Treating your skin is an essential step, especially if you have acne. It’s also very important if you have wrinkles or dark spots. Most of the time, treating your skin involves a serum. Serums penetrate the skin and deliver active ingredients. If you have acne and dry skin, finding an acne serum can be a challenge, especially since many of them are intended for oily skin. Likewise, acne serums can dry the skin out your skin even more. That’s where K-beauty comes in. K-beauty hydrates and balances out the skin barrier, but it still has some active ingredients to treat breakouts.
K-beauty is truly an amazing choice for acne-prone and dry skin. However, the following K-beauty serums will work for oily, acne-prone skin too!
April Skin Carrotene Clarifying Serum
This is one of Cassandra’s absolute favorite serums. She’s been purchasing it for about 3 years now. This is made for blemish-prone skin, and it has carotene. Beta carotene is in carrots, and it’s part of the vitamin A family. It’s good for your eyes too, and like retinoids, it’s great for acne, scars, and fine lines. It also helps the skin turn over quicker. However, retinoids are way too irritating for some people with sensitive skin. So, Carotene is a great alternative for those with acne and sensitive skin.
This carotene serum is sebum-clearing, you can use this day or night, and it’s even more gentle than retinol. Gentleness is a hallmark of K-beauty, but so is effectiveness. This will not break the skin out either.
Beauty Of Joseon Revive Eye Serum
This is made of Ginseng and retinal, and it’s one of the most potent K-beauty products that Cassandra has ever used. The color of this product is a bright yellow because of the retinal. Retinal is the most potent form of vitamin A that you can get over the counter. It’s great for fine lines, smile lines, and wrinkles around the eyes. You can also use it to get rid of pores, blackheads, and sebaceous filaments out. But, if you want something even more gentle, you can use tea tree.
Vegreen Skin Purifying Tea Tree Serum
Both of these are from Vegreen and Cassandra loves these. One of them is a snail mucin alternative, and one of them is a green tea serum. A lot of people think snail mucin is going to clear their acne. But, snail mucin can break some people out, especially if you’re allergic to dust or mites. Snail mucin also isn’t cruelty-free. That’s why Cassandra likes the plant-based version, Vegreen. There is no snail mucin because it’s made with wild yam.
They took wild yam and extracted the properties that were beneficial and similar to snail mucin. This is wonderful if you have a damaged skin barrier from picking your skin or sun exposure.
There’s nothing within wild yam that will help you treat acne, but it helps rebuild the skin rebuild itself properly. Once your skin gets a bit stronger, you can go with their yam mucin serum that has tea tree oil.
Vegreen Fragrance-Free Nature Mucin Serum
Tea tree is antimicrobial and antibacterial. It’s a little more liquid than the regular one. It doesn’t have all of the exact same ingredients. But, if you have very sensitive and blemish-prone skin, this is one of the most gentle K-beauty acne serums out there.
After a serum, you’ll put on a moisturizer to lock it in. But, moisturizers can also treat and resolve acne.
Some By Mi AHA BHA PHA 30 Day Miracle Cream:
This is for more oily-prone people, and it’s a little intense. If you do have dry skin, it probably won’t be the best. However, you can use it every now and then for exfoliation.
Cassandra has oily skin, and she loves it. She got it from Stylevana years ago. If you love the idea of The Ordinary’s AHA BHA peeling serum, but it’s way too much for you, this works wonderfully.
Cassandra would recommend this for combo to oily skin types. It’s very hydrating, and it helps to exfoliate. The BHAs get rid of blackheads, and the AHAs and PHAs simultaneously hydrate and exfoliate. On top of that, the green color helps to neutralize redness on the skin. You can use this every day, and it’s best to use it at night. However, if you’re using it during the day, make sure you’re applying sunscreen.
Moisturizers and sunscreen can take time to improve the skin, but sometimes you want a quick solution. Last-minute breakouts can be due to hormones or diet, and if they happen to you, spot treatments can come to the rescue.
COSRX Acne Pimple Master Patch - $6
COSRX has some of the best spot treatments. They have pimple patches that Cassandra uses on her shoulder. So, don’t pick your skin – patch it.
COSRX AC Collection Ultimate Spot Cream
The name stands for “cosmetics” and “RX,” meaning it’s a combination of cosmetics and prescriptions. It’s efficacious, but it’s still soothing and gentle on the skin. There aren’t many Korean spot treatments, but this is definitely one of the best ones. It’s not Cassandra’s favorite, but it’s one of the most gentle she’s come across.
This has tea tree and zinc, and although zinc is often found in sunscreen, it can help combat oil production. This has sunflower oil, and likewise, it’s more of a hydrating spot treatment, and it’s not nearly as drying.
On the other hand, K-beauty treatments will take a couple of days to work whereas a lot of American treatments with Benzoyl peroxide will work faster. But, some American treatments will really dry your skin out. So, if you have sensitive skin, and you also have emergency breakouts, K-beauty works well!