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By now, everybody has heard about Korean beauty products and the Korean skin care routine. It started to get popular here in the United States shortly after skincare-as-hobby did. Maybe 2017, 2018? It’s had staying power, though, because of the nurturing, nourishing style of skincare. 

If you’re looking to step up your skincare game and curious about a Korean skincare routine for night, read on! This post will give an overview of Korean women’s skincare routines at night, lay out a basic Korean skincare routine, and make product suggestions from K-beauty brands that you can buy in the US. 

What makes a Korean skin care routine different?

If all your information comes from social media, I know a lot of people are going to say, “sheet masks”!

And that’s true–sheet masks, and hyaluronic acid-based hydrating products, are a big part of their skin care philosophy. Korean skin care focuses on a gentle, hydrating, nourishing skincare routine that is much gentler that what we have in the States. 

(And if you’re a younger person reading this and thinking, “I don’t agree with that”, go ask your oldest cousin about Proactiv! Before the influence of Korean skin care, Americans were using very harsh, drying, aggressive products on their skin.)

So a Korean skin care routine is great for gentle care, which means your skin care isn’t contributing to skin aging. It’s focused on deep hydration for healthy skin! And it can lead you to the most beautiful skin texture you’ve ever had — that “glass skin” you’ve been seeing on social media. 

When it’s overboard, though, Korean skincare can quickly get out of hand. You’ve seen the “10-step skincare routine” and maybe even 15-step routines! And if that’s something that is truly bringing you happiness, keep at it. But for most people, that’s not a sustainable time commitment or financial commitment. So this post is going to lay out a simple Korean night routine that will get you beautiful, hydrated results without taking an hour. 

Korean skin care routine – night overview

Let’s take a look at the whole routine in one place before we go into detail. Our routine will have some or all of the following steps. 

• Oil cleanse or cleansing balm
• Water-based cleanser
• Exfoliant (some days)
• Hydrating toner
• Serum(s)
• Moisturizer (and eye cream, if you wish)

Okay, now in greater detail: 

Oil cleanser or cleansing balm

The first perk of oil cleansing or using a cleansing balm: your makeup will be gone. An oil-based cleanser will take it off far faster than you’re used to if you’re using a standard cleanser.

Oil cleansing is a great way to improve the appearance of your skin, because it helps you get out sebaceous filaments. 

When you don’t exactly have a blackhead, but there’s stuff in your pores making them look larger, those are sebaceous filaments. (They sort of look like a blackhead would look, but they’re usually sort of brownish-greyish instead of being black.) They’re oil built up in the pore that sits there and holds it open. 

So oil cleansing helps with these sebaceous filaments because oil dissolves oil. If this is a skin concern for you, consider giving oil cleansing a shot. t’s a great strategy for anyone dealing with oil-based impurities in their skin.

It can also help deal with skin hydration issues — if you have oily skin, an oil-based cleanser can help manage the excess oil, and if your skin runs dry, it can help introduce oils that ought to be there. 

Oil cleansing can involve a bit of troubleshooting: you may find that some oils are better aligned with your skin than others. The most inexpensive way to do oil cleansing is to use a straight oil–I like jojoba personally. But if you’re interested in Korean beauty products, there are a lot of popular ones with great reviews. 

​If you don’t struggle with oil or dryness and don’t experience sebaceous filaments, you may not need this product! But if you deal with any of the above, it may be worth a shot. 

(When I was first testing this method of cleansing, I started with the olive oil that was in my kitchen!)

Water-based cleanser

So, an oil-based cleanser will dissolve oil in your skin. Your next step is to carry that oil away, and you’ll do that with a gentle, foaming water-based cleanser. 

​In general, if you pick a Korean brand, these will never be harsh or drying! Rather, it’s a gentle detergent with hydrating ingredients added. Clean skin will never feel “squeaky clean” or tight after these cleansers. A gentle cleanser will instead make your skin feel nice and bouncy.

Gentle foaming cleanser options: 

I included the CeraVe product in this list even though it’s not a Korean product because it’s so easily available, and it’s as gentle on your skin barrier as the Korean products. So if you’re a K-beauty dreamer but you’re limited to what you can buy at Target, give that a shot. 

You’ll apply your cleanser in circular motions all around your face. It takes 30-45 seconds to get your skin properly clean. I really love a silicone scrubby for this: 

To really get it in there. This is far gentler than those old Clarisonic brushes that we were terrorizing our skin with in the mid-2010s. (whyyyyyy???)

Once you’re all clean, we can move on! 

​K-beauty exfoliants

This is another place where K-beauty really changed what we were doing in the United States. Before the Korean influence here, we were using physical exfoliators like scrubs constantly. (I feel like St. Ives with the peach shells got the brunt of the blame here, but there were a lot of products like that! Including the Proactiv cleanser that every American teenager got mailed to their house every other month.) 

Korean products stick to chemical exfoliators — AHAs and BHAs — that gently scrub off dead skin cells without irritating sensitive skin. 

What you choose here, and how frequently you use the product, will depend on your skin type. 

• Sensitive skin types will go for a gentle, all purpose exfoliating toner and might use it once or twice a week. 
• Acne-prone skin types will benefit from exfoliants with BHA, and they’ll use them more frequently! 
• Aging or mature skin may want to skip the K-beauty toners and use their retinol products here. Retinol (and retinoids, retinal, etc) is less common in Korean skincare than it is here, but if it is a priority for you, your tret or regular retinol product will go here. 

Some options:

I can’t speak highly enough of the CosRX one for acne! It was a game changer for me with postpartum hormonal stuff. 

Hydrating toner

A hydrating toner is a huge part of the Korean skin care routine. It’s going to help treat dry skin, reduce the appearance of fine lines,and generally give you the best skin you can have. 

A lot of people will blow this step off because they feel that their skin is oily, but often adding water to the skin will reduce oil! Having the hydration in the skin means that your body can stop trying to overcompensate for dryness with oil, if that makes sense. 

A hydrating toner is going to be a great idea for any skin type, as they are not irritating and will have benefits for aging skin, acne prone skin, sensitive skin and rosacean skin. It’s a great, easy way to take care of your skin. 

You can choose from a lot here and you can get specialized ones if you want! A lot of Korean products will call themselves ‘whitening’, but that means ‘brightening’ or ‘evening out your skin tone’ rather than skin bleaching. So, for example, a product might have kojic acid in it and call itself ‘whitening’, but that’s only going to address dark spots, not change your natural skin tone. 

And I gotta shout out the Haruharu Wonder product as THE most soothing for my rosacea. 

It is VERY MUCH not for everybody, but I also love this fermented toner:

It’s a crazy product. The pump shoots out like a firehose, it smells like the 101 Bananas vodka you had way too much of at a sorority mixer, but it is unbelievably hydrating and my skin laps it up.

And does this sometimes come in the form of a sheet mask? Absolutely, and I love that for you.

Serums

You already know what serums are! We have them here. 

But if you have products that you like to use other than exfoliants, whether they’re K-beauty brands or not, they go here. I use a niacinamide serum and a Vitamin C serum (both are from Beauty Pie, so not Korean brands) and they go here for me. 

You probably already know what you like! If you don’t, I have some other posts about specific ingredients that might make sense here: 

• Niacinamide Serum vs Hyaluronic Acid: How to Choose
• Azelaic Acid vs Niacinamide? Benefits and Which is Better
• Azelaic Acid v Benzoyl Peroxide: Benefits + Who Should Avoid

A particular serum-like product that is unusual here but common in K-beauty is snail mucin! (Yes, it comes out of a snail.) Another soothing and hydrating ingredient–I’m sure you’re getting the logic now. 

I have used the CosRX product, and it’s very soothing! It worked well for my rosacea, but ultimately I felt a little unsure of how the snails were being treated and all that, and I stopped buying it. Many people do still use it here in the US though. 

Moisturizer for Korean night routine

​So, the last step of your Korean skin care routine at night will be a moisturizer, and it’ll be the heaviest product you apply. It’s intended to sit on top, seal your products in, and let your skin absorb all the skincare products you jsut applied!

I’m gonna be honest with you: I use jojoba oil instead of a proper moisturizer. I ran out of moisturizer like a year ago, used what I had on hand, and saw more of a glow. It’s just what worked better for my skin type. 

Lots of other people will use either Vaseline or Aquaphor to “slug” their face and lock in their products. Both of these clog my pores, so the oil is the best I can do. But if you can use the Vaseline or Aquaphor, they are super affordable options. Though they’re not Korean products, using them is consistent with the Korean philosophy for how to finish your routine. 

If you want a product specifically from K-beauty, you have options for those too! You’ll find in general that a product called ‘moisturizer’ or ‘lotion’ is fairly light, ‘cream’ is a little heavier and ‘sleeping pack’ will be the heaviest. 

Some people like an eye cream! I typically just apply my regular moisturiser more delicately there with my ring finger. Your call. Currently I’m using one because I got it in a sample. I don’t exactly prefer it, but it’s working fine for my skin. 

A quick note on sunscreen

Obviously we don’t wear sunscreen at night! But the Korean skincare regimen will ALWAYS include sunscreen in the morning routine. 

If you’re stepping up your night skincare K-beauty routine, sunscreen in the morning should absolutely be a part of that. I’ve got a post on the best anti-aging skincare here: Best UVA Sunscreen for Anti-Aging and Skin Protection. There’s some Korean brands in the post — they have great chemical sunscreens that aren’t manufactured in the US. 

I hope this post was helpful and that you’re on your way to your best skin ever.