Seoul searching for the perfect skin (vol. 1)
8:47 PM
One cannot simply return from Korea without having a haul of beauty products. As soon as I got off my flight, I was told that I have to visit the most popular shopping area in Seoul – Myeongdong Station. It’s honestly every girl’s dream until the credit card bill rolls in. The street is full of shops of various cosmetic products everywhere you go. There are vendors selling clothes, scarfs, accessories among many other things. Street food was also a huge thing at Myeongdong. And after spending just merely over 3 hours here, I already had several bags in my hand of a variety of goodies.
In this post, I will share with you my top 5 selection of skin care products I brought back with me from Seoul. Maybe you’ve heard of these, maybe you haven’t. But in this post, I will share with you my thoughts on these products.
1. Cleansing Foam
Foam cleansers is the first part of my daily routine, it cleans my face and removes all traces of make-up, dirt, or oil that somehow find a way on my face throughout the day. While I was in Korea, I fell in love with the Innisfree brand, as they offer many different variety of skin care products. Specifically to foam cleansers, there were a vast variety, but here are my favourites: Bija Trouble Facial Foam, Olive Real Cleansing Foam, and Jeju Volcanic Pore Cleansing Foam.
Foam cleansers is the first part of my daily routine, it cleans my face and removes all traces of make-up, dirt, or oil that somehow find a way on my face throughout the day. While I was in Korea, I fell in love with the Innisfree brand, as they offer many different variety of skin care products. Specifically to foam cleansers, there were a vast variety, but here are my favourites: Bija Trouble Facial Foam, Olive Real Cleansing Foam, and Jeju Volcanic Pore Cleansing Foam.
Make-up, dirt and oil from our surroundings can block out the pores in our skin causing acne and dullness to our skin. Using the foam cleansers, it helps to clear our skin from these pollutants keeping our skin clean, and pollutant-free.
As part of my routine, I like to use a bubble foamer (like the one above) to create a foamy and bubbly texture of the product before applying the product to my wet face. I would massage my face gently with the foamy texture to clear away the traces of make-up, etc. for 1-2 minutes before rinsing away with water using a Konjac jelly sponge.
Because my skin is very sensitive to changes in environment / weather, I prefer using different types of cleanser during different times of the year. For example, when I get really stressed, my skin may be troubled, and the Bija Trouble Facial Foam is my go-to foam cleanser that resolves my problem within a day or two. The Olive Real Cleansing Foam is a milder cleanser with a refreshing scent; I like to use this as a part of my daily routine as it is gentle to the skin and not drying. When the weather outside is mucky or feels polluted, often due to the high levels of humidity, I prefer the Jeju Volcanic Pore Cleansing Foam as this cleanser has the volcanic clay ingredient which deems to clear dirt from pores better than some of the other products.
2. Essence
As a part of the Korean face ritual, or so I call it, there are many steps. Upon cleansing one’s face, my go to product is my essence. Essence, in Korea, is different from a toner and used before you apply a toner. There are two types of Essence that I really like from my haul from Korea: (1) Missha Time Revolution: The First Treatment Essence and (2) IOPE Bio Intensive Essence Skin Conditioning.
An Essence is the first step of skin care that makes your skin more radiant and healthy by raising skin moisture and radiance level. It is soothing, smoothing, balancing one’s sebum level, moisturizing, improving skin tone, firming, wrinkle repairing, and boosting one’s skin.
I absolutely love the product that Missha and IOPE offers. After the first day of using it, I already felt my skin smoother than before. Using it daily continuously improved my skin condition. It definitely has improved my skin tone, and radiance level. Please note, the essences do not work like magic, and should be applied daily for optimal results.
I usually put on toner after using the Essence, but since I didn’t get any toner in Korea… I will continue on with my all time favourite – Gel Creams.
3. Gel Cream
I’ve used this cream forever, or at least of what I remember. It’s not too oily, and it goes nicely on my skin because it has a gel texture to it. Did I mention it is oil-free? That’s right, I’m talking about my all-time favourite Laneige Water Bank Gel Cream as well as Laneige Water Bank Gel Eye Cream.
I love the fresh scent that this gel cream has, and leaves my skin fresh, unlike some other samples I’ve tried which leaves me oily and sticky. It is very refreshing and my skin feels softer and smoother, and even more relax after I apply it to my face. As for my eyes, I like to massage my eyes gently in circular motion until it is fully absorbed into my skin.
4. Wash-off Masks
While wash-off masks are kind of old school now and inconvenient, there are still some really great ones out there in Korea. My favourites include: Skin Food Black Sugar Mask, Skin Food Rice Mask and Tony Moly Tomatox.
Skin Food Black Sugar Mask and Rice Mask
Skin Food’s Black Sugar Mask and Rice Mask is essentially an exfoliator that you leave on after massaging your face with the sugar grains or the rice grains for one to two minutes. The sugar grains or the rice grains, slow dissolves into your skin after you leave it on for 10-15 minutes. It might feel sticky, and you might want to tie up your hair while the mask is still on your face if you don’t want it to get into your hair. After washing the mask off, it will leave your skin, nice and smooth. I also have a tendency to feel like my pores are completely clean after using the product, as I have a perception that the sugar / rice granules that was dissolving in my skin comes out as I wash off the mask, removing all the dirt, make-up remains and other pollutants that could potentially be trapped in my pores.
I absolutely LOVE this mask, and on the plus side, it smells extremely nice, just like food too. Maybe that’s how the brand got its name… Skin Food.
Tony Moly Tomatox
Before I went to Korea, I actually read some review about this mask. You see, I have had troubled skin since high school, and sometimes, I still have troubled skin. I wanted to find a mask that pinpoints the root cause of the problem (that’s deep within my skin) and at the same time whitens and perhaps clear some of the acne scars that I have from many many years.
Tony Moly Tomatox was able to treat part of the equation. While I don’t think it pinpoints the problem deep within my skin (perhaps because the troubled skin now is from stress, some hormone thing), it does help remove the acne scars and brightens my skin.
Upon applying it to my face, there is a tingly sensation, but after massaging it on my face for 1-2 minutes, the tingly sensation is gone. It is recommended by the package to leave it on your face for 5 – 10 minutes, so I usually wash it off after 7, because it does tighten my skin a lot, and sometimes the tingly sensation does comes back due to the citrus ingredient in the product. Once the product is washed off, my face feels tightened, and smooth.
After using it a few times, I do see improvements in the dark spots of my skin from acne scars, and it does whiten my skin.
To be quite honest, I was quite scared to use this product at first because I have very sensitive skin. Reading some reviews, some people had mentioned that their face had some red bumps (like allergies) after. Thankfully, that didn’t happen to me. What I found this mask was really good for was during the harsh winter months, when it was really dry, and my skin started to peel. Surprisingly, it took away my dry flaky skin yet it left my skin tight and dry after using it. But with the right amount of essence, toner and cream, the problem was quickly resolved.
5. Sheet Masks
Lastly, how can I not mention the various skin masks available out there in the market. I can go on and on and on about how great these masks are and the variety of functions. But there are just WAY TOO MANY. So I’m going to narrow it down in another point of view.
While there are many sheet masks out in the market, and when I mean many, I mean LOTS, there are 3 distinct types of masks: (1) normal sheet masks with various flavours and functions, (2) hydro gel masks that restores hydration, elasticity and bounce to one’s skin and (3) second skin mask, a perfectly fitted mask that provides intensive moisture to dry skin, just like another skin layer to one’s face.
For normal/regular usage
For normal/regular/daily usage, I would recommend using these masks that provides the basic moisturization and other functionality to one’s skin. Whether it be brightening, removing red spots, moisturizing, etc. These masks are generally good for normal day-to-day treatments.
For restoring hydration + elasticity
Hydro-gel masks as see on these masks, provides additional hydration that normal/regular masks does not offer. It can also provide other functions like, brightening clarifying and clearing skin on top of the additional hydration that it offers.
For all encompassing masks (normal functionality, hydration, brigthening, smoothing, etc).
Second skin mask from Innisfree, Leaders and the Bio Essence Skin Conditioning Mask from IOPE, I find that these masks while expensive, they really provide the all encompassing functions that it promises. My favourite one was the IOPE one, so that’s why I have already finished it. These masks are definitely worth every penny!
And that’s all for now in the first volume of searching for the perfect skin in Seoul! Stay tuned for some of my favourite cosmetic items in the second volume. Thanks for reading!
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