One of the more amusing side effects of the stay-at-home order is our collective renewed interest in K-dramas and, subsequently, Korean cuisine and K-beauty. The demand for the latter is so that a lot of us are blind buying our Korean products straight from the Land of the Morning Calm.

Thanks to Project Vanity, I’ve had the chance to try out a lot of different skincare products but K-beauty has a special place in my heart! Learning about Korean skincare gave me my first brush with the Asian beauty philosophy, and it has truly been a game-changer for my routines. From chemical exfoliants and 7-skin application, to straight brows and just-bitten lips, so much of my beauty routine is Korean inspired! So I was really excited to learn that a new K-beauty brand just arrived in town.

I have been a Kpop fan for more than 10 years now, and I have them to thank for my love of K-beauty as well! Following idols have given me the chance to see the evolution of Korean makeup trends, from the era of thick eyeliners paired with nude lipsticks, to adventurous burgundy eyeshadows, and to the current obsession with more natural, almost bare-faced looks. 

Dear Dahlia is a fairly new Korean brand that quickly gained Instagram fame for its trademark marble-and-gold aesthetic. Beyond the dreamy packaging design, this brand strives for timeless beauty backed up by an ethical commitment to promote vegan, cruelty-free, “8-free” formulations. While I’ve often thought that having a vegan thrust means a compromise with quality, I was pretty pleased to see this brand didn’t fail to deliver!

The Korean beauty craze is continuing to go and grow, thanks to more brands finally making their way to our side of the world. In fact, SM Beauty is taking us several steps closer to our glass skin goals (and our favorite oppa) by bringing together the best K-beauty brands under one roof!

In just a few short years, the Philippines went from having just a couple of Etude House stores to having more Korean brand and product options than we can keep up with! If all the oppas visiting the country doesn’t convince you (looking at you, Park Seo Jun and Lee Dong Wook), maybe this will: even the big names in Western beauty brands are getting into the K-beauty craze! The latest to ride the Hallyu wave is none other than Avon, a well-loved beauty brand that secured its spot in our kikay kits and dressers long before Watsons even became a thing. 

I grew up watching a lot K-beauty YouTubers. Everything I know about makeup and skincare, I learned from them (and Project Vanity, of course!). One of my top beauty idols is Hye-Min Park or Pony Syndrome, who is hands down the most famous makeup artist of the K-beauty world! She works with the biggest K-pop idols like 2NE1 and Wonder Girls, and has even released a few books. And then three years ago, she launched Pony Effect, her very own makeup line. 

K-beauty isn’t just about a quest for glass skin. While many brands develop products according to specific age brackets, some labels were made in response to more particular needs such as atopic skin disorder relief or solutions for oily/acne-prone skin types. Commleaf answers the call for a back-to-nature approach to skincare, focusing on natural ingredients and hypoallergenic products. Even the brand’s name origin story speaks of its humble philosophy: “comma” indicates a pause, while “leaf” represents nature.

Just when we thought that the K-beauty base hype has died down, something new and shiny came along and piqued our curiosity. The spotlight is on Banila Co’s recently released Covericious Power Fit line, which promises long wear, buildable coverage, and high skin adherence. What really intrigued me is that these beauty bases are formulated with hydrolized collagen for additional hydrating properties that cling better to the skin than regular collagen. As someone with dry skin that’s prone to flaking, I definitely needed to test that out!

I remember purchasing my first daily sunblock five years ago. I had just learned that I needed sun protection not just for beach trips, but every single day. Since I was just 16 at the time, I looked for a mild formulation that would suit my adolescent skin and chanced upon YADAH’s Oh My Sun Block SPF35 PA++. Because it was lightweight and slightly moisturizing without the sticky feel, it was easier for me to get into the habit of wearing sunscreen daily.

People tell me that I’m lucky to have dry skin because I don’t have to worry about getting pimples or having a shiny face. Both are certainly true, but dry skin has it own concerns, too. Your skin can look either red and irritated, or gray and sickly due to dullness. Extra dry spots can cause skin to look flaky and you can’t cover that with makeup because of the weird texture. Dry skin is also more prone to getting wrinkles and fine lines; just imagine how super matte lipsticks make every single one of your lip lines look more visible!

When I first saw Esfolio products a few years ago on BeautyMNL, I was intrigued. Like most other Korean skincare brands, they have products that highlight natural ingredients like aloe vera, coconut, green tea, and milk. Upon closer inspection, though, I was surprised to also find skincare favorites like niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, and collagen. Even more surprisingly, the products were priced very reasonably. They had a LOT of products, too, at over 80 variants! But since I like trying on products before buying, I found myself wishing these products were available not just online but in physical stores, as well.

As someone with oily and acne-prone skin, I’ve admittedly experimented with my skincare a lot (with the guidance of my derma). I’m convinced that I’ve now found the two skincare must-haves for oily skin: a low pH cleanser and regular exfoliation using acids. While I am admittedly a bit biased because I work for both PV and In Her Element, I never say no to trying Korean brands. I’ve tried the famous TI’AM Signature Red Serum, loved the simple skincare approach of Dear Klair’s, and even stanned for GOT7’s collab with The Face Shop! So when the chance to review Jumiso products came, I was immediately excited and jumped at the opportunity.

Over at the Project Vanity Community page, we often get requests for sunscreen recommendations. Everyone looks for the same qualities: no white cast, not sticky or heavy, and ideally without that distinctive sunscreen scent. By and large, Asian Beauty (AB) sunscreen formulas are the clear favorite, with most recos coming from Japanese and Korean skincare picks. Having so many options can be pretty overwhelming though, so let’s attempt to answer the billion dollar question: which sunscreen has the best formula?

Say annyeong once more as blk Cosmetics releases a second K-beauty collection! Inspired by Anne Curtis’s love for Korean teleseryes, the homegrown brand released their first K-beauty collection last year featuring a mix of best-selling favorites and some new items all in dreamy K-beauty shades. The second collection follows pretty much the same strategy, so it’s no wonder fans immediately snapped it up. As soon as it was launched on April 1, a handful of SKUs immediately sold out online and in-store, well ahead of the official media launch on April 2!

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with silicone-y primers for the longest time. They either leave my skin feeling like it’s been covered in fast food grease, or cause me to break out into tiny hives on the same day I use them. I recently experienced a bout of  hormonal acne and extra oily skin due to my PCOS though, so I was once again in the market for a primer that didn’t feel like an extra thicc coat of french fry grease.

Snail secretion filtrate is a popular ingredient in a lot of Korean skincare. The snail’s mucin (aka, the slimy trail they leave behind) contains ingredients like hyaluronic acid and humectants, and is scientifically proven to have anti-aging benefits. It is also an ancient remedy for burns and wounds as it helps skin repair itself. Apparently, brands like AmorePacific harvest the mucin by “letting snails crawl around a mesh net in a darkened room for half an hour, and then transferred back into their natural habitat to rest.”

When I first stumbled across Face Republic on my social media feeds, I thought I was looking at Nature Republic and Innisfree. My initial confusion came from the similar names and branding, but after reading more about this new player, I learned that it offers the unique premise of creating Korean skincare products that have been specially designed for Filipino skin. The brand’s CEO Yohan Kim explains that the temperate climate in Korea means that their skincare products are designed for drier weather, so formulations can feel too heavy and greasy on Pinays.

I first encountered the brand Esfolio a couple of years when I was given a bunch of their sheet masks as pasalubong from Korea. After using a couple of masks that I felt lukewarm about and knowing that the brand wasn't available locally, it slipped to the back of my mind.

Fast forward to 2018, Esfolio arrived at our shores and the local beauty community was abuzz with talk about their affordable but quality products. This brought back those old memories, and so I decided to find out more about why people are raving about Esfolio.