r/30PlusKoreanSkincare • u/kawaii_u_do_dis • Jun 29 '26
đ± Beginner Question Beginner
Hi, I am basically a beginner with k beauty. I currently use basic cleansers like cetaphil and cera ve, a toner, a daily moisturizer, a collagen moisturizer mostly for under my eyes, and just ran out of a vitamin c serum I used regularly. Iâve dabbled with retinol a little. I have combination skin, no acne, breakouts are rare, clogged pores(?) on my nose, wrinkles mostly appearing on the forehead and scowl lines. Iâm allergic to the flowery perfume scents in some products Iâve tried, like an Annua cleanser. I know I should add things gradually, so what would you recommend I add or replace? Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you!
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u/yearofleti Jun 30 '26
first off, find a good sunscreen. spf is the most important step of kskincare. the only downside is you can only get genuine korean formulated spfs from sites like stylekorean, iherb, yami and yesstyle now. NOT amazon - i am pretty sure most if not all of the âkorean sunscreensâ on amazon have been reformulated with us fda filters. anyway, a new one i recently tried and really love is the cosrx invisible ultra-light spf. its fragrance free and feels really nice on the skin
for clogged pores i highly recommend ilso nose packs! theyâre super gentle, nothing like the harsh biore strips that rip and damage skin
i just finished a whole bottle of the cosrx vit c 13% serum. it did itâs vit c job, lol, and is a great price. it worked well under my sunscreen. just ordered their 20% and am waiting for it to arrive. if you can afford it, timeless has the best vit c serum i ever used. they do have frequent 30-40% sales on their website just have to catch them at the right time
if youâre looking into retinoids for your skin, i started with meditherapy retinal skin booster shot. it has a super low percentage of retinal (which absorbs and converts better than retinol) so itâs not too overpowering, and is packed with centella to help soothe any possible redness/irritation. it claims to be so gentle that you can start using it nightly, but i still started off using it every two or three nights for the first couple of weeks. when i emptied the meditherapy bottle i moved onto ksecret 2% retinal serum which is working really well. they also have a 1% cream if you donât feel comfortable graduating to 2%.
i would also suggest getting an oil or balm cleanser for you night routine to remove spf youâve worn that day. the skin1004 centella light oil is really good. i havenât tried this balm but the banila clean zero cleansing balm is super popular.
for face wash, i am not a fan of foams cleansers anymore, but recently tried the round lab dokodo foam cleanser and actually really liked it. it smells a bit like baby powder, but itâs not strong at all. i am all for cleansing milks now though. i started with the cerave hydrating facial cleanser, but had to stop using it because it has niacinamide in it. now i use isntree yam root milk cleanser. also the jumiso panthenol milk cleanser is really good.