k-beauty
The Section
K-beauty — skincare, products, and routines
EDITED BY The Omonar Desk·UPDATED SEP 22
ATEEZ's San Defines 'Northern Duke' Style With Intense Fashion Details
From striking hairstyles to tailored outfits, ATEEZ's San perfects the 'Northern Duke' look with bold choices that enhance his stage presence.
THE DESK · September 22, 2026READ THE PIECE →
Quick Gasps오60-SEC SCROLL
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K-Beauty
Anua, Torriden, or Aestura: Which K-Beauty Moisturizer Is Actually Worth Buying?
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K-Beauty
IVE's Jang Wonyoung Revealed Her Late-Night Hotel Skincare Ritual, and There's One Part Dermatologists Would Tweak
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K-Beauty
5 Steps, Korean Formulas: A No-Overkill Skincare Routine for Acne-Prone Skin
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K-Beauty
5 Korean Cleansing Foams Rated 4.7 Stars or Higher by Nearly 10,000 Real Users
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EDITOR'S PICK
“The best K-beauty routine is the one you'll still be doing in six months. Simple wins.”
The Omonar Desk · Beauty
THE DESK · LATEST DISPATCHES
Worth the shelf space.
NAD+ Searches on Olive Young Are Up 542%, And That's Not Even the Biggest Jump
K-beauty consumers are increasingly bypassing brand names and shopping by active ingredient instead, with search data from CJ Olive Young and Amazon showing massive year-on-year spikes in queries for NAD+, PDRN, and peptides. Industry analysts say the shift reflects rising consumer knowledge and a market where product quality has largely converged, leaving ingredients as the clearest differentiator.
The Desk · 4 MINREAD →
The 3-Step Korean Glass Skin Routine That Actually Works
The glass skin effect does not require ten products or an hour at the sink. This three-step Korean routine, built around cleanser, serum, and moisturizer, covers every essential and pulls from some of the highest-rated formulas.
The Desk · 4 MINREAD →
The 10-Step Routine: What You Can Skip
The ten-step Korean skincare routine has been the category's headline for over a decade. It was named in an American magazine in 2014, it was never a rule in Korea, and Korean routines have been getting shorter ever since. Here is what each step actually does, and the honest answer about how many of them you need.
The Desk · 4 MINREAD →
Snail Mucin: What It Does, and What It Does Not
Snail mucin is one of the few skincare ingredients that people find genuinely off-putting and buy anyway, which tells you something about how well it performs. Most explanations of it come from brands with a stake in the answer. Here is what is actually in the bottle, what the research supports, and where the evidence runs out.
The Desk · 4 MINREAD →
Cica, Centella, Madecassoside: What the Labels Actually Mean
Walk down a Korean skincare aisle and you will see cica, centella, and madecassoside used as if they were the same thing. One is a plant, one is a nickname, and one is a specific molecule that has been through clinical testing while its neighbours have not. Knowing which is which is the difference between reading an ingredient list and reading marketing.
The Desk · 4 MINREAD →
Korean Sunscreen vs. American Sunscreen, Explained
Korean sunscreen feels weightless and American sunscreen usually does not, and the reason is regulatory rather than cosmetic. The US treats sunscreen as a drug, Korea treats it as a functional cosmetic, and every difference you can feel on your skin follows from that one split. This month, for the first time in 25 years, the split got slightly narrower.
The Desk · 4 MINREAD →
LOOK OF THE WEEK
Glass Skin
The look, 2026
RANK 01
ATTENTION CAUGHT
240M
#GlassSkin views the desk tracked this month.
ON THE COUNTER
01Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum
02COSRX Snail Mucin Essence
03Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask
THE OMONAR K-BEAUTY DESK
Routine, complete.
The routines, the launches, and the actually-worth-it products. Tested, ranked, and honest about what didn't land.
- Issue
- № 40 / VOL. 04
- Dated
- OCT 04, 2026
- Edited
- From the bathroom counter
- Filed
- 24 dispatches
Glass skin is a discipline.