I Investigated Korea's Skin Care Obsession

We've all seen it. Korean celebrities, movie stars, k-pop singers, and everyday Koreans walking around with skin that looks like a real life Instagram filter. They've coined the term glass skin which is the silky smooth textured even toned and glowy skin that is so flawless it has the appearance of glass. K-beauty can be an overwhelming world to dive into since there are so many steps and literally hundreds if not thousands of products to choose from. My mission today is to find out what these trends are all about and see for myself if they live up to the hype. Good morning! It is a beautiful day here in Seoul, South Korea and after doing a ton of research on where the best possible place is that I can experience Korean skincare, I've arrived here in Gangnam to meet up with the Seoul guide medical team who's going to be taking a full deep dive into my skin and we're going to be looking at some pretty interesting treatments so let's go. No, no cream at all? No, nothing. Nothing? Okay, great. Bare face. Bare face. Okay, so she's going to scan you with this machine. This is going to take several photos of your face with UV light and all these other things and you're going to see what your skin really looks like. Okay, awesome. I love that. All right, just placing your chin on the black plastic down there. And the rods, they should be touching your forehead and please keep your eyes closed and do not move. You're going to feel some flashes of light starting in three, two, one. All right, perfect. You can remove your face now and take a seat back in one of the white chairs for me. I think it's quite warm in there. Yeah, it is. All right, I'm going to be holding this device against your forehead and your cheeks. What is this one doing? So we are measuring your moisture levels and your skin type. This will take a few seconds and then it will analyze pores, pigmentation, skin tone, even the amount of damage you've had from the sun which is really good because then you can estimate if you're going to need some treatment in the future or you need to protect yourself due to skin cancer and all of those things. Crazy. Okay, so we have your overall results now. It's so fast. It is quite quick. Yes, it does analyze a lot of different things at the same time. So for your skin type, it's picking it up as an oily skin type. Your skin age is currently running at 30. It's just a little bit off of what we want. Oh no. The main problems that's picking up in your case is you have an acne prone skin type and it is picking up a little bit of redness and red discoloration on the skin. Whoa. So if we go into the individual result, so your pores and your skin texture, it's just a little bit worse than the average at the moment but not by a lot. Your wrinkle weighting is actually better than the average which is really awesome. So this is comparing it to other people in your age group who are female. Your overall skin tone is a little bit dull, a little bit uneven compared to the average. So although you don't have much of a problem with deep set wrinkles, your risk of future wrinkles is a little bit on the high side. So it is picking up more fine lines than the average. That being said, your skin hydration levels on the inside is nice and high. Skin hydration levels on the outer parts of the skin is just average, not too bad. So this is picking up your pigmentation levels. Pigmentation levels is a little bit worse than the average at the moment. Brown spot levels is within the average range, so not too bad at all. But your main area of concern is definitely going to be the redness and red discoloration. It is a lot higher than the average. So your sun damage levels is a little bit above the average. I know you do a lot of traveling, so yeah, but definitely just focusing on the sunscreen wear should be okay for you. Then it shouldn't get any worse, you'll be okay from there. You do have a lot of excess oils in the skin and you do have a slightly higher level of bacteria on the skin right now. So it is picking it up as a little bit of an acne-prone skin type. Do you find that you break out here and there? All the time, all the time. So this is what we can see on the outer parts of the skin. This is the damage that's been done on the inner parts of the skin. So that's the damage that accumulates from being unprotected. So it's really important to protect yourself. You'll see in Korea people walking with umbrellas, like some umbrellas, right? Because they know about this. So this kind of damage, you don't see this now, but in a few years this will come up to the surface, right? And accumulate with the damage that's already on the surface. So you probably want to protect yourself more in the future. So it has a clever way of literally circulating all the pores. That's crazy. So pores are not, we all have pores. Your pore condition doesn't seem to be too bad. Yeah, just a little bit worse than the average slightly overall. Looks like your main areas of pores as compared to the average is going to be the nose area. So this is what wrinkles it's picking up on you at the moment right now. And this is possible future wrinkles. I love the projection here. So this looks to be your areas of redness. And then this is your areas of brown pigmentation, but it hasn't really picked up much for you. So mostly the areas of redness. That is actually one of the things that I've always thought was the most interesting about Korean skin in general is that glass skin look. It seems like they like pioneered that look. And I'm so curious what treatments or what is like contributing to that beyond just amazing genetics potentially. So instead of seeing it as bacterial, more technically it's Dermadex. So this already occurs in the skin, but if the levels get too high, then it does cause skin problems. It could cause rosacea, of course, acne problems as well. Dermadex is basically like microscopic bugs in the skin almost. Oh my gosh. Could have gone my whole life without thinking about that. So we're going to go through a multi-multi-step treatment that's going to basically clean you up completely. You can even think about it like part of it is like a vacuum cleaner where it vacuums all of those bad things out of your face, but re-infuses it with three different kinds of serums. So it vacuums and then pushes other things in. That's part of the treatment. Wow. Okay, great. So that will be our start. Sounds like a great place to start. Thank you. Does that get rid of the bugs? There's not only bugs, there's viruses as well that can live on your face and it creates little things and it happens to lots of people. So here in Korea, we get rid of not only the little bugs, but also the viruses. This is the first time I'm ever hearing of these little bugs living on your face. Oh my gosh. So this is Dr. Kim. He's the founder of the clinic. So do you remember what we were talking about the virus? Yeah. You also have it. Your kind of acne is a mixed form of acne. It's the regular acne that people have, other acne, and then you have the the bumpiness that you're referring to is actually the... you can think about it like tiny warts, like small viruses. Oh my gosh. Oh great. If you look at your own skin. Yeah. On the side, you see those little bumps? Yeah, it's super bumpy. Yeah, that's what it is. I'm curious as well, so for the like the virus part, especially with like the bumpiness, and my dermatologists in the U.S. have said that it's hormonal acne. Would you say that that's the same thing or is it something different? It's mixed. You have some that it's hormonal acne, but a lot of it is, in Korean, it's the virus. What causes something like this like virus? More or less, we all have it, but if you have... if your body condition lowers, let's say because you're tired, overworked, been traveling all over the world, it can come out. For example, for my case, I run a company, so... Stress. You're like, got it right here. In your case, you've been traveling a lot. Someone who's more relaxed, it might not come out, but more or less, most humans have it. Okay, interesting. So we've got our overall diagnosis, and now it's time to head into the first treatment. Ooh. The most important thing with makeup is that you remove it at the end of the day. So regardless of what kind of makeup you're wearing, you need to go through like a face washing with a really good cleanser, following a nighttime skincare routine, and then a morning skincare routine, and you'll be fine. Oh, whoa. That was a bit claustrophobic in there. It was so cold and heavy. This is such a crazy experience. I'm half expecting to get up and look in the mirror, and my skin looks like I'm 12 years old. And I feel like I'm glowing from the inside out right now. My skin feels amazing. Hey, you look very healthy and clean. I feel so hydrated and very clean. We've just arrived at the next location. We're in Cheongdam, and we've gotten to Omoa SS640. He's giving us a little tour of the best spots for skincare in Seoul, and what are we doing at this one? Well, at this one, we're going to experience another luxury skin clinic, and I believe that you're going to get stem cell treatment. Whoa, okay. I've never done anything related to stem cells before, but I'm very fascinated by the topic, so I'm sure we're going to be learning a lot more. It's like stepping into a whole new world of information. Please go inside and have a seat. Hello. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. So what he recommends is go with the Virtue Divine and Smart Milk. The Virtue is an RF microneedling-based treatment, and the RF will help to reduce also the acne that you have right now. So he will target that at the same time, while improving also your skin texture, because with the microwounds, it helps to regenerate your skin, and that way as well helps to smoothen out the skin texture, and help with the acne scars that you have as well. He wants to use the Goddess Injection, which is basically stem cell from the umbilical cord, and usually it is injected with microneedle, but due to the Virtue, we already have the microwounds, so he's going to put it on right after the treatment at the same time, and it will be absorbed, and still have the chance to have a good effect as it will go in quite deeply. Okay, wow. Umbilical cord. It's high-end stuff. That's crazy. Interesting. Wow. Where did they get that? From the umbilical cords of babies. So at hospitals, when they come up, there's all kinds of like placenta and the umbilical cord, so there's that's given to the companies, and the companies extract. I've been to the place where they do it, like the companies extract it and freeze. It's like one day old, so you're basically getting the stem cells of the one day old baby. For like a dark pigmentation, which part would help for that, and what do you usually recommend for like dark pigmentation? So he says that basically the pigmentation you see is part of the acne process of healing, so usually with acne, once it's gone, you get hyperpigmentation, which is like red dot, and then afterwards it turns a little bit darker, which is your case right now. It's basically in the process of it, and with the Virtue, it's going to help to improve that as well. I would love to hear about how Korean skincare differs from skincare that you would see in other countries. Korea is quite innovative with their laser treatments, and Korean patients have the chance to get upgraded laser treatments, which helps to basically have a better skin texture. The machines are always being upgraded, so every few months you'll get a new part of the machine, or a new software upgrade, or a new upgrade, and Koreans are always pushing for upgrades, so everything moves quite quickly. Two years ago, almost everything we used was different from how it is now. Even six months ago, things get upgraded really fast here. Thank you so much. I'm excited to try it. So she's still going to go ahead with cleansing your face because of the sunblock you have, and then they will go ahead right away with numbing cream. How much does this type of thing hurt if there's numbing cream? So it is going to be uncomfortable. Okay. I cannot say no. At the beginning, you might not feel that much, but over time, your body and your brain is noticing the pain and the needles that are penetrating, which also means that you're feeling more pain even though the numbing cream is still there. Some people say it's like a version of the vampire facial because blood comes out a little bit. So imagine little microneedles punching yourself, and then a little bit of blood comes out, and the healing starts to go. But vampires become younger, right? Yeah. All right. Sign me up. Well, this is definitely not what I anticipated us doing when I woke up this morning. This helps for some reason immediately. I never thought that I'd be doing this in a group setting. We're getting saran wrapped. So once you have the micro wounds due to the virtue, the doctor will go ahead and will nicely put it in basically and just put it on top of it because you have like small open wounds and it helps to just penetrate right away. And you will not even notice that it's there anymore because everything will be absorbed really quickly. And it helps in general also for wounds or scarring and also for damaged skin and for anti-aging. So it has different kind of positive aspects of it. So for some, it's good for when they have acne scars it's used, but for some it's mainly anti-aging because it helps to just get a healthier skin basically. So that's what you can imagine with the treatment. So everyone's stepped out of the room for a moment and I actually really had no idea that I was going to be doing anything like this today at all. And my entire face right now is getting so numb and I'm a little bit nervous because she was telling me that it's still gonna be painful even with this numbing. So I've never also done anything like facial wise. I'm just kidding in my mouth. I've never done any kind of facial where it's like a real doctor that needs to do it. So I'm curious if that's just like a safety precaution thing or if this is like some crazy thing right now. We'll see. We'll see. Wow, my face feels so numb. That's a good thing. My whole skin just feels... Like I can't feel my lips. Okay, so it's like an operating table. Yes, it's an operating table. What's about to happen here? These tips are used individually for different people, right? This tip is just for you. So these tips get put onto the machine and the machine is going to kind of punch holes into your skin, micro-needling, like the vampire facial. And then those micro wounds are going to heal. And when the healing happens, your skin becomes smoother, better texture, better everything. Are you okay? Yeah, it's definitely kind of a lot. It's very like mechanical. It almost feels like getting bit by like a little ant. If you've ever been bit by like fire ants before, it's like that on your face all over. It's so weird. I can almost like hear it going into my skin. Oh, hey, I didn't see you there. Oh, Jesus. A nightmare. Beauty is pain. Beauty is pain. Good job. That part sucked. Oh, so close. I forgot about this part. So now that we have the little holes, we don't actually need to physically inject you. We can put the serum on top and it's going to enter all those little micro holes inside of your body. And this is the booster that's going inside that we spoke about before. This is like a baby umbilical cord, basically. Gel. My skin feels like it just went through like a battle. It's like a little face massage after being attacked. Wow. Okay. Okay. That was an experience. That was crazy. That was a very crazy experience. I haven't seen what is going on here yet. Oh my god. I look like a little like a little pink berry. That was my little pink babushka. With the hat too. Oh my gosh. The final step is basically removing the impurities now after your treatment. And after that, we'll just put some regeneration cream and some other serums on your face. And then the most important thing is that you don't wash your face when you go home today. You don't put on any makeup. Just leave your face as it is and go to sleep later tonight. From tomorrow, you can start your skincare routine and wear makeup. Important things to do after treatment are don't drink alcohol, don't smoke, and try not to go to a sauna or a very hot place where you're going to be sweating a lot because we want to get your skin to calm down instead of being more active. Already the redness is way less. Oh yeah, it calmed down a bit. So the redness it already went down more but by tomorrow it will be gone. Okay, amazing. So now this is the sunblock step. What a journey we've been on together. Wow, I feel like a new person. I've been reborn. Does my skin look like glass yet or what? Wow, thank you so much. We're gonna have to check back to see these full results in about two or three weeks to see if there's been some long-lasting improvements. And just like that, it's now been about a month exactly since I was in Korea and got all of those crazy skin treatments done. I will definitely say that I have noticed an improvement in my skin texture and especially with the visibility of my dark spots or hyperpigmentation. I'm not wearing any makeup right now and I'm pretty happy with the way that my skin is beginning to look. I will say though that there's only so much that can be done in one treatment when it comes to making serious improvements. The thing that I think I took away from the most when it comes to what makes Korean skincare so different than anywhere else in the world is that they are extremely diligent about finding the best processes for each of their skin and sticking with it. That's why you see things like the 10-step Korean skincare routine, 10, 14-step treatments that they do every single day that creates that iconic glass skin look. Also, it definitely helps that South Korea is a cutting-edge technologically advanced country and there is a huge demand there for all of these different clinics to be improving all of their different tools and machines and treatments constantly. So they're really at the edge of innovation when it comes to skincare routine which you can definitely see in so many of the people there. I'm definitely someone that struggled with my skin for years so it was pretty fascinating learning about all of the different techniques and approaches that Koreans have developed that are apparently working really well for them. I have hormonal acne and this is something that you can't really fix with just something topical like a retinoid that you put on every day and one thing that I thought was interesting when I first walked into the clinic one of the doctors the first thing that they said was oh you just need to take Accutane which is a pretty full-on extensive pretty harsh treatment to acne but I've heard that it's also the closest that we have to a modern cure for acne so that's actually something that I'm pretty seriously considering now so if you have any experience with Accutane I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments but I hope that you guys learned something from this video or at least found it fascinating how this amazing country has been making so many advancements in pursuit of the perfect complexion. Thank you so much for watching this video if you enjoyed it don't forget to subscribe and you can also sign up for my newsletter at lexielimitless.com slash newsletter for more behind the scenes of making these travel videos, bucket list travel recommendations, travel hacks, tips, all of that kind of fun stuff you can find in the newsletter in the link in my description and until next time let's push our limits!