We hope you love our recommendations! Some may have been sent as samples, but all were independently selected by our editors. Just FYI, BuzzFeed and its publishing partners may collect a share of sales and/or other compensation from the links on this page.
1. Mighty Patches answer your pimple anxieties with their special hydrocolloid material that draws out all of the gross (but oddly satisfying) pus and other impurities inside whitehead-showing pimples — stick 'em on those suckers and watch them deflate before your very eyes!
2. Papa Recipe Honey Moist Sun Essence feels barely there (like a super lightweight moisturizer) and soothing from the very first touch (hello, honey and propolis extract!) and gives your skin a healthy glow, while arming your face with SPF 50+, never leaves a white cast, and sits beautifully under makeup.
3. Dr. Jart Cicapair Tiger Grass Gel Cream is unbelievably lightweight and smoothes away any lingering redness I have on my face (due to diet, lack of sleep, stress, etc.), so my face appears visibly soothed, hydrated, and ready for a restoring night of sleep or day of makeup and activities!
4. Dr. Jart+ Cicapair Tiger Grass Color Correcting Treatment instantly calms down rogue redness with color-changing capsules that blend into your skin tone, protect against UV light (SPF 30) and environmental aggressors, and boost fatigued-looking skin — one and done!
5. Mediheal x BTS Bio Capsulin Love Me Mask Set harnesses the all-encompassing, chart-topping powers of K-pop sensations, BTS, into a skincare product! Ok, just kidding, but Mediheal is Korea's best-selling sheet mask brand — so they know how to keep your skin lookin' dewy and plump!
6. Then I Met You Skin Balancing Duo is the toner-essence duo you absolutely need in your life. It'll help you achieve the glowy complexion you've been dreaming of by gently exfoliating away the bad stuff and locking in the good stuff (think: high levels of hydrations and moisture retention).
7. My Skin Mentor Dr. G Brightening Peeling Gel is a physical exfoliatior that flippin' works — the gel instantly forms into little balls of cellulose that sloughs off way more dead skin cells and surface debris than you thought possible for a smoother, brighter (hello, vitamins C and E!) complexion.
8. Cosrx Full Fit Propolis Synergy Toner gives skin a nourishing boost with a combination of 72.6% propolis extract and 10% honey extract, which have natural anti-inflammatory benefits. Cold, harsh weather doesn't stand a chance against this!
9. Belif Aqua Bomb has a ridiculously satisfying ~water burst~ formula, which means its gel texture disperses into water droplets you can feel as it's being rubbed into your skin — and alongside a blend of apothecary herbs, it calms down normal, oily, and combination skin types and smooths everything over without leaving any residue or unnecessarily heavy texture behind.
10. Peach & Lily Glass Skin Serum is your K-beauty "super juice" in a bottle — aka, its powerful formula of peach extract, niacinamide, Asian mountain yam extract, hyaluronic acid complex, and peptide complex leaves your skin looking like a plump, poreless dream — while penetrating skin cells deep within for the *long-term* health of your skin.
11. Innisfree Super Volcanic Pore Clay Mask 2X contains real Jeju Island volcanic clusters that use their naturally porous features to absorb all that excess oil you produce — and it contains twice the amount of volcanic ash as the original formula!
12. Klairs Rich Moist Soothing Cream provides both immediate and long-term moisture that has the right amount of ~richness~ but doesn't feel like it's clogging up your skin — thanks to a nourishing and skin-cell-and-barrier-strengthening combination of yeast-derived beta glucan, jojoba oil, and ceramides.
13. Cosrx Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence contains a whopping 96% filtered snail mucin to replenish dull, stressed, and dehydrated skin — talk about a glow-up, ladies and gents!
14. Sweet Chef Serum Shots are perfect on their own or for layering (à la the popular K-beauty "double serum" method) to target your specific skin issues! For example, combining a drop of Beet + Vitamin A (smoothes, refines pores) and Ginger + Vitamin C (reduces hyperpigmentation, helps even skin tone) each is the perfect recipe for "glass skin." Bye bye, pores!
15. Earth's Recipe Waterful Sun Gel SPF 50+ PA+++ wins the award for least annoying sunscreen ever, because it's so incredibly lightweight (it's formulated with ~harrogate sparkling water~) that there's literally no chance of greasiness, heaviness, or white cast — it's sunscreen that applies as seamlessly as a light lotion.
16. Hanskin PHA Pore Cleansing Oil not only melts away every bit of makeup and dirt that your skin has accumulated throughout the day, but it also does double duty as a gentle exfoliator that nips blackheads and rough texture in the bud.
17. O.R.G Skincare Mineral Peel Face is the perfect physical exfoliator for impatient people. You just spritz it on, and within a second of rubbing it in, a powerful but non-abrasive blend of fruit enzymes, mugwort extract, and natural brightening agents like milk thistle and licorice roots, gently lifts away dead skin and deeply-rooted makeup remnants within your pores.
18. Cosrx One Step Green Hero Calming Pads are soaked with green tea leaf water, centella asiatica extract, and witch hazel leaf extract for a ~gentle~ targeting of pores, excessive oiliness, redness, and dehydration. Think of it as a refreshing toner whenever you need it! Just swipe a few times for better skin!
19. Belif Aqua Bomb Cleanser is one of those rare cleansers that makes me love washing my face. If that's not enough to convince you, it lathers up beautifully and envelops my entire face in a gentle formula that washes away any remaining makeup and dirt post–oil cleanse.
20. Glow Recipe Avocado Melt Retinol Sleeping Face Mask and Eye Mask wrap extra dry skin in a nourishing blanket of deeply hydrating and soothing avocado oil, kaolin clay, and PHA (a super gentle exfoliator that's easier on the skin than AHA and BHA), so your skin gets the softening re-up it needs while you're snoozing away.
21. Benton Snail Bee High Content Essence loads up on snail mucin to support natural cell regeneration and replenish all the moisture you need and lose throughout the day — plus bee venom has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties, so you know you've really protected your troubled skin from further ~dangers~.
22. Dr. Oracle A-Thera Tea Tree Peeling Sticks are super easy one-and-done cotton swab applicators that are soaked in acne-fighting lactic and glycolic acids to get rid of breakouts and gently exfoliate every nook and cranny of your face — just do a few swipes, and you're done!
23. Skinfood Black Sugar Perfect Splash Mask only takes 10 seconds to work its magic, but still manages to have a huge payoff — namely, its organic Brazilian black sugar and PHA formula effectively scrubs away dead skin cells, restores your skin's pH, leaving your skin oh-so smooth and soft.
24. Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin C Serum brightens your skin tone over time, fades brown spots, and prevents further pigmentation from ruining the glow party that is your face.
25. Cosrx Advanced Snail Peptide Eye Cream, with continued use, visibly brightens your under eye areas, diminishes puffiness, and douses any dry patches with much-needed moisture, thanks to a formula of 72% snail secretion filtrate, five types of peptides, and niacinamide.
26. Laneige Water Sleeping Mask lulls you into a sweet, relaxing slumber of intense skin repair by sealing in all of the hydration in your skincare routine with a big dose of Hydro Ionized Mineral Water™ — in other words, goodbye, parched skin!
27. Neogen Bio-Peel Gauze Peeling Wine sloughs off your dead skin cells using a unique three-layer pad technology and lactic acid to deep, deep clean those pores — and it contains Resveratrol (which comes from red wine and is naturally fermented!) has naturally-occuring AHAs that help exfoliate and protect your skin against free radicals.
28. Etude House Moistfull Collagen Cream puts your face on full hydration blast with super collagen water and baobab oil (which comes from a desert-thriving tree that's capable of storing 120,000 liters of water!), and its watery gel texture absorbs quickly so your skin looks dewy, plump, but doesn't feel heavy at all.
29. Cosrx Low pH First Cleansing Milk Gel gently removes makeup for even the most sensitive skin types, because its low pH helps restore *your* pH balance and prevent moisture loss. It works especially well with skin that doesn't play nicely with cleansing oils and balms.
30. Acwell Licorice pH Balancing Essence Mist can be used in place of a heavier essence, as a midday TLC pickup (because our skin needs constant hydration!), and as a makeup setting spray — basically, you'll need one stationed at your desk *and* in your purse for mist o' clock anytime.
31. Neogen Vita Duo Cream is the two-in-one moisturizer that makes it impossible for you to forget this crucial skincare step — it's made up of surprisingly lightweight, calming, and redness-reducing Joan Day (green tea and Vitamin C) and Joan Night creams (lavender and Vitamin E), perfectly nestled together for literal 24-hour hydration and protection.
32. Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum is a results-driven "first-step serum" with five of the best Korean herbal ingredients meticulously curated from over 3,000 years' worth of ancient studies. What that boils down to: your skin looks glowing and supple, and your subsequent skincare products absorb faster and more thoroughly.
33. Innisfree Youth-Enriched Cream With Orchid is not only one of the brand's global bestsellers, but it's been revamped with a new and enhanced formula featuring Orchidelixir 2.0, which extracts actives from every part of the Jeju Orchid (which even blooms during the winter!) and addresses early signs of mature skin.
34. Neogen Super Hydra Aqua Capsule Masks are unlike any sheet masks you've used before — there's a capsule filled with hyaluronic acid ampoule that you snap at the center so it can drench your mask in real time, so you know your hydration is ~fresh~ and evenly distributed (because you're doing that work!).
35. Peach & Lily Pore Proof Perfecting Clay Mask uses the power of yummy-sounding ingredients, like wild cherry, strawberry, and licorice extracts, to draw out all of the impurities nesting deep within your pores — but it leaves your skin feeling soft to the touch, never tight. It's like a spa experience from start to finish!
36. Mamonde Petal Spa Oil to Foam Cleanser combines the beloved double cleanse formula into one convenient bottle — the oil formula emulsifies into a creamy foam when activated by water — so you can still get your deep cleanse on even when you're in a rush (whether that's to work or to bed).
37. Nooni Applebutter Lip Mask protects your vulnerable pout from the elements by packing in mint extract and a blend of nine oils with loads of vitamins A, C, and E to lock in that moisture! Bye, peeled and chapped lips — you have no business here!
38. Sweet Chef Ginger Kombucha + Vitamin D Chill Mist does exactly what its name implies: chill my face out and give it a refreshing spritz of hydration and brightening.
39. Benton Tea Tree Cleansing Water goes beyond the call of a makeup remover (aka my favorite lazy skincare product), because it's made up of 70% tea tree leaf water, which we know fights acne and keeps excess sebum in check.
40. Re:p Bio Fresh Mask With Real Calming Herbs works overtime to soothe and calm skin, thanks to a formula that contains calendula and chamomile flowers, on top of many other natural extracts, oils, and kaolin clay. P.S. All re:p products are clean, sustainable, and designed for sensitive skin types!
41. The Plant Base Waterfall Moist Balanced Hyaluronic Acid 100 only nourishes your skin with the best, and by best we mean 100% pure sodium hyaluronate, a stable, water-soluble form of hyaluronic acid (our winter dryness savior) with smaller molecules that more easily penetrate and plump up your skin.
42. Glow Recipe Banana Souffle Moisture Cream resets my ruddy, winter-inflamed skin and extracts all of the calming benefits of banana (yay, magnesium and potassium!), centella asiatica, and turmeric to strengthen my skin's barrier — and feels so soft and luxurious while doing it.
You after you've done your Korean skincare routine:
Shopping for something specific? Check out BuzzFeed Reviews to find the best things for every budget!
