HANDS DOWN! Best Korean Beauty Products of the Year: 2025 | Dr. Sam Ellis

Hi everyone. I'm Dr. Sam Ellis. I'm a board certified dermatologist. And if you know me, you know that I love Korean skincare and beauty products. And if you're new here, welcome today is going to be so much fun because I am doing my dermatologist Korean beauty awards for 2025. We're going to talk best in category for things like cleanser, sunscreen, anti-aging products, brightening. And I have so many good picks for you. Also double check that you are subscribed to the channel and don't forget to give this video a thumbs up. If you enjoy this type of content, that is such great feedback for me. And I post dermatology tips and tricks every single week, and it's been very cool to watch this community grow. So thank you for all the support. Before we jump in today's video is in partnership with Stylevana, which I am so excited about. I shop there all the time because I think they have the best, most affordable Asian beauty selection. They have skincare, haircare, makeup. I have tried and placed so many orders from them over the years, and it's really how I have honed in on my favorite K-beauty products. So if you need any links to the products that I'm mentioning today, I will include them in the description box as well as a discount code to use on stylevana.com if you'd like. Also if there are any K-beauty products that you think are a must try for me, let me know in the comments because I'm going to place another order soon. All right, let's dive in. I'm going to start with the foundation of any great skincare routine cleanser. This was not a hard choice for me at all. As soon as I tried this cleanser, I was like, oh, that's special. That is different. And I feel like if you saw it on a shelf, you might not be like blown away or thinking like, oh, this is going to be really unique, but it truly is. It's the round lab 1025 Docto cleanser and one love that it's a big package. And I think that's such a pro of a lot of K-beauty products is they're quite generous with the product and they're all incredibly reasonably priced, which is another huge thing for me. I love affordable skincare and I love being able to recommend amazing affordable skincare. But what makes this cleanser really special is it starts out as this like very soft, creamy wash, but then it lathers into these big, beautiful suds. So it's a very satisfying cleanser to use in terms of just textural elements. And then what I love about it the most is that it's really good at removing makeup. So even if I went in with a full face of makeup, like I'm wearing today and did not do a pre cleanse, usually I'd go in with like an oil cleanser or some micellar water first, but if I was feeling on the lazier side, I feel like I could go in and just cleanse with this and it would remove pretty much all of my makeup. It is exceptional. And it's also why I find myself recommending it a lot to my acne prone patients, to my teenage patients, maybe patients who have not quite mastered their skincare yet. And I'm a little worried they're not going to do a thorough job of cleansing their skin and really setting their skin up for success. I know if they go in with this, they're going to do a great job and they're going to enjoy the cleanse and it's not going to leave their face feeling stripped because a lot of times if you have a really thorough cleanser, your skin feels a bit depleted afterward. And that doesn't happen with this at all. This is 10 out of 10. Now after cleansing comes toners. And I've said this a million times on this channel, I do not think toners are an essential part of skincare. But if you find one that adds something to your skin, whether it's hydration or introducing an active in a way that your skin tolerates it better, they can really be a game changer for certain skin types or certain preferences. And my toner of the year, I don't even think I had a toner of the year last year is this age are glutathione glow toner from Medicube. This is well, you can see it's fantastic to me. This is a standout toner because it's not your average hydrating toner. It's quite brightening in nature and I feel like that's the primary purpose of this product. It has glutathione in it, which is a very powerful brightening antioxidant that also helps with things like dullness. It also has niacinamide and panthenol, which are going to help support the skin barrier. And niacinamide is also a brightening ingredient. And when I use this consistently, I feel like my skin is just really glowy. It layers super well under other products as well. You can see how thin it is. And sometimes when you see a thin product, you might think, oh, that's not impressive. That's not texturally interesting. But having such lightweight products in your routine, especially if you're going to layer more things can be really helpful because I can put this on, pat it into my skin and then move on pretty much immediately with the rest of my routine. And it doesn't interfere, but it adds to it. It's incredibly complimentary to other hyperpigmentation things that I'm incorporating. If you watched my video on how to get mirror skin, well, if you haven't go watch it, but if you did, you may remember that I did include this product as well, because when you put this on your skin immediately looks smoother. It looks bouncier, but it's really with consistent use that you're going to see those longer term changes of the skin looking brighter on a day-to-day basis. I do want to note that this does have fragrance. So if you are sensitive to fragrance, maybe pass on this, although it does smell quite lovely, but I feel like fragrance sometimes gets a bad rap when it comes to skincare. And I sort of think of fragrance the way I think of gluten when it comes to food. If you are allergic to gluten or you're sensitive to gluten, you shouldn't eat it. If you are allergic or sensitive to fragrance, you shouldn't use it, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the population has to avoid that. Next category I want to go into is treatment serums, because this is sort of how you would build a skincare routine, regardless cleanser, toner treatments, depending on what outcome you want, and then moving into like moisturizers and sunscreen. So for the treatment serums, I have a variety because I feel like different people want different things out of this particular skincare step. And if it looks like I'm recording in the dark, it's because I am, I don't know why I started filming this at sunset. First up, I have the Skin 1004 Madagascar Centella Pore-mizing Fresh Ampoule. And I'm going to admit, I almost didn't try it because of the name, because I was like pore-mizing fresh ampoule, like what is that even going to do? But it was a huge bottle and I was like, wow, what a steal. And whenever I feel like I can get something for a deal, I'm like, well, let's at least try it. And then when I looked at the ingredient list, what's wild about this, it is packed with anti-aging peptides, like so many of the heavy hitters, the evidence-based anti-aging peptides, I was just blown away that this wasn't marketed as an anti-aging peptide serum, because to me that is what this is. And aside from this being a massive bottle of peptides, which for me has been great because I've been using it on my face and body. Like when I get out of the shower, I will just take like five big dropper fulls of this into my palm, rub it all over because I'm trying to be more mindful of my body skin. It's texturally superior because it's not sticky. And so many peptide serums or things that claim to give you glass skin either make you look oily or feel oily or make you sticky. And I just don't want to be sticky. And yes, a lot of that stickiness gets relieved when you layer moisturizer or sunscreen on top of it. But when something can stand alone as an independent product with a great texture and loaded with fantastic ingredients, I think it deserves a shout out. So I almost passed this by because the name is sort of weird to me, but if you want to try this, I could not recommend more highly. Now, if you actually are looking for something for your pores and this actually tackles dark spots as well, which is also why I'm including it because I love a multitasking product. The pore and dark spot brightening cream from Celimax is really, really good. This was actually one of my surprise favorites for the year. I just try so many different hyperpigmentation products, a little research and development for my own brand, but also just a lot of them can be overly irritating on the skin because one way you can tackle hyperpigmentation is just by exfoliating and having layers of skin shed. But what I loved about this is that it has niacinamide and tranexamic acid, two highly proven ingredients when it comes to tackling hyperpigmentation. But the formula is so gentle. It's a really thick, luscious cream. So you could layer it under a moisturizer, but I think stand alone could function as a moisturizer as well, rubs in beautifully. And if you are not sensitive to niacinamide, it is fantastic because niacinamide not only strengthens your skin barrier, it not only brightens your skin. It also helps you with oil control and shrinking your pores. And I find a lot of times people who have acne breakouts tend to be a little bit oilier. They tend to have larger pores and they tend to get dark spots as a result of their acne. And so using a product that tackles so many issues that one person might face in a single product was really a nice thing for me to see. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, this also has a unique ingredient called melazero. It's included in very few hyperpigmentation products, at least now, but I think we'll see it incorporated more in the future. It's essentially an ingredient that helps promote the breakdown of unwanted pigment of unwanted melanin. And so many hyperpigmentation products work by blocking the synthesis or the creation of unwanted pigment in the skin, but not very many work by helping you break down what you already have. And so the fact that this contains melazero and that unique mechanism of action was very appealing to me. And my final treatment serum is a retinoid. Now, in the past, I have not had a ton of retinoids within K-Beauty that I was really excited about. I think K-Beauty really shines when it comes to gentle skincare, when it comes to hyperpigmentation and pore refinement. You don't see a ton of retinoids, at least ones that have really impressed me. But this year I tried this one from Haruharu and I thought it was exceptional. And as a reminder, if you're new to retinoids, they are vitamin A derived compounds that help with all things anti-aging, fine lines, collagen production, hyperpigmentation, dullness. They sort of are the jack of all trades. And I recommend that pretty much everyone have them in their skincare routine when they are thirties and beyond, if anti-aging or well aging is important to them when it comes to their skin. But this one by Haruharu, it's the, I have to read it because it's so long, Black Rice Night Night Retinol Serum for Beginners is so good. I have a very old like retinol for beginners video. And I wish this was around when I had made this because I would totally include it in there. It is an exceptional retinol. If you have sensitive skin or you are new to retinol in general, the serum one is texturally beautiful. You guys hear me talk a lot about texture. I just think it's so important when the world of skincare is so vast and you have so many options, like why not be picky about every single thing? And texture is so important to the user experience. It's something I pay so much attention to. So texturally beautiful. This also contains encapsulated retinol, which means that the way the retinol is released into the skin is more slow and controlled. So that really one helps with penetration, but also reduces the irritation potential of a product like this. If I have a patient who is new to retinoids and they're like, where do I start? I recommend this one all the time. Also for my patients who have rosacea, they're prone to perioral dermatitis, they have seborrheic dermatitis, like dandruff of the face, and they just find that their skin is really reactive and doesn't tend to do well with active ingredients that are promoting skin cell turnover, which is something that retinol does. I will have them start with this and I always have people start a retinoid just a few nights a week, always following it with a moisturizer and then slowly increasing to every other night and then every night thereafter. Ideally we are using our retinoid most nights of the week. That is how you're going to get the best results from it. But it is a marathon, not a sprint, so you always want to start slow. But if you are looking for a retinol that is just incredibly gentle but also quite effective, this one's it. I just have a few more products here to go over, but if you are liking the video so far, make sure you've given it a thumbs up. So just like toners, another category of skincare that I think is not essential but also valuable and interesting to a lot of people is eye cream. So I do have an eye cream this year and I think I mentioned this in a video from earlier this year as well. And I try a lot of things in between and I often don't mention them if I don't like them. But this I think is fantastic. It's the Skin 1004 Madagascar Centella Pro Bio Cica Bakuchiol eye cream. And if you have sensitive skin around your eyes and you're looking for a very affordable nourishing eye cream that is basically targeted to help with fine lines, I recommend you try this. So the hero ingredient in here is Bakuchiol and Bakuchiol has gained a lot of popularity and interest over the years because it has sort of been touted as a substitute for retinol. So for people who can't use retinol, who maybe can't tolerate retinol because it's too irritating or especially in an eye cream, can't use it because retinol can cause dry eye symptoms for some people using something with Bakuchiol becomes very appealing. And I will say, I do think this is quite helpful for texture, crepiness, fine lines, all the same things you would use retinol for, but maybe without the same irritation potential. God, I'm almost out of it. I don't even have any to squeeze, but when I squeeze it out, it's sort of like a midweight. So if you're prone to like milia from really rich creams, this is a really nice eye option as well, but it also is quite hydrating. So I just think again, texturally stunning, wears well under makeup. So you could use this during the day and at night and Bakuchiol has only been studied to be effective or as effective as retinol when used twice a day. So this would be a twice a day type of product, but I think it's a really good option if you want that nice affordable eye cream, that's going to help you tackle some of the aging changes that you're seeing. Okay. Last, but certainly not least to round out my dermatologist K beauty picks of the year. I have sunscreens to me and pretty much to every dermatologist. I think I can speak on their behalf. Sunscreen is the most important step in your skincare routine. If you do nothing else, you don't even wash your face. If you put sunscreen on your skin will be so much healthier over the course of her lifetime. And I know I say this a lot. If you watch this channel, but Korean sunscreen is some of the best sunscreen out there when it comes to how it feels on your skin. I have had countless, like I'm talking hundreds of patients over the years who have been anti-sunscreen because either it smelled weird, it was too heavy. It broke them out. It flared the rosacea. And when I transitioned to them over to Korean sunscreen, which has different ingredients, different UV filters, they were able to find success with sun protection. And that is just the biggest win for a dermatologist. So basically all of this video thus far were products that were sort of new to me in 2025 and then reigned supreme when it comes to sunscreen, I'm actually going back to favorites from years prior because I didn't try any new Korean sunscreens this year that surpassed these ones. And I'm only going to recommend the best of the best. First up is my Round Lab Birch Juice Moisturizing Sun Cream. You can see I have like the true Korean version here. There's not a lick of English on this packaging, but I have purchased so many tubes of this over the years. I know exactly what it says. This is an SPF 50 broad spectrum sunscreen where if you want something that is moisturizing, but not oily, hydrating, but not heavy, I would go for this every single time. I would say if you have combination to dry skin or dry mature skin, this is a pretty perfect sunscreen. It layers beautifully under makeup. It's not going to have a white cast on the vast majority of skin tones because it contains some really advanced UV filters different than the UV filters that are available for a lot of US sunscreens. And just because those UV filters aren't used in US sunscreens, it doesn't mean that they're not amazing filters. It's a lot of what we see used in European sunscreen as well. I just find that Korean sunscreens tend to have a lot lighter textures than a lot of European sunscreen. So I lean into them more. I also love this for my body. It's why I've purchased like 20 tubes of this because I can kind of put it on me, I can put it on my son, I can force it onto my husband and I don't feel like I'm wasting it or I'm spending a ton of money protecting myself because these are so affordable as well as cosmetically elegant. Now, if you want something that's more matte in finish where you can put it on and it just doesn't look like you have skincare on at all, which is going to be popular if you are oily. A lot of my male patients want something that really just looks like they didn't do anything to their skin. I will always stand by my Haru Haru Wonder Black Rice Moisture Airy Fit Daily Sunscreen SPF 50. This is another one where I've gone through tube after tube after tube of this. You can see the cap's getting pretty gross because I'm getting to the bottom of this one. But this is creamier and less wet feeling than this sunscreen, but still really moisturizing, but just a beautiful matte finish. Also exceptional in terms of performance under makeup. So just another absolutely fantastic sunscreen. I reach for it again and again. No sunscreen that I tried this year, no Korean sunscreen passed these in terms of how much I loved them. So I will continue to recommend them until something better comes along and if it's going to be better than this, then it's going to have to be just like unbelievable. So there you have it. My Dermatologist Korean Beauty Awards for 2025, this was such a fun group of products to put together. I am just such a fan of anything that is innovative, texturally elevated and affordable. And these products checked all of those boxes. I will definitely include links to everything I mentioned as well as a discount code. If you want to shop anything that we talked about today, and I'm curious if you've tried anything that I talked about, let me know in the comments. I also want to know if there's anything that I should be shopping for in my next order because I'm constantly trying new things and I want to try the best. So let me know. Thank you so much for being here. Do not forget to subscribe to the channel and give this video a thumbs up and I will catch you next time.