Korean Beauty: Moisturisers

Match it to what your skin is doing right now, which may not be what it does all year.

• Redness or reactive skin: Anua Heartleaf 70% Intense Calming Cream or Dr. Althea 345 Relief Cream
• A damaged or uncomfortable barrier: Dr. Althea 147 Barrier Cream or Dr.Reju-All All Advanced LC-Ceramide Barrier Cream
• Firmness and fine lines: Medicube Triple Collagen Cream 4.0 or Beauty of Joseon Revive Firming Moisturiser
• Dullness: Medicube Deep Vita C Capsule Cream or Medicube Glutathione Glow Capsule Cream
• Oily or congested skin: Medicube Zero Pore One Day Cream or Medicube Collagen Jelly Cream

Beauty of Joseon Dynasty Cream is the classic all rounder if none of those is clearly you.

Weight, and how much oil is in it.

• A gel or jelly cream is mostly water, sinks in fast and suits oily skin or warm weather. Medicube Hyaluronic Ceramide Jelly Cream is one
• A lotion or milk is lighter than a cream but richer than a gel. Anua Heartleaf 70% Daily Relief Lotion and Anua Rice 70 Intensive Moisturizing Milk sit here
• A cream is the richest and seals everything underneath it

Plenty of people use a gel in summer and a cream in winter. That is sensible rather than indulgent, since your skin genuinely needs different things in different weather.

Your skin barrier is the outer layer that holds water in and keeps irritants out. When it is working you do not notice it. When it is not, skin feels tight, stings when you apply things, goes red easily and reacts to products that used to be fine.

A barrier cream is built to rebuild that layer rather than treat a concern, usually with ceramides and fatty acids. Dr. Althea 147 Barrier Cream, Anua 3 Ceramide Panthenol Moisture Barrier Cream and Dr.Reju-All All Advanced LC-Ceramide Barrier Cream are all made for it.

If your skin is currently sore or reactive, this is the one thing worth buying before anything else. Actives on a broken barrier make things worse.

Creams with the active ingredient held in tiny beads that break as you rub them in, which keeps the ingredient stable in the jar until the moment you use it.

It is genuinely useful for ingredients that degrade in air and light, vitamin C above all. Medicube Deep Vita C Capsule Cream, Medicube PDRN Pink Collagen Capsule Cream and Medicube TXA Niacinamide Capsule Cream all work this way.

The texture is unusual the first time. Warm it between your fingers and the beads disappear as you apply.

Yes. Oily skin is usually still short of water, and stripping it dry tends to prompt more oil rather than less.

Go lighter rather than going without. Medicube Collagen Jelly Cream, Medicube Zero Pore One Day Cream and Genosys Moisture Replenishing Hyaluron Cream are all light enough for oily skin.

If your skin feels greasy by midday but tight after cleansing, that is dehydration rather than oiliness, and the answer is more water in the routine, not less.

Near the end. Cleanse, toner, essence or serum, then moisturiser, then sunscreen in the morning.

Its job is partly to seal in everything you put on before it, which is why skipping it undoes some of the work your serum was doing.

Apply it to skin that is still slightly damp. If you are using a facial oil, that goes on after your moisturiser, not before.