Korean Skin Care

In Korea it is ESSENTIAL that you look after your skin. After all, we all want to look younger, particularly as we age, right? I have women in my classes who I originally thought looked the same age as me or maybe a few years older, only to find out that most of them are OVER TEN YEARS OLDER THAN ME! They haven't had plastic surgery, unless you count the double eyelid surgery that has nothing to do with making one look younger. I thought maybe it was the diet. Everyone here eats seafood all the time, minimal meat and chicken and lots of vegetables. There are not many oily dishes and everything just feels healthier.

Then one day I saw some ladies on the street with little skin tone stickers on their faces. I thought it was to cover up a blister or scratched sore of some kind. But the more I looked, LOTS of women had these stickers on their faces and not just one or two either, up to 10 or 12 each. I asked one of my friends what they were for and she explained that the women had been to the dematologist and had freckles removed. Apparently you can go for about 5-6 sessions over a period of time. Maybe this is common and people do it all the time in Australia also, but I have never seen it. I always thought a detmatologist was just someone to visit if you had a skin condition or severe acne or something. I didn't realise so many women went to one.

Anyway, this had me thinking. If all these women are going to the dermatologist and looking so young afterwards without surgery, they must be getting some great treatment. I started to wonder whether I should go. But of course, I didn't and thought I'd just stock up on some skin care items from the store instead.



So here is my new and improved skin care regime with some Korean tips I have picked up off people.

1. Foaming wash with COLD water. Don't know why it is important that it has to be cold. But apparently it does. It's freezing though!
2. Papaya and pinapple facial scrub. I have never exfoliated my face and now I can't live without it.
3. Ecopure toner.
4. Ecopure Emulsion (I actually have no idea what this is but the woman at the store told me to put it on after toner but before the other products)
5. Ecopure Peptide Collagen Eye Cream. As long as it helpe get rid of the eye wrinkles and circles I am all for it. Really Important: Apparently if you apply the cream with your ring finger it causes less damage to your skin. Don't know if it's true or not but it's worth a shot.
6. RGII Premium EX Deep Wrinkle Line Cream. I actually only have samples of this that were given to me for free because it is so expensive, about 130,000 won per bottle. I could buy 5 different tops for that price or 130 bottles of water. When the samples run out in about 12 days I'll just have to buy a cheaper bottle. I am really loving the Ecopure range, maybe they have one.
7. Skin Whitening Moisturiser. No choice. Everything here has skin whitening in it. I don't really think it works, but then again my skin is white so I don't know if I'd be able to tell. When you put on the moisturiser I have been told that you have to lightly tap the cream on with an upwards motion to push your skin up. I usually just rub everywhere, now I have been reformed.
8. Missha BB Cream with SPF 42 PA+++ No. 23. My friend showed me how to mix this with a little bit of cream so it's more natural. When I went to a makeup party once we were told to remember, whatever goes on wet must be set dry so you put powder over the foundtion. With BB cream, unless you already have super oily skin, it just looks weird. BB cream with the blush over the top etc is enough.

NIGHT: At night I have a Dual Effect Sleeping Pack which is a combined whitening and anti-wrinkle formulation.

Once a week I will use a callagen eye patch and nutra-energy face mask.

When in Korea, do as the Koreans do!