You’ve probably heard about Retinol. The popularity of Retinol skincare has skyrocketed in the past few years, but mostly in the Western skincare world. Well, I think we all knew K-beauty was going to unleash their own Retinol lineups sooner or later. And yup, K-beauty officially jumped on the Retinol skincare bandwagon in 2020, and now in the fourth quarter of 2021, we expect to see more and more K-beauty iterations of Retinol skincare. Continue reading to discover the best Korean Retinol for sensitive skin!
KOREAN RETINOL FOR SENSITIVE SKIN
I’ve tried more than a handful of various skincare products containing Retinol in the past—mostly Western brands; Sunday Riley, The Ordinary, and Drunk Elephant to name a few. Some didn’t work well with my easily sensitized skin, so I was excited to see K-beauty finally producing Retinol skincare—’cause I know K-beauty always keeps sensitive skin in mind.
KOREAN RETINOL TREND
I’ve been testing out six different Korean Retinol skincare products for about 1.5 years—including one of the original K-beauty Retinol products, the IOPE Retinol Expert that was renewed in 2020 but has been around since 2015. Yes, Retinol in K-beauty did exist for a long time, but new 2020 releases have triggered the industry.
Korean Retinol for Sensitive Skin
It took careful planning for me to effectively test out six Retinol products as it can take up to 12 weeks for acne condition improvements and 3-6 months to see anti-aging benefits. I won’t go through all six, but below are my top three choices. Hint: the IOPE Retinol Expert didn’t make the cut!
TOP 3 KOREAN RETINOL FOR SENSITIVE SKIN
Laneige Youth Retinol Perfect Renew Eye Cream For Face
This Korean Retinol comes with a pretty outrageous promise of noticeable improvements for pores and wrinkles in “just seven days.” Long story short, I didn’t see significant improvements in a week. But after a few weeks of consistent use, I saw that my pores looked more “refined” and also noticed some skin elasticity starting to build at that point.
Laneige Youth Retinol Pro Perfect Renew Eye Cream For Face
This one puts the focus on the 95% purity level of stabilized Retinol—this “purity” is retained by the special 9 layer polyfoil tube. It has added ingredients such as Panthenol, Tranexamic Acid, and Ascorbic Acid that makes this more than just a Retinol treatment.
Out of my top three K-beauty Retinol here, the Laneige Youth Retinol Perfect Renew Eye Cream For Face took the longest to show visible skin improvements but it was the easiest to use. The soft creamy texture glides smoothly on the skin and gives an immediate boost in moisture. I saw faster results when I started using this daily instead of every other day. This is a great one for overall skin tone and texture improvements.
Dr. Different Vitalift-A Night Treatment Cream
The Dr. Different Vitalift-A Night Treatment Cream has stabilized 0.05% Retinal along with the added benefits of Squalane and Hyaluronic Acid. I used this every other day for about three weeks, and the applicator tip broke off. I quickly finished the rest by using it daily because I didn’t want to lose its potency due to the cap not being able to close tightly.
This happened to two tubes! did I really get a faulty product twice or is the packaging just this bad?!
I saw my pores looked a bit tighter and my skin felt firmer. Some minor acne bumps smoothed out a lot faster than usual as well. So I bought another one. Two weeks in with the new tube, the applicator tip broke off again. Despite the issue with the packaging, this one still made my top three for being formulated without artificial fragrances and smoothing out different types of skin textures including inactive acne.
Dr. Different Vitalift-A Night Treatment Cream
It’s a yellowish gel cream texture and sinks into the skin well without any stickiness. This is probably the gentlest formula out of my top three.
CNP Laboratory Retinal DX Treatment
This one is my personal favorite—I finished three tubes of the CNP Laboratory Retinal DX Treatment! Formulated with 0.05% Liposomal Retinal for potent delivery without the irritations, this had me reaching for a second tube as soon as I finished my first. By the end of my first tube, my skin was as soft as a baby’s bum! Some fine lines were definitely starting to look less visible, and my skin had an overall glow that I haven’t seen in ages.
CNP Laboratory Retinal DX Treatment
This is an exquisitely formulated product with additional ingredients like Alpha-Bisabolol, Cedrol, and Peptides to improve skin elasticity while stabilizing the skin barrier. The orange-pink (I’m contributing the color to the presence of Rosehip Oil in this formula) emollient cream nicely coats the skin without the heaviness.
Unfortunately, it seems CNP only sells in Korea so the dupe of this product would be the HSGN Retinally Liposomal Retinal Cream. They feel so similar in texture, have the same amount of Retinal %, give same results, and both have amazing ingredients! Plus, it’s more affordable–we’re so glad that we discovered this one in 2022 as a dupe!
Other Korean Retinol For Sensitive Skin Options
If you’ve been thinking about adding Retinol to your skincare routine, but are not ready to jump straight into Tretinoin/Retin-A, choose one of the above as your gateway to Retinol! And take a look at the list below for some new 2021 Korean Retinol skincare options.
LIST OF KOREAN RETINOL SKINCARE:
Looking for a Korean skincare routine for Retinol? Check out our blog post Retinol vs. Retinal: The Difference Between Them & Best Skincare Products To Use!
