Ready to deep dive into K-beauty trends of 2023? K-beauty never sleeps—year after year, Korean skincare pumps out new trends that promise glass skin. The milky toner craze of 2022 was foreseen when Laneige Cream Skin blew up in 2020. And IOPE’s renewed Retinol in 2021 gave way to the current Korean Retinol madness we’re experiencing. Here ere are the TOP 10 K-BEAUTY TRENDS OF 2023 to keep you busy for the year.
1. RETINAL INSTEAD OF RETINOL
K-beauty is taking Retinol’s big sister, Retinal, to its fullest potential. Aside from gentle Retinal creams that are quickly becoming our skincare staples, we’re seeing Retinal everywhere—from gentle Retinal milk cleansers to soft Retinal sheetmasks. Expect to see a lot more of Retinal than Retinol in 2023. Keep an eye out for Retinal multi-balm sticks!
2. NIACINAMIDE AS THE NEW VITAMIN C
Niacinamide has taken up a new status in the skincare world. Previously thought of as a pore smoothing ingredient, now that we know that Niacinamide can be as powerful as Vitamin C in brightening and firming the skin, K-beauty is all over it. Expect to see higher concentrations of Niacinamide focused cleansers, serums, cream, and—yes you guessed it—Niacinamide multi balm sticks!
3. CERAMIDES EVERYWHERE
Thanks to the Dr. Jart Ceramidin series, we became familiar with Ceramides earlier on in K-beauty. Now, more than a decade later, Ceramides are emphasized in countless moisturizers worldwide as it’s a top player in keeping our skin barrier intact and healthy.
With the growing awareness of the importance of skin barrier, Ceramides will continue to flourish as a 2023 K-beauty trend. No longer just for moisturizers, we’ll be seeing more Ceramide toners, mists, serums, oils, and of course, multi balms.
4. COLLAGEN FOR DEWY GLOW SKIN
Yes, we know. Topical collagen skincare on the skin isn’t going to absorb deeply enough to boost collagen for our skin. But then why is collagen Korean skincare taking off? Collagen skincare is everywhere—on and offline. So is it just skincare formulators that didn’t get the memo about the irrelevance of topical collagen?
No, collagen in topical skincare formulas acts as a humectant that binds water to the skin–it will beautifully plump and hydrate while keeping skin moist and resilient. It may not stimulate your collagen production, but it will get you a step closer to dewy, glass skin. Keep an eye out this year as K-beauty ingeniously implements low molecular collagen peptides in skincare.
5. MULTI-BALM STICKS FOR EVERY SKIN CONCERN
Kahi Wrinkle Bounce Multi Balm stick brought it to the forefront, and we already saw a slew of K-beauty brands (as well as Western brands) pushing out their own muti-balm sticks. Let’s be clear though. Multi-balm sticks have been around for ages, but K-beauty just made it better than ever. And we expect to see more unique K-beauty multi balm sticks in 2023—a LOT more!
6. WASH-OFF & SLEEPING MASKS INSTEAD OF SHEETMASKS
The epitome of Korean skincare, sheetmasks, is being replaced by wash-off and sleeping masks. South Korea is the 13th largest global emitter of GHCs, but did you know that South Korea also has the goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050? It’s not going to be easy.
In K-beauty, other than opting for recyclable and refillable packaging, brands are also starting to switch out sheetmasks for wash-off and sleeping masks. Will this be the end of sheetmasks? No, but they will have to share their dedicated Olive Young aisle with wash-off and sleeping masks going forth.
7. BODY & HAIR CARE WITH A K-BEAUTY TOUCH
K-beauty body and hair care has been asking for the spotlight for the last few years. We saw more Korean skincare brands launch their own lineup of body and hair care. As skinthusiasts around the world are opting to “skin care” as a whole, we’ll be seeing an intense spike in body and hair care from K-beauty this year.
8. INTENSE BARRIER CREAMS THAT PROMISE OVERNIGHT RECOVERY
Slugging worthy creams from K-beauty are coming our way. They won’t be petroleum ointments like Vasileine or Aquaphor, but more so refined versions of La Roche Posay Cicaplast Baume with a K-beauty touch.
9. SOUPED-UP, MULTIPLE ACTIVE INGREDIENT SERUMS
For years, we’ve been loving layering multiple serums. There’s just something enticing about cocktailing your skincare by layering serums with different active ingredients…
But as the ‘skinimalism’ trend is on the rise, K-beauty brands are finding ingenious ways to combine multiple active ingredients into one product to be on par with skinimalism yet still deliver everything we want for our skin. In 2023, we’ll see more serums that contain both Ascorbic Acid and Retinol as well as serums with other multiple actives in one.
10. SMALLER, AND MORE SOPHISTICATED BEAUTY DEVICES
Instead of chunky LED masks that require a commitment of space and time, smaller but powerful handheld devices will become a skincare staple. Think NuFACE Mini but more powerful and multi-functional.
Are you ready dive into these top K-beauty trends of 2023? Or, looking for tried and tested K-beauty must-haves from last year? Click HERE for Top 10 Best of K-beauty 2022.
