Korean Skincare Order – which goes first?

Here’s my easy instructions to the asian/korean 5-step skincare routine:

1. Cleansing —> 2. Massage & mask —> 3. Tone —> 4. Essence —> 5. Moisturize

1. Cleansing
Never go to sleep with your makeup still on!
Cleanse your face and also make sure to use make-up remover to avoid dirt still clinging on to your skin.

2. Massage & Mask
Facial massage is the secret to glowing skin, therefore apply a massage pack or cream and massage your face.

A facial massage improves blood circulation and is a great stress reliever! Facial massages also stimulates the flow of oxygen and nutrients to improve the elasticity of your skin. The skin temperature goes up and that opening pores which push out the dirt in the skin.

Incorporate a facial massage into your beauty regime at least 2 – 3 times a week for visible results.
Facial massages does not do any good for oily skin, so refrain from doing it if you suffer from oily skin!

Instead! Use a face mask; my favourites are of course the sheet masks, also many of my friends enjoy using them!

Facial masks should be applied 1 – 2 times a week, after cleansing and preferably at night.

3. Toner/Facial Freshener
Choose a toner that suits your skintype, it’s very vital. I’ve chosen wrong so many times. If you’re in Korea, take the help of someone working in the stores, they really know their stuff, otherwise just test your way to the perfect toner for you.

4. Essence/serum
Essence or serums are very light, liquid concentrates that treat and correct skin problems. Essence is easier absorbed and penetrates deep into your skin, better than regular moisturizers. For best results, wait 5 minutes after applying serums before applying your moisturizer to allow maximum absorption.

5. Moisturize
Use a moisturizer for cream that suits your skin type well!
Start off with emulsion,  wait for it to be absorbed by your skin and then top it off with skin cream or face moisturiser 🙂
Emulsion is the best, especially when used on the side of skincreams and moisturizers 🙂

The more you pay attention to taking care of your skin, the better it can look, honestly. Good glowing skin does not come by being lazy and korean women are really serious about skin care.
I wish you the best of luck in the future with your skincare!

My Favourite Skin Products This Month – August 2012

Holika Holika Bulgarian Rose Emulsion
One of my favourite parts of korean skin-care routines is of course “emulsion”. And testing out the Bulgarian Rose Emulsion from Holika Holika is a delight to put on as it’s got a delicious smell of roses (not like scented candles, this products actually has a very plesant smell of roses). And of course it also fulfulls the best parts of an emulsion-product, it really moisturizes and it does make my skin a lot smoother.

Skinfood Gold Caviar Serum
I love skinfoods products as all of them are created out of something with “food”. This product smells very nice and not too strong, it’s feels silky on my skin and makes my skin smoother. Also I feel that it does relieve my skin of redness which is such a good think after washing my face in the morning.

Baviphat Miracle Snail Cure Ampoule
In general I usually don’t like that many out of Baviphat’s products that I’ve tried. But as I liked their “snail sheet mask” previously, I decided to try their Miracle Snail Cure Ampoule out. I started using it and immediately noticed my skin feeling renewed and how fast this product actually cures ones skin of redness. My friend was having skin-troubles with redness and when he tried it out he within 10 minutes noticed that half of the redness was gone. The product really impressed my friend in the same way as it made me delighted of it’s positive affects on my skin. I will definitely buy this product again in the future.

Bioderma for Sensitive Skin
So as some of you might remember a few weeks ago I wrote about impulse-buying this Bioderma product. And about a week ago it arrived in my mailbox. I heard so many bloggers fan-girling about this product and the different it made to their skin quality so I had to try out the product. When using this product you directly notice that it really clears your skin of any trace of make-up or dirt stuck on your skin. It really compliments my facial wash perfectly and I know now that my skin can be clearer because of this product. Secondly it really gives your skin a really refreshing feeling and it’s just a perfect make-up remover/face toner.

Sheet masks and snail stuff

I bought some skin-stuff two days ago in Myeongdong. These are some of the items I bought in the picture above. I bought my father the paprika/pepper-shaped Elbow and Heelcream (mostly because of the shape of it’s container, but my dad also has problems with really dry skin on his elbows so it would be great if the cream helped that problem) from Baviphat. Also I bought a sheet mask, the other two I got as complementary gifts when I bought other stuff. Right now I’m trying out the Etude House Collagen sheet mask. It smells like roses and I really love the result on my skin after I’ve worn a sheet mask. I heard somewhere that you’re supposed to do a facial mask at least once a week to keep your skin looking as healty and nice as possible. Collagen masks are probably one of my favourite. In general though I’m a huuuge fan of sheet masks, and I really do recommend everyone to try them out. You can buy them cheep from eBay amongst other places.
I love that I got a complementary Snail sheet mask from Baviphat and a complementary Pearl Extract sheet mask from Etude House too. The snail-extract really improved my skin, and also have heard many similar stories as to my experience in using snail products. But I’ve only so far used snail-extract products from Holika Holika (Snail Ampoule and Snail facial cream), the same one as Jung Yonghwa used to do commercials for for the make-up brand (picture below).

Oh, also I saw a drinking yoghurt here named “Collagen”, how weird isn’t that? In a normal convenience store. I didn’t dare to dry it of course, I think collagen fits better on me than inside me….

HOW TO USE SHEET MASKS: Put on the sheet mask trying to cover as much of the skin on your face as you can, then wait up to 20 minutes. After that take the sheet mask off and throw away, then pat in the excess fluid into your skin. After that you’re finished!