K-beauty: these 9 Korean beauty brands that are driving TikTok into a frenzy and finally promising real glass skin

In South Korea, skin care is part of everyday life and passed down from generation to generation. The formulas are directly inspired by the local pharmacopoeia, with ginseng, centella asiatica or even fermented rice, while the country has become the fourth world exporter of cosmetics, just behind France and the United States, almost equal to Germany. There remains one question that keeps coming up: which brands to start with when you want to get started in K-Beauty.

K-Beauty: What Makes Korean Cosmetics Brands So Special

Before even talking about shopping, a key point helps to understand the craze for these Korean facial treatments. Here, the objective is not to camouflage, but to prevent and soothe. Brands draw on tradition with plants like ginseng and centella asiatica, cereals and fermented active ingredients to strengthen the skin barrier, deeply hydrate and smooth the skin’s texture. Result: routines built around comfort, radiance and skin that remains supple in the long term.

Another signature of the K-Beauty brands, this very studied mix between efficiency and pleasure of use. Sleek or pop packaging, gel textures that melt into the skin, masks with an icy effect or airy creams, everything is designed to make the routine pleasant. Social networks have taken over, propelling certain products to the rank of global bestsellers and permanently establishing Korean treatments in European bathrooms.

9 Korean beauty brands you absolutely must know

When it comes to essentials, Beauty of Joseon is one of the favorites of skincare enthusiasts. Inspired by the Joseon dynasty, the brand combines ginseng, fermented rice, honey or camellia oil in minimalist bottles. Its Relief Sun Rice + Probiotics sunscreen, with a moisturizing cream texture, is suitable for sensitive and oily skin thanks to a blend of rice and fermented cereal extracts rich in vitamins B, C and E, green tea and niacinamide. The same house also produces the Glow Serum Propolis + Niacinamide (60% propolis and 2% niacinamide) to soothe irritation linked to acne and boost glow, as well as ginseng essence water which deeply hydrates, soothes fragile skin and helps eliminate dead cells.

In a hybrid skincare and makeup register, Erborian, born from the imagination of Hojung Lee and Katalin Berenyi, combines Korean technologies and medicinal herbs such as centella asiatica; its BB and CC creams have become benchmarks for blurring imperfections, improving the complexion day after day and, for CC Cream, reducing minor redness.

The LANEIGE brand, very popular among young people, owes its success to its night masks for the lips, enriched with hyaluronic acid and minerals, which leave the mouth supple and comfortable, but also to its sets like Bouncy & Firm Mini Skin Treats, a trio of plumping treatments with playful textures, from the micro-bead serum to the almost airy night mask.

Skin looking for simple formulas often turns to CosRx, whose credo is to limit the number of ingredients by focusing on snail mucin, centella asiatica and ceramides; its all-in-one snail cream, its Low pH Good Morning cleansing gel which gently purifies thanks to salicylic acid and tea tree oil, or its AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment toner, designed to eliminate blackheads and tighten pores on combination skin, are among the most commented products.

Finally, Dr. Jart+, launched in 2004, marked a turning point with its Cicapair range with tiger grass to neutralize redness and soothe skin subjected to pollution, stress or lack of hydration; the brand offers both a Cicapair color correcting treatment dedicated to sensitive skin, Ceramidin treatments (lip balm and day cream enriched with ceramides) to nourish and protect in winter, as well as Rubber Mask or Cryo Rubber masks based on hyaluronic acid which strengthen the lipid barrier and lock in moisture.

Other Korean labels focus more on softness and naturalness. With its minimalist packaging, Skin1004 builds its formulas around centella asiatica, which it combines with hyaluronic acid, bakuchiol or tea tree to target hydration, hyperpigmentation or imperfections in turn; its exfoliating toner and moisturizing cream, which literally melts on the skin, are among its successes, as is the Water-Fit Madagascar Centella Hyalu-cica sun serum, close to a classic serum but enriched with hyaluronic acid, centella asiatica, green tea and rocket leaf extract with SPF50 protection to help protect the skin from oxidative stress caused by UV rays.

Belif (“Believe in truth”) is inspired by 19th century herbalist tradition and Korean innovation to offer creams and serums based on carefully extracted plants; its Aqua Bomb, very suitable for dry skin prone to dehydration, and its vitamin C serum which immediately brightens the complexion, are often cited.

In the same “green” vein, Innisfree is described as a nature brand born on the island of Jeju, with formulas that can contain up to around 80% ingredients of natural origin, relying on green tea or camellia oil to hydrate and give radiance via hydrating or vitamin C serums.

More recent, Yepoda, launched in 2020 to make Korean beauty accessible in Europe, was born from a very concrete request from the relatives of its founders: “Every time we visited the family of Sander Joonyoung (editor’s note: co-founder of the brand) in Korea, our relatives asked us to bring K-Beauty products back to Europe”, explains Veronika, co-founder of Yepoda, quoted by Vogue France. The brand focuses on clean formulas and a concern for sustainability, with The Depuff Eyespresso decongestant patches, combining caffeine and green tea to act on dark circles and bags, or the double cleansing duo The Clearing Duo, designed to obtain a clear and clean complexion.

K-Beauty Routine: How to Incorporate These Korean Beauty Brands

Behind the “glass skin” effect often associated with Korean treatments lies a well-established ritual. Rather than an express routine, Koreans follow several very gentle gestures, each having a specific role to cleanse, exfoliate, hydrate and then saturate the skin with active ingredients. The products from the brands mentioned above fit easily into this scheme, whether you choose a CosRx cleanser, a Skin1004 toner, a ginseng essence from Beauty of Joseon or a Belif or LANEIGE moisturizer.

Concretely, a Korean skincare routine is structured around a few main steps:

• Double cleansing: combine oil makeup removal then a gentle milk or gel to obtain a perfectly clear and fresh complexion.
• Exfoliation: about once a week, to unclog pores and revive radiance, for example with an exfoliating toner.
• Double hydration: first apply a lotion, then a light emulsion; this layering improves the absorption of treatments, softens the skin and helps remove the last traces of limescale after cleansing.
• The serum: to choose according to your skin problem, whether it is irregularities, redness or lack of radiance.
• The eye contour and moisturizing cream: a targeted treatment for the eyes, supplemented by a highly hydrating cream for a very glowy finish.
• Sheet masks: it is rumored that Korean women use them on a daily basis; these cellulose masks complete the routine by flooding the skin with moisturizing active ingredients.

FAQ: Everything you need to know about K-Beauty and Korean brands

1. What is K-Beauty and why is it so talked about?
K-Beauty refers to Korean cosmetics, renowned for its innovative formulas, its sensory textures and its preventive approach to care. It seduces thanks to traditional ingredients (ginseng, centella asiatica, fermented rice) and complete routines capable of lastingly improving the radiance and hydration of the skin.

2. What are the best Korean beauty brands to start with?
The most recommended brands to start with are Beauty of Joseon, CosRx, LANEIGE, Dr. Jart+, Skin1004, Erborian, Innisfree, Belif and Yepoda. They cover all needs: hydration, imperfections, glow, anti-redness or even repair of the skin barrier.

3. Why are Korean treatments considered effective?
Their effectiveness is based on a clever mix of tradition (medicinal plants, fermented ingredients) and technology. The formulas are designed to strengthen the skin barrier, deeply hydrate and smooth the skin’s texture, with very soft textures suitable for sensitive skin.

4. What is glass skin and how to get it?
Glass skin is a term that refers to skin that is smooth, plump, very hydrated and luminous like glass. To obtain it, we rely on a several-step routine: double cleansing, gentle exfoliation, essence, hydrating serum, glowy cream and daily sun protection.

5. Do you really need to follow 10 steps to adopt K-Beauty?
No. The famous “10-step routine” is not obligatory. The main thing is to use the right actions in the right order: cleanser, layered hydration, targeted serum, cream and SPF. A K-Beauty routine can be simplified into 3 or 4 steps depending on needs.