A date with Katalin Berenyi (CAO of L’Occitane & Erborian) on Korean Skin Therapy
A few weeks ago, thanks to the CEW, I joined a room of professionals, all experts in the cosmetics industry from some of the most well-known brands, to listen to Katalin talk about Korean skin therapy.
Here is what I learnt.
From the age of 6, Korean women learn from their mother how to cleanse their skin, and this means NOT using just tap water. They are taught from a young age about pH and how bad the level of this can be for their skin.
They use the right products from a very young age (15 to 25 year olds), around 15 at night and 20 products in the morning. They want radiant skin, no blemishes and their skin is to glow and be very clear. In Korea a compliment is to say “wow” you look so young”, rather than “wow! You look great” They want to look 18 and girly.
Below is an example of the ten step Korean skincare routine. Using CC creams and BB creams add to this routine.
The Korean skincare routine is the most sophisticated routine in the world, it’s obligatory and military.
It is all about layering, and therefore Korean products are made to be able to layer and work with each other. Technology has to be good so they can all sink in – you can’t layer products from the US or French brands as they just won’t sink in, they are too rich.
Their products have a different feeling to those in the EU/US. They feel differently on the skin. You can’t use a US product in place of one of the Korean ones, it just won’t have the same affect.
Innovation in Korea is very short – they don’t add new products on to a range every month as there is no point. A few months later no one will use them as they want the latest newest ingredients, latest trends and brands. The life cycle of products in Korea is only one year.
Current trends coming from Korea are glowy skin, sheet masks and there is a huge innovation on lip products as big lips make them look younger and sexy.
They like funny cute beauty products and a great example of these are the Oh K! range by NPW which are inspired by South Korea http://www.ohklife.com
After the talk, I went out and purchased some Erborian products and can highly recommend the glow crème – it really does wake up dull tired skin http://uk.erborian.com/
