sunscreen before they go out. It doesn’t matter whether it’s snowing, raining, or sunny outside. Sunscreen is a must, and many studies have shown that wearing this every day will greatly improve the skin. [2]

As you see sunscreen is something you should wear every day. Another thing lots of Koreans do is double cleansing.

Double cleansing makes a face even cleaner and removes any leftover oil from the skin. Even though this is not something I do, it can be very beneficial.

Final Thoughts

On average, it can take anywhere between 4 and 7 weeks before your skin gets used to the new products. That’s when your skin will slowly improve, and you’ll start to see results with your Korean skincare products.

But for others, it can also take longer if your skin needs more time to adapt to the new formulas. That’s something a lot of people don’t take into consideration.

Don’t expect your skin to improve within a day because that’s impossible.

FAQs

References:

1. https://www.nytimes.com/guides/tmagazine/skincare-routine

2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27749441/