K-Beauty: The Exhausting Skin-Care Regimen That May Be Worth the Effort

IF SNAIL CREAM and sheet masks are already part of your beauty routine, congratulations: You’re officially on the cutting edge of beauty. Now please step aside while the other 99% of us catch up to the K-Beauty trend.

K-Beauty—the umbrella term for all South Korean imports in the skin care, makeup and bath-and-body categories—has been attracting fans in the U.S. Over the last 18 months, it’s cultivated a certain gentle, nature-meets-technology ethos. Boosting its appeal is packaging that comes with poppy colors, nonsensical names like Tonymoly and bottles whimsically shaped like pandas and cracked hard-boiled eggs.

Even more hyped than the products themselves, however, is the ultra-elaborate K-Beauty skin-care regimen espoused by popular websites like Soko Glam and Peach & Lily, both of which are run by Korean Americans. Incorporating up to 10 (and sometimes more) steps, the typical regimen kicks off with a “dual cleansing” ritual (via oil- and water-based products), winds its way through a series of sheet masks, essences, serums and rich moisturizers, and wraps up with SPF 35 sunscreen. At night, you swap out the sunscreen for a thick, gloppy “sleep cream.”

Many of these beautifiers are laced with outré ingredients such as snail mucin, culled from the gooey substance snails leave in their wake and said to boost cell regeneration; bee venom (an anti-inflammatory “faux-tox” alleged to relax facial muscles); moisturizing starfish extract; and firming-and-tightening pig collagen. “For years, Korean women have focused on skin care products rather than makeup,” said Sarah Jindal, senior innovation and insights analyst for market research firm Mintel. “The ultimate goal is to achieve a complexion that has a dewy, glowing finish, one that doesn’t need concealers and foundations to hide it.”

Each complexion, the reasoning goes, needs a customized routine that addresses factors such as hormonal fluctuations and lifestyle choices. The repetitive cleansings, masks and layers of moisturizers minister to skin that’s suffered a litany of assaults, which may range from hormonal shifts to wrinkle-inducing UV rays to the dehydrating effects of alcohol.

K-Beauty Products to Try

From snail cream to rubber mask, here are some products to help you start your K-beauty regimen.

Unsurprisingly, some dermatologists applaud this skin obsession: There’s a decided upside to both expanding a regimen beyond the basics (cleansing, moisturizing) and addressing specific issues like fine lines, enlarged pores and uneven skin tone, said New York dermatologist Dennis Gross, who nonetheless doesn’t prescribe 10-step protocols for his patients. A customized skin-care routine “makes good sense from a skin-biology standpoint,” he said. “But the Koreans don’t own the highway on this; most of my patients are up to at least four steps, including a daily peel and a serum.”

Freelance business consultant Soojin Min—a longtime fan of Estée Lauder , Chantecaille and Kiehl’s skin care—recently added products from Korean imports Sulwhasoo, AmorePacific and Hera to her daily routine and isn’t put off by the extra labor they demand. “I feel they have fewer chemicals,” said Ms. Min (a statement for which there’s no supporting research). The Seoul native, who splits her time between homes in Hong Kong and Bronxville, N.Y., “was happily surprised to see a K-Beauty section at Sephora when I was in Manhattan.”