The 9 Best K-Beauty Products You Can Buy On Amazon Right Now. They’re Cheap And They’re Incredible.
by The Candidly Team
We have wanted to dip our toe into the Korean beauty waters for some time, but the choices are so endless we didn’t know quite where to start.
And then we stumbled upon this intoxicatingly addictive creator on TikTok who has such luscious glass skin we would buy anything she recommended.
Fine, she’s 21 years old with perfect skin and it’s like why on earth should we care what she possibly has to say. Well. That’s fair. But we looked deeper into her videos and she had pretty extreme acne that was cleared with mostly K-beauty products. Her knowledge around skincare is quite staggering. And we love that nearly everything she loves and recommends is affordable.
So what did we do? We bought everything she recommended in what can only be described as a frenzy and have been on a mostly K-beauty regimen for 6 weeks. Here’s all the standout products that we feel are universally excellent for all skin types, especially sensitive.
And we’re going in order of how to apply them all just to be nice.
1. ma:nyo Pure Cleansing Water Sensitive
We’ve never been micellar “people.” It just seemed like an unnecessary step. But since swiping this on religiously to remove makeup, we’ve seen a huge difference in our pores. We’re converts.
And we use these to apply it…
Price: $19
2. Shiseido Facial Cotton Pads
Could you just buy some crap from CVS? Of course. But these pads have 123,000 cotton fibers per pad and they feel like butterfly kisses on your skin. For something we use every day, we wanted to get the best one. (These are actually Japanese not Korean fyi.)
Price: $16
3. Hanskin Pore Cleansing Oil
Now for the first cleanse—an oil. And guess what? If you have dry skin, oily skin, combination skin, mature skin, sensitive skin, this oil is perfect. This extremely gentle cleanser helps to deeply clear out blackheads, while being gentle enough to use daily. Full of plant oils and polyhydroxy acids, we truly cannot go to sleep without slathering this on our faces first.
Price: $27
4. Vanicream Gentle Facial Cleanser
This is decidedly not a Korean cleanser. But Charine Cheung used it and loved it for her sensitive skin, so now we do, too. And it’s perfect. Gentle, non-stripping, leaves skin with that perfectly balanced clean feeling that’s unmatched.
Price: $9
5. Anua Rice 70 Glow Milky Toner
We realized about a year ago that, as post-40 gals, a toner is what was missing in our skincare routines, especially in the winter. We’re all so scarred by our mom’s Ten-0-Six that doubled as paint thinner, but most toners are actually used to hydrate. And this rice toner is fragrance free, fungal acne safe, full of ceramides and panthenol, and we are convinced this product is the cornerstone of glass skin. It strengthens your skin barrier, brightens dull skin, and feels basically like nothing.
Price: $18
6. Anua Rice ceramide 7 Hydrating Barrier Serum
If you’ve ever tried snail mucin serums, well, that’s what this feels like. It’s full of hyaluronic acid which helps skin retain moisture, but it also controls skin from creating excess sebum which is what makes us look oily at 3pm. It’s quite thick and somewhat tacky for 15 or so minutes, but once it sinks in, our skin feels gorgeously hydrated and balanced.
Price: $17
7. Purito Oat-in Calming Gel Cream
Because our skin basically turned into a dry husk once we hit 40, we’ve always reached for extremely thick moisturizers, especially in the colder months. We never even considered a light gel like this. But, lo and behold, using this lightweight moisturizer over the rich serum, our skin feels hydrated and calmed, with zero oily residue, no dry patches, and it’s a gorrrrrgeous primer under makeup. Who knew?! And if you find you still do need more moisture in the harsh winter, press on THIS lightweight, deeply hydrating oil as a last step.
Price: $16
8. Skin1004 Madagascar Centella Hyalu-Cica Water-Fit Sun Serum
We’ve already gone through one bottle of this SPF (remember to use a full tablespoon on your face and neck every. single. day—click HERE to see why). This brand is so quick to absorb, leaves our skin perfectly hydrated with zero stickiness or white cast. It’s totally hypoallergenic and is free of parabens and phthalates. If you’re especially oily, you could just use this as your moisturizer.
Price: $29
9. K-Secret Seoul 1988 Retinal Serum
Our favorite OTC retinol product is THIS, but for the purposes of going all in on K-Beauty, we’ve been trying this highly recommended, highly rated K-beauty retinal—which is still a retinoid, but apparently retinal liposome creates faster resurfacing effects with deeper penetration while being MORE gentle. Not sure why we’re not all aware of this, but we are now. It reduces wrinkles, fades pigmentation, smooths texture, brightens overall, controls oil, and minimizes pores. We started using it twice a week at night only and have already worked up to every night after only one week and it’s … spectacular. A noticeable difference in skin clarity and smoothness.
Price: $22
At The Candidly, we try a lot of stuff so you don’t have to. We only recommend things we truly love, and that we think you’ll love, too. All products are chosen independently by our creative team, and all details reflect the price and availability of products at the time of publication. If you buy something we link to, The Candidly may earn a commission.
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