Korean skincare has given much thought to preventing the aging of the skin and trying to effectively undo the damage done by the external environment. Korean skincare brands also highlight their major ingredients that help your skin keep radiant. They believe in imparting skincare knowledge and creating products that are more appropriate to each one’s skin type. This makes users aware of their skin type and the necessary ingredients their skin needs.

Not only that, most Korean skincare brands invest in research and development to innovate their current technology and create powerful and effective products. 

Most popular Korean skincare brands even provide a step-by-step YouTube tutorial on how to use their best-selling products to properly educate users on how their products’ efficacy is at its optimum.

6 Best Korean Skincare Brands

We’ve summed up the best Korean skincare brands worldwide: both high-end and the most popular ones. Have a look at what brands users have trusted over the years:

Laneige

Laneige is one of the best high-end Korean skincare brands. It is known for innovating water science where water gets converted into a high-tech moisturizing formula to kickstart your skin’s natural moisturizing mechanism. These water technologies that Laneige came up with provide deep moisturizing for a smoother, supple, and radiant skin.

Since 1994, Laneige has been innovating and developing different skincare products that deeply hydrate and nourish the skin. Laneige believes that by bringing back the skin’s moisture through its water technology, skin can combat fine lines, inflammation, and even redness and leave your skin glowing all the time.

Most popular skincare products

To date, Laneige offers different lines that target specific skin issues. They have the Water Bank, Radian-C, Perfect Renew Youth, and Sleeping Mask line.

The Water Bank line offers the Hydro-Lightening technology leaving skin plump and glowing while fighting aging signs like wrinkles by returning the lost moisture, and deeply hydrating the skin. This line made Laneige one of the most popular Korean skincare brands too as users can’t get enough of the Water Sleeping Mask that gets bought every 6 seconds worldwide. The Water Sleeping Mask will give you soft, relaxed, and radiant skin when you wake up the day after.

Its Radian-C line offers the Radian-C Cream which offers 8.5% of Vitamin C to give your skin an even complexion by decreasing dark spots and dullness. The goal of the Radian-C cream is brighter, even-looking, and moisturized skin.

Sulwhasoo

Sulwhasoo is also one of the leading high-end Korean skincare brands. It was launched in 1966 with its major ingredient – ginseng. The brand has studied Korean ginseng and traditional herbal medicine over the years and has innovated its formula getting the best and most usable parts of Korean ginseng and coming up with its signature JAUM Balancing Complex that is made with the best oriental plants. Sulwhasoo revitalizes your complexion and makes sure to keep your skin youthful-looking.

Most popular Sulwhasoo products

Sulwhasoo provides the best products to combat anti-aging and deep hydration. It is one of the Korean skincare brands that have the two most notable anti-aging products which are the Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum and the Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Cream.

One of its best products that made it one of the best Korean skincare brands is the Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum. The First Care Activating Serum nourishes the skin deeply to help moisturize skin and improve skin elasticity. It has been reformulated over the years to provide maximum efficacy in anti-aging and hydration.

The Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Cream helps in skin’s resilience for smoother and firmer skin. This cream made Sulwhasoo one of the most sought-after Korean skincare brands because the Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Cream is one of the most powerful anti-aging creams in Korean skincare.

Dr. Jart

Dr. Jart is one of the Korean skincare brands that have interesting stories. It was founded by an Architect hence the name Doctor Joins Art. Its packaging is inspired by day-to-day objects architects see like paint tubes. However, Dr. Jart is also one of the best high-end Korean skincare brands. They have invested in research and innovation to understand different skin issues and create skincare that is appropriate to each dermatology need.

Most popular skincare products

Dr. Jart features products that users keep on reordering because of their efficacy. The Dr. Jart Cicapair Calming Gel Cream, Dr. Jart Color Correcting Treatment, and the Dr. Jart Ceramidin Cream are the best products of the brand.

The Dr. Jart Cicapair Calming Gel Cream soothes, repairs, and protects sensitive skin or skin irritated by stressors. It also strengthens and improves the skin's defenses.

The Dr. Jart Tiger Grass Color Correcting Treatment soothes irritated skin, corrects redness, and repairs skin damage. Furthermore, it protects the skin from further damage from environmental factors. It also has SPF 30 to protect skin from UV rays making it stand out among other color-correcting treatments of Korean skincare brands.

The Dr. Jart Ceramidin Cream is perfect for those looking for deep hydration. It contains Bifida Ferment Lysate, Beetroot, and Hyaluronic Acid to moisturize skin and improve on skin barrier to give you a moisturized, smoother and glowing skin. 

Mediheal

Mediheal is one of the most popular Korean skincare brands because of its efficacy despite affordability. Their most hailed collection is the Mediheal face mask that comes in different kinds to address different dermatology issues. 

Mediheal also offers cleansers, toners, serums, ampoules, and creams that are very affordable.

Best Mediheal products

Mediheal still stands out because of its outstanding face masks that are unbeatable among other Korean skincare brands. Here are the two best masks from Mediheal:

The Teatree Care Solution Essential Mask helps in controlling sebum, blackheads, or whiteheads. It also soothes dry and irritated skin. This could be your go-to mask if you suffer from clogged pores.

It is also known for the N.M.F Aquaring Ampoule Mask which contains sodium hyaluronate and witch hazel water for deep moisture. This mask also helps in controlling sebum and tightening pores. Moreover, it improves skin elasticity through allantoin and trehalose.

COSRX

COSRX is also one of the most affordable Korean skincare brands offering a lot of innovative products. It offers high-content ingredients and specializes in skin problems faced by users every day like COSRX BHA Blackhead Power Liquid which targets usual blackheads, and pimple patches.

Best COSRX Products

COSRX offers the best pimple patches, power liquids, and essences.

The COSRX Acne Pimple Master Patch extracts impurities and creates a moist environment to heal the acne overnight. Because it’s a patch, it covers the irritated area and protects it from further infection. 

Etude House

Etude House is one of the best Korean skincare brands that are fun and playful but also very affordable. It is also one of the most popular Korean skincare brands having 1,800 outlets worldwide. Not only that, Etude House won Korea’s First Brand - Cosmetic Brand Shop from 2013 to 2019.

Most popular Etude House product and line

Among its products, Etude House takes pride in the Etude House Moistfull Collagen Cream which made Etude House stand out among other Korean skincare brands. The Moistfull Collagen Cream would always make the list when looking for the best Korean moisturizers and would top the list if we’re talking about the most affordable one.

The brand is successful in creating fin-particle-sized low molecules of hydrolyzed collagen water which gets easily absorbed by the skin and features deep hydration making skin more resilient. Users claim that they felt moisturized immediately after application and have made their skin plump and smooth.

Etude House also takes pride in its Soon Jung line which is perfect for sensitive skin having pH5.5 which is optimum for skin levels. This line stands out among Korean skincare brands because it protects the most delicate skin. The line offers complete skincare from body wash, lotion, sunscreen, and facial cleanser, toner, emulsion, and creams.

Verdict

The best Korean skincare brands are a mixture of high-end and affordable brands. Korean skincare has always been at the top of a skincare fanatic’s list because their products focus on protection more than addressing the skin issue alone. Among the high-end Korean skincare brands, our top pick would be Laneige because their variety of products and skincare line happens to have bestsellers in every line. So if you have dry skin or sensitive skin, or you may be looking for anti-aging lines, Laneige offers all of these with flying colors.

As for the affordable Korean skincare brands, our top pick would be COSRX for being able to innovate for particular skin needs such that the blackhead power liquid differs from the whitehead power liquid; instead of a product that says sebum control. Therefore, COSRX thinks about the problems our skin faces every day and creates a product that specializes in our skin needs.