With a name like "Beauty of Joseon," you'd expect this skincare brand to channel Korea's rich history of traditional medicinal ingredients — and they do! This luxurious sleeping mask combines ingredients like black soybean to help improve skin elasticity, orchid to soothe, and ginseng to regenerate the skin. It's a thick cream meant to be worn overnight, giving new meaning to the whole "beauty sleep" adage.
The spongy lotus root is abundant in South Korea (it's even part of the cuisine), so it makes sense that its use in skin care goes way back. This ampoule contains extracts from the entire plant — including the root, flower and leaves — for a triple-threat skin care treatment. Oh and since it's an ampoule, it's meant to be applied after your toner and before your serum.
The tundra chaga mushroom is an ancient adaptogenic ingredient, meaning it helps the skin adapt to environmental stressers. In other words? South Koreans basically knew adoptogens were cool way before they became a thing in 2018. In addition to tundra chaga, this pressed serum also contains a blend of fermented argan and olive oils.
In addition to looking absolutely beautiful sitting on your vanity, this eye cream will make you feel beautiful, too. This anti-aging product puts ginseng front and center by combining ginseng water with ginseng extract. It also contains reishi and other mushroom extracts, deer antler extract, and ardisia crenata extract.
Whoo is another K-Beauty brand that specializes in hanbang formulations. Many of their products, including this one, are specifically inspired by the products that would have been used by Korean royals. This botanical-rich base is meant to be applied as the final step in your morning skincare routine, after your SPF and just before your makeup. It has a light shimmer to it that makes skin look radiant from underneath your favorite BB cream.
