Here at allbeauty, we like to stay ahead of the curve, keeping you up to date with all the latest trends. Korean beauty, or K-beauty, has spent the last few years reshaping how a lot of us think about skincare, and it's not slowing down.

We love the concept of K-beauty. It involves assessing your skin's needs and, if it suits you, giving your existing routine a proper shake-up to bring it in line with the Korean approach to skincare.

In essence, K-beauty is fully focused on skin health, prioritising protection during the day and following up with a thorough routine each evening.

Sun protection

In the UK, we've largely shifted our love of tanning towards understanding the effects of too much sun, and K-beauty's emphasis on daily SPF fits that shift well. Korean skincare places sun protection right at the centre of the routine, precisely because consistent, everyday protection matters more to long-term skin health than any single treatment step.

Many Korean skincare routines include an SPF-specific skincare product as well as additional SPF built into makeup. It's a genuinely simple habit to borrow, whatever the rest of your routine looks like: better to build the habit than not.

The K-beauty routine

What we admire about K-beauty is how much it focuses on skin health itself, so the need for heavy makeup afterwards is minimal. Done well, it aims to create a genuinely healthy base, with or without makeup on top.

The K-beauty skincare method is tailored to your individual skin, which could mean up to ten steps of layering, depending on what you're starting with and what your skin actually needs. Not everyone needs all ten, every day; think of it as a menu rather than a mandatory checklist.

The core routine is usually done in the evening, with a pared-back version in the morning. Here's the breakdown:

Step 1: Cleanser

For morning cleansing, water alone is often enough to remove overnight residue and give skin a hydration boost. In the evening, reach for an oil-based cleanser first to properly remove makeup and SPF. Beauty Of Joseon's Ginseng Cleansing Oil uses ginseng root and soybean oil to break down makeup and sun cream without stripping the skin underneath, which matters more than usual at this first step, before anything else has been applied.

Step 2: Cleanse again

Follow your oil cleanser with something water-based to lift any remaining residue and impurities. This "double cleanse" is one of K-beauty's most borrowed habits outside Korea, for good reason. Round Lab's 1025 Dokdo Cleanser is a gentle, hyaluronic acid and ceramide-based cream cleanser that lathers without leaving skin feeling tight, suited to dry or sensitive skin in particular.

Step 3: Exfoliate

Once or twice a week, gently buff away dead skin cells with an exfoliator suited to your skin type. This helps prevent clogged pores and lets the rest of your routine absorb properly. Clarins' One-Step Gentle Exfoliating Cleanser combines cleansing and exfoliating in one step for anyone who'd rather not add a separate product on top of everything else here.

Step 4: Essence

A hybrid step that sits somewhere between a serum and a toner, essence is designed to hydrate at a slightly deeper level and prime skin for what follows. Anua's Heartleaf 77% Soothing Toner is built around houttuynia cordata extract and works well in this slot for anyone whose skin runs sensitive or reacts easily, calming redness before the more active steps that follow.

Step 5: Ampoule

An ampoule works similarly to a serum but usually carries a higher concentration of active ingredients. Choose one suited to whatever your skin is currently asking for, rather than the most intensive option by default. Purito's Wonder Releaf Centella Serum is formulated with a high concentration of centella extract and works well here for calming and firming, though it's worth flagging that it's labelled as a serum rather than an ampoule specifically — genuine ampoule-labelled stock is thin across the board right now, so this is the closest strong equivalent.

Step 6: Serum

Use a targeted serum on the specific concerns you want to address, whether that's dullness, dark spots or fine lines. This is usually where a routine gets most personal. Beauty Of Joseon's Glow Deep Serum with Rice Bran Water & Arbutin pairs alpha-arbutin with rice bran water to target dullness and uneven tone specifically, making it a reasonable pick if that's the concern driving the rest of your routine.

Step 7: Sheet mask

Sheet masks are a genuine staple of the nightly Korean routine, and they suit most skin types. A few minutes of an in-shower or on-the-sofa mask is one of the easier steps to actually stick with. Medicube's Collagen Night Wrapping Mask is a leave-on overnight treatment rather than a traditional single-use sheet — worth knowing if you're picturing the classic paper mask, but it fills the same "concentrated overnight treatment" role in the routine.

Step 8: Eye cream

Once your skin has absorbed the mask, smooth an eye cream around the brow and socket, working from the inner to the outer corner. This area is thinner-skinned and more prone to dryness than the rest of the face, so it benefits from its own dedicated step. Clinique's All About Eyes Rich is a genuine, well-established option here, aimed specifically at reducing the look of dryness and puffiness around the eye area.

Step 9: Moisturiser

Finish with a moisturiser to seal in everything applied beforehand. Round Lab's Soybean Nourishing Cream rounds out the same brand used earlier in this routine, formulated to support comfort and hydration without feeling heavy, which suits it well as a final evening step.

Step 10: Sunscreen

The final step, every morning, is sunscreen. This isn't part of the evening routine, but it's non-negotiable in the morning one, whatever the season. Beauty Of Joseon's Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics SPF50+ is a lightweight, non-greasy formula that sits comfortably under makeup, making the habit easier to actually keep up with daily.

K-beauty brands worth knowing

The step-by-step order above matters, but so does what you're actually putting on your skin at each stage. Korean skincare brands have real range, from long-established formulators to newer names building a following one product at a time, and it's worth knowing a few names rather than reaching for anything with "K-beauty" on the label.

Round Lab has built its reputation on simple, mineral-forward formulas inspired by Korea's Dokdo islands. Its 1025 Dokdo Cleanser is a gentle cream cleanser built around deep sea water, hyaluronic acid and ceramides, suited to Step 2 above, and its companion 1025 Dokdo Toner is a lightweight, alcohol-free option for Step 4.

Anua has become one of the most talked-about names in K-beauty over the past couple of years, largely on the strength of one product: the Heartleaf 77% Soothing Toner, built around houttuynia cordata (heartleaf) extract and designed to calm redness and sensitivity. It's a reasonable Step 4 option for anyone whose skin reacts easily.

If you want to go deeper on specific brands, particularly bigger, better-known names like Beauty of Joseon, Cosrx, Haruharu Wonder and Medicube, our guide to the K-beauty brands worth knowing covers what each one specialises in and where to start.

Explore the full Korean Beauty edit at allbeauty to build your own version of this routine, at whatever pace suits your skin and your schedule.

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