What is 10-steps Korean Skin Care Regime? Do You Really Need to Follow All Steps?

10 steps Korean Regime is a sequence of applying skin-care products in the right order, suited according to your skin type as well as skin requirement determined by your personal health situation, skin concerns along with weather condition surrounding you.

The skin concerns could vary from being Dry skin (less sebum production), 

• Dehydrated skin (low hydration levels), Oily skin leading to Blackheads, whiteheads, kinds of acne etc, 

• Dull skin from excess dead skin not exfoliated from face,

• Pigmentation, Melasma,

• Fine lines and wrinkle formation and lastly 

• Sensitive skin with redness from sunburn or allergic rashes, inflammation, itching.

Whichever skin concern you are dealing with, Skin care should never stress you out , you can always customize certain steps with the right products that suit you best, the right products could be chosen only when you have knowledge of each ingredient that goes into it. The steps can certainly be less than 10 also, we recommend you select the steps that align with your personal skin goals.

The Basic care steps we all know – Cleansing, Toning, Moisturizing on a daily basis.

However, we can add more steps in the basic routine to  target your skin-concern dedicatedly in order get rid of it as soon as possible.

Those 10 steps in a skincare can be the following, you can also remove some steps off of it.

Step 1 – Dissolve and melt any trace of makeup, grime or dirt from your face thoroughly using oil based cleanser. It helps to prep your skin for further skincare product’s absorption.

Products – Cleansing Micellar water – for light makeup, Cleansing balm for heavy waterproof makeup, Cleansing oil for melting out any greasy, oily layer off the skin, Cleansing wipes etc.

Step 2 – Cleanse your Step 1 cleansing products completely with water-based cleansers to help prevent breakouts by leaving no trace of any thing on the pores, making the face squeaky clean – this step is also known as Double cleansing.

Products – Soap cleanser, Foam cleanser, Bubble free cleansers etc

Step 3 – You already cleansed the makeup, dirt sebum from top layer of your facial skin. Now this step is meant to clean dead cells deep inside from the clogged pores using manual or chemical exfoliators, this step is super helpful for dull skin concerns.

Products – 

Manual exfoliators – Brush, silicon scrub tool, gritty beads, creamy scrubs etc Chemical Exfolants – Weak AHA acids, Lactic acids, BHA, Peeling gommage gels etc.

Step 4 – To optimize the skin’s pH levels, it’s important to apply toner to balance your skin’s pH level as this can affect the strength and efficacy of the products you will use in the next steps in your regime. 

If not maintained, the skin can become too dry and dehydrated.

Toner is basically a skin prep product. It also cleanses any product traces left from exfoliators used on the skin. Toner further helps to moist your layer of skin cells, helping to absorb the next products you are about to use in below mentioned steps.

Products – Hydrating Toners, Mild astringents, herb dissolved waters such as witch hazel, rosewater.

Step 5 – Hydrate your skin with effective nutrients packed Essence or Emulsions, they are watery in texture but should be made of high-quality active ingredients since they seep inside top layers of your skin and sit there without quick evaporation, to comfort & balance-care the face evenly, aiding cellular turnover for a youthful appearance.

Products – Essences, Emulsion

Step 6 – Serums are thicker in texture than Essences, however, still not as rich as ampoules or sealants, they fall in between. Serum are made up of smaller molecules, less watery but still penetrate deeply into the skin and deliver active ingredients. The skincare steps are all about layering goodies on skin starting from low molecular structure to heavy molecular structure ingredients, letting pores to penetrate them in the layers below.

Step 7 – In this step you don’t target your entire skin but only your problem areas and specific concerns using highly concentrated Ampoules or Facial oils which may be sold in a smaller quantity only as they are very strong & potent, certainly not meant to be applied to entire face.

For examples you are bothered by pigmentation spots, large pores, pimples or maybe fine lines, the use of high concentration of active-packed treatment herbs, safe chemicals ingredients laced in ampoules can be helpful in speedy repair of the problem area, it is not diluted and thus needs to be applied only once a day or for a shorter period of time.

Products – Ampoules & vials, Face oils

Step 8 – Eyes may be many things but they are also the gateway to knowing someone’s age, Eye area has a very thin skin and we look aged there first as it makes face look tired and age-worn due to saggy lids, eye-bags, crow’s feet, fine lines, dark circles etc.. Eye cream is a concentration of hydrators such as ceramides layered on only thin skin around eyes. best cream is without skin thinning acids, artificial fragrance, colors or unnecessary chemicals meant to be applied everyday.

Products – Eye cream tubes, Eye gels, Eye hydrating Sticks, Eye moisturisers, Eye gel-patches etc.

Step 9 – This step is to lock in all the good stuff you put on to your skin layers, creating barrier from evaporating, in order to work up their magic.

Our skin is highly capable of Trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL or TWL) which means the loss of water that passes from inside a body (animal or plant) through the epidermis (skin pores) to outside environment. This lead to dehydration condition in which skincare ingredients cannot be effective in its full potential. Skin needs to be moist with well-hydrated layers.

TEWL is inevitable and is affected by environmental factors such as humidity, temperature, season, Physical workout etc.

To slower TEWL process use a ‘sealant’ moisturizer, those not allowing moisture from pores to evaporate up in the atmosphere, much like the plants in deserts do. At night you can also replace a moisturizer with a hydrating overnight mask or sleeping pack for skin to repair while sleep – sort of TLC step, should be Non-comedogenic though.

Products – Moisturisers comes in various forms and features as below:

#Humectants (Draws water from nearby sources (such as H2O particles in the air).

Common ingredients

AHA, Aloe Vera, Glycerin, Honey, Hyaluronic Acid, Soluble Collagen, Urea, Sugars, Amino Acids.

#Emollients (smoothening) To fill the cracks, smooth out the textures. Thinner/lighter consistency than occlusives, thus easier to spread.

Common ingredients 

Plant-based oils, Animal-based oils, Butters, Dimethicone/silicones

#Occlusives (moisturizing)

To keep / lock the water, prevents water from leaving. Too many occlusives can cause acne by clogging your pores.

Common ingredients

Petroleum Jelly/Vaseline, Mineral Oils, Beeswax, Olive Oil, Silicones, Lanolin, Zinc Oxide

Step 10 – This involves using a minimum SPF50++++ sunscreen with high UVA UVB sun filters, especially in tropical weather. Not using sunscreen can reverse your above skincare step progress to great extent that lead to waste of time, energy and products.

So do slather a good sunscreen every 2.5 hours, whenever you step out under the sun, even if it is only for just a while.

Products – Sunscreen milk (Dry skin), sunscreen essence (light-weight), Portable Sun sticks (Easy application, handy, light on skin), Further Maintenance Steps for weekends – Sun-soothing cooling gels, Lip balms, Sheet-masks on weekends for the added TLC.

As said above, it is always best to customize less or more steps according to your skin’s requirement than to follow someone else’s routine blindly.

Korean beauty products in India can be availed faster at Shelc.in offering 100% genuine and reputed Korean skin care brands, curating korean products in india which are tested and accepted across the globe for their efficacy such as Cosrx, Isntree etc.

You can also create your own skincare regime using DIY skin care at home or using Indian brand products.