Everywhere you turn now, there’s a Korean skincare product being marketed to you. It doesn’t matter whether you’re outside walking around or you’re online on social media. Ads, offline and online, are rampant about the latest beauty trend, and they often feature South Korea’s brightest beauty ambassadors. If you’re a fan of K-dramas or K-pop, you’re even more likely to go for K-beauty because of the flawless looks on your favorite celebrities.
But is this trend here to stay or is this just a fad?
The Rise of Asian Awareness
It’s not just the shows that captivate hearts. It’s also Korean culture itself, which is fascinating not just to its neighbors but to the world over. Along with Korean domination worldwide, beauty products, from ingenious BB creams to Korean sheet masks, became popular overseas. And while fascination with a culture can be considered an individual preference, when enough people have this preference, there is a shift in gears. Korea is no longer just known for its idols; it’s also known for its revolutionary products, and if you’ve ever used one, you’ll know their great effects on the skin.
The Aspirational Look
Fashion is at the core of the Korean culture. From the iconic scenes in your favorite dramas, to the trendy outfits singers wear in their latest videos, fans want to cop the look from head to toe. This means adding a couple of key pieces to your wardrobe, and choosing new products to add to your skincare routine. It’s not enough to do your winged eyeliner like you always do; now, you go for the glossy eye makeup and bitten lip because these are what your fashion icons rock in their latest features.
Honoring Natural Beauty
When you go through makeup videos on YouTube, you’ll encounter some challenges that involve using as much makeup as possible to change the face entirely. While it’s fun to watch your favorite YouTuber do these, your everyday makeup application needs to be more mindful of product usage. You can get a good coverage with Korean makeup without it weighing your skin down. Plus, their makeup usually blends with the skin well enough for it to look natural.
A Look at the Future
Korean skincare, of course, is not perfect, but it’s perfected enough to give us a glimpse of just how good makeup can be in the future. What we need now, however, is a wider range to cater to more skin types. Currently, there are fewer options for the darker skin types, but because these products are usually meant to blend as naturally as possible with the skin, they can easily be mixed with other products to get a good result.
With the way we’re advancing in the matter of skincare, it’s no wonder we pay more attention to those that are revolutionary in every aspect. That is K-beauty, as the industry in itself spends time and effort in perfecting their formulation. It’s not about piling on loads of product on your skin; it’s about taking the skin you have and perfecting it.
