Best Korean “Glass Skin” Products With Natural Ingredients

This K-beauty trend sounds fancy, but it’s really actually very simple - it’s all about putting on multiple layers of hydrating but lightweight skincare on your face. This will give your skin a dewy, luminous, even seemingly transparent glow - but unlike using makeup to achieve this effect, you’ve done it using ingredients that actually nourish your skin, both in the short and long term.

The exact skincare you choose is up to you, as long as you abide by principles for choosing skincare with more natural, cleaner ingredients, as outlined in our skincare basics post. Here is a breakdown of the products that we use to get that Glass Skin Glow:

1. Use a gentle chemical exfoliant to help get rid of rough patches and dead skin cells. We use the COSRX AHA Whitehead Power Liquid (Olive Young)(Style Korean)(Althea)(Beautynet Korean)(Jolse) because it doesn’t irritate our skin. It’s great at keeping it soft and smooth, ready to absorb all the other layers of skincare we put on subsequently.

2. Use a hydrating but lightweight essence like the COSRX Galactomyces 95 Tone Balancing Essence (Style Korean)(Althea)(Beautynet Korean)(Jolse) or the Primera Miracle Seed Essence (Althea). These have also helped to minimize the appearance of pores, thanks largely to the niacinamide content in them.

3. Use a nourishing serum to plump up the skin. We use The Ordinary "Buffet", which contains multiple peptides and hyaluronic acid. This has helped to even out the appearance of fine lines for a great anti-aging effect, while at the same time giving it that sought after “glassy skin” effect. Do a patch test with any products containing hyaluronic acid though, in case your skin is allergic to it.

4. Use a moisturizing sheet mask, for example the Papa Recipe Bombee Honey Masks (Style Korean), which contains honey essence and propolis extract. This mask has really helped to seal in moisture on our face, makes the skin feel bouncier, and gives that final layer of dewiness to the overall glowing skin look.

For really natural-looking dewy skin, try to avoid foundation, but instead just use concealer on trouble areas. Then dust a highlighter on the high points of your cheeks, and wherever else you usually apply highlight. We like the BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfecto Pressed Highlighter but you can apply whichever highlighter you usually use.

By the way.. some of the skincare we recommend are available on iHerb, which we use to buy a lot of our organic skincare. You can use our code AEJ0519 at checkout to get 5% off.

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P.S…this is probably obvious, but the information presented doesn’t constitute medical advice - always check with your own doctor!