Importance of Hydration in K-Beauty

A common Western beauty myth is that only people with dry skin need to focus on moisture and hydration. If you take one thing away from this blogpost, please let it be this: this is not true! As Korean beauty experts know: ALL skin types need hydration. Dehydration is a condition that can happen to ANY skin type: normal, oily, combination, or dry. That is why in Korean beauty, hydration is so important!

Let’s back up and define the subtle difference between dehydrated and dry skin. Both dry and dehydrated skin might appear the same to the naked eye. The skin may look dull, flaky, inflamed or red. The difference is the underlying cause. Dry skin is a result of your sebaceous glands not producing enough oil; dehydrated skin is when you’re not giving your skin adequate moisture – maybe because of a change in season (hello, winter!), maybe you traveled (air travel is SO dehydrating), or maybe you’re just plain under-moisturizing because you have acne and you think you shouldn’t be. Wrong! Remember the Korean beauty secret: all skin types need moisture. The specific type of Korean beauty moisturizer you choose will vary if you have dry or dehydrated skin, but no matter what, all skin types need hydration!

Properly hydrating your skin is important for a number of reasons. Dehydrated skin can result in a loss of volume and the premature appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. K-beauty experts know that one of the telltale signs of youthful skin is plumpness. Dehydrated skin will never look plump. And of course, raise your hand if you want premature wrinkles. (Crickets) Yeah, thought so.

Another reason Korean beauty emphasizes skin hydration is because it’s preventive. Let’s say that again. Hydrating your skin improves your skin right here and now AND it’s makes it look better in the future! For example, dehydrated skin causes your skin to produce more oil than it would naturally. Once your skin is coated in excess oil, it’s primed for acne breakouts. Yikes! Plus, dehydrated skin can cause wrinkles. Once you have wrinkles, they’re hard to get rid of. In both cases, hydrating the skin now helps your future skin look even more glowy and perfect! Thanks, K-beauty!

Korean beauty routines find hydration so important, that many of them even emphasize a phenomenon called Skin Flooding. Maybe you’ve already heard of Skin Flooding on TikTok – where beauty influencers rack up millions of views demonstrating how to skin flood. If you haven’t, the best way to define it is this: skin flooding is having at least two steps of your beauty routine devoted to hydration. It could be your toner plus your moisturizing cream. It could be ampoules plus a moisturizing cleanser. You get the point. It’s at least two steps of hydrating in order to replenish the skin at its core, and relieve it of any potential redness, dullness, or flakiness.

If you remember one thing from this post: hydrating your skin is a must no matter what type of skin you have. And if you want to uber-moisturize and uber-protect your skin, consider the K-beauty practice of skin flooding!