Before You Start: What is Olive Young?
Olive Young (Hangul: 올리브영) is a beauty chain store based in South Korea. It is one of the signature brands of CJ Group. Since its first store opened in 1999, the company has grown impressively, and it has the number one market share within the Korean beauty and skincare category.
[This is a guest post written by Jason Park.]
Korean beauty culture is synonymous with having a healthy complexion and a dewy glow. Because they have a long and rich history developing skincare, they’re number three behind Paris and NYC.
However, if you’re new to this world, you may not know where to start or understand which brands are trustworthy. We’ll tell you about 10 of the hottest Korean skincare brands at Olive Young. While there are literally hundreds of fantastic brands, these are the hottest on the shelves.
1. Acropass
Acropass provides an array of skin patches to assist with all sorts of problems like acne, wrinkles, and damage. These often incorporate their patented microcone technology to deliver treatments deep into the skin.
Line Care: This microcone patch helps to reduce fine lines and wrinkles. Place it on crow’s feet, forehead wrinkles, laugh lines, or anywhere signs of aging appear on the face. They recommend overnight use for best results.
Poreless: This is yet another microcone patch to control the oil-water balance of the skin along with sebum production. It tightens large pores and restores elasticity to overstretched pores to make skin soft, smooth and supple.
Trouble Cure: The line of Trouble Cure products includes patches, toner, and cream. These treat severely damaged skin from things like pollution, toxins, and overexposure to sunlight. Its powerful yet gentle action is ideal for acne-prone skin.
Spot Eraser: To treat pimples, blemishes, and skin imperfections, Spot Eraser makes for an excellent patch. The microcones surround it with a blast of vitamin C. After two hours, there’s a noticeable reduction in size and appearance.
2. Banila Co
Banila Co is one of the most sought-after K-beauty skincare brands. They offer many products that include cleansers, toners, mists, ampoules, serums, moisturizers, facemasks, and eye care. Banila Co’s repertoire covers a wide range of skin types and concerns.
The most popular is their vast line of Clean It Zero Cleansing Balms. These serve as the very first cleansing step of the 10-step skincare process.
Original: Great for any skin type, it cleanses and hydrates in one fell swoop.
Brightening: By including vitamin C via mandarins, this gives a brightened effect to the skin.
Pore Clarifying: This three-in-one cleansing balm is ideal for waterproof makeup removal and closing up large pores. The formulation turns from a solid into a smooth oil when it comes into contact with body heat.
Nourishing: For very dry, damaged, and/or aging skin, this cleansing balm is very hydrating and moisturizing. It has the highest concentration of luxurious oils like safflower, evening primrose, and sunflower, just to name a few.
Purifying: An excellent cleansing balm for sensitive skin that includes seven essential herbs like licorice root, chamomile, Gotu kola, aloe, and bamboo, among others.
Revitalizing: For aging skin with fine lines and wrinkles but a normal to combination skin type, this cleansing balm is ideal. It provides environmental protection and packs a punch of antioxidants into the skin.
3. Benton
Benton is another household name in Korean skincare. They have several product lines to provide anything and everything for a 10-step skincare routine, which includes fabulous sheet masks. However, their most popular line is “Snail Bee,” which features bee venom and snail secretions to reveal bright, glowing skin.
Ultimate Hydrogel Eye Patch: Embedded with gold, diamond, charcoal, and pearl, it purifies and revitalizes the delicate skin around the eyes. Seaweed absorbs and brightens while preventing wrinkles. The snail mucus, bee venom, and tea tree water protect, soothe, cool, and repair.
Ultimate Serum: Niacinamide and adenosine combined with snail mucin and bee venom provide a calming effect on the skin while also fighting wrinkles and brightening the complexion. It can repair skin, treat hyperpigmentation, and clear acne scars.
High Content Sheet Mask: One of their best-selling products, this 100% cotton sheet mask contains one-third bottle of their Snail Bee High Content Essence along with bee venom, collagen, and Gotu kola. This removes dead skin cells, repairs damaged skin along with delivering a bunch of minerals and vitamins deep into the skin.
4. COSRX
Yet another fan favorite in K-beauty circles is COSRX. They are synonymous with Korean skincare and offer a wide variety of products for any step of a typical skincare regimen. They have so many with high ratings and popularity that they clear the shelves almost instantaneously.
Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence: This lightweight essence contains over 96% snail secretions, which quickly absorb into the skin. It helps maintain an illuminated and moisturized glow from the inside out.
The Vitamin C 23 Serum: This pure vitamin C serum has the highest concentration available without being irritating. It fades acne scars and brightens dry, dull skin.
5. Dewytree
An unsung hero in K-beauty, Dewytree offers a quaint yet effective selection of skincare products people absolutely love. What’s great is that all of their products are very affordable, clean, and wonderfully effective.
Ultra Vitalizing Snail Essence Water: This essence is very lightweight but provides powerful hydration, softening, and plumping capabilities. It contains snail secretions but also aloe and adenosine, which target things like wrinkles, damage, acne, redness, and irritation.
Cica 100 Mask: If snail secretions don’t inspire adventure, Dewytree’s Cica 100 mask is a great go-to. It comprises 100% Gotu kola to relieve irritated and inflamed skin. The soothing antioxidants from the plant provide a nourishing calm to any skin type.
6. I’m From
I’m From is an excellent K-beauty brand you can find anywhere they sell Korean skincare products. Their formulations deliver nature in its truest form, pure and natural ingredients without fragrance, essential oils, or harmful chemicals. They have several lines such as Ginger, Rice, or Mugwort.
Rice Toner: For a hydrating toner to provide radiant skin, this provides over 77% rice extract. This means it helps the skin retain water, plumps the skin, and protects it from free radical damage. The product eliminates dead skin cells while also helping to rebalance dry, tired barriers.
Mugwort Cream: A great nourishing moisturizer for sensitive and tired skin, this cream contains just over 73% mugwort. It hydrates, fights environmental damage, and stimulates collagen production.
Mugwort Essence: Created with 100% South Korean mugwort, it’s a very refreshing essence. This can adhere to and absorb into the skin quickly, leaving a soothing and revitalizing sensation. It’s anti-inflammatory, so it’s good for acne-prone and sensitive skin.
7. It’s Skin
If you peruse beauty blogs and online forums, It’s Skin is often an introductory K-beauty brand. They have a wonderful collection of sheet masks, cleansers, serums, and others that are effective with simple, easy-to-understand ingredients. Their Power 10 Formula serum series is fabulous.
Ve (Glow): This serum comes enriched with vitamin E, which provides skin radiance and a healthy skin barrier. It can combat free radical damage while helping repair skin from environmental stressors. It also incorporates vitamin C, which helps control sebum production and blackheads.
Ye (Vitality): For rough, textured, and aging skin, this serum provides an improved and softer complexion. It hydrates, smoothes wrinkles, brightens, and lifts with excellent cell turnover. This contains the perfect amount of vitamin B and iron too.
8. Klairs
Anyone who knows about K-beauty skincare recognizes Klairs. They have a huge curation of all kinds of products for any point during the skincare regimen. All of their products are free from fragrance, essential oils, and other notoriously harmful ingredients.
Rich Moist Soothing Cream: This ultra-moisturizing and nourishing cream are excellent for dry skin that’s also sensitive. It strengthens the skin’s protective barrier and soothes irritated skin along with improving cell repair.
Freshly Juiced Vitamin E Mask: This sleeping mask provides a heavy dose of vitamins E and C to help brighten skin and fight the signs of aging. It protects against sun damage too.
Supple Preparations Unscented Facial Toner: A great toner for all skin types, it preps skin after cleansing to help absorb serums, ampoules, and essences. The formulation includes licorice root and aloe to reduce and soothe irritation.
9. Laneige
Laneige has a wonderful line of skincare products. But, there is a focus on masks, creams, and other similar emulsified concoctions. These are high-quality products yet very affordable and easy on the bank account.
Water Sleeping Mask: A simple blend of squalene and hyaluronic acid makes for an ideal overnight mask for normal to dry skin. It absorbs to deeply moisturize, hydrate, and repair the skin.
Lip Sleeping Mask: Nourish and hydrate chapped lips while you sleep. The formulation contains ingredients like murumuru butter, shea butter, coconut oil, and vitamin C. It comes in five flavors such as pumpkin spice, berry, gummy bear, sweet candy, and vanilla.
10. Some By Mi
Some By Mi is a brand that provides sheer genius with a huge offering of products and curated sets that people absolutely love. They span skincare as well as hair and body in a multitude of product lines. However, they specialize in toners and serums notorious for their efficacy.
AHA-BHA-PHA 30 Days Miracle Toner: This toner is a cult favorite due to its multitasking ability complete with three exfoliants along with papaya and witch hazel extracts. It promotes cell turnover while keeping skin healthy and smooth. It clears skin, soothes inflammation, and targets wrinkles.
Galactomyces Pure Vitamin C Glow Serum: A blend of vitamin C and galactomyces ferment filtrate, this serum brightens, moisturizes, soothes, and boosts elasticity. It helps fade dark spots and hyperpigmentation too, revealing a more even skin tone.
Conclusion
While these 10 are the hottest Korean skincare brands at Olive Young, there are so many more worth looking into. But, hopefully, this will get you started on your new journey into the realm of K-beauty. These are all trustworthy brands that come with a seal of approval from many happy customers.
About the Author
Jason Park runs a blog, The Korean Guide. He has been living in Eungam, Seoul for about 3 years. Jason is interested in Korean skincare. He has very sensitive skin himself and always gets breakouts during the winter, so he has been trying out as many skincare products as possible to find the best ones.
He also loves watching Korean dramas and Korean food.
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