Korean Anti Aging Skin Care Tips For Every Age – The Traditional Korean Medicine Guide to Skin Aging
Hello! Today I’ll tell you how to choose the best Korean anti-aging serum, according to the principles of Traditional Korean Medicine. Hello and welcome or welcome back to my channel. If this is the first time you visit my channel, my name is Odile and I work as an art director in the beauty industry.
I’ve been researching Korean Beauty for a little over a decade and here on my channel I share with you informative content on Korean Beauty trends and history, so if this sounds right up your alley, make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications! Many videos or articles on anti-aging skin care are based on the premise that it’s possible to magically smooth out wrinkles and get a new youthful complexion overnight, this video however is a little different.
Today I’ll tell you about the process of aging in Traditional Korean Medicine and how Korean herbal skincare can help your skin along the way. The first thing you should know is that Traditional Korean Medicine, or 한방 (Hanbang) in Korean, is a medical system based on the principles of Eastern Medicine.
While Western Medicine tends to look at the body as a collection of many different organs, in Eastern medicine, the body is seen as a complex system of interconnected parts that work together to keep the body functioning.
These might sound like completely opposite concepts, but it’s important to understand that the two systems actually coexist in Korea and Eastern medicine is considered a legit science that people use in combination with treatments based on Western science.
When it comes to skin aging, the Western approach is to use targeted treatments to combat the visible signs of skin aging: wrinkles, dark spots, thinning skin and so on. The Hanbang approach, however, is more about addressing the root cause of skin aging, and that is the inner changes that our body goes through as we become old.
According to Korean Medicine, as we grow up, our body goes through several stages or life cycles. For women, each cycle lasts for 7 years. For men each cycle lasts for 8 years. These numbers, 7 and 8, are not random numbers but they reflect the changes in reproductive health that affect men and women as they grow old.
So for example: In the first cycle the reproductive system starts to develop in both men and women. During the second cycle, men and women begin to be fertile, and from the third cycle onwards the body continues to develop until reaching its peak with the fourth cycle.
In the fourth cycle, the body is at its optimal state and for this reason it’s considered the best time to have children. Shortly after this cycle, every part of the body begins to gradually decline and we start to experience the first signs of skin aging.
At this stage, it’s recommended to focus on strengthening the skin’s natural defenses to protect the skin and slow down this initial aging process. And for this reason, when you buy an anti-aging serum in this phase, it’s a good idea to incorporate antioxidant or fermented ingredients that can help you rebalance and boost your skin barrier.
Some of the most famous Hanbang ingredients that can help you in that sense, are Ginseng, Agarwood, Deer Velvet and Korean Angelica. A serum I can’t recommend strongly enough is the Whole Plant Effect Concentrate by Yunjac.
Yunjac is a new Hanbang skincare brand that attracted a huge following in Korea since its launch two years ago. And you don’t have to take my word for it, if you browse the Korean hashtag for ‘Hanbang Skincare’ on Instagram, you can see that it’s mostly full of people raving about this brand.
And I must say that, after trying a couple of their products this year, I could easily see the reason behind the hype. I think the key strength of the brand is this ability to use traditional Hanbang ingredients in a contemporary way that still feels very authentic.
In this serum for example we find classic Hanbang ingredients like Red Ginseng and Agarwood Plus, all ingredients were fermented using lactic acid bacteria, so in the end you get the benefits of Hanbang ingredients, the benefits of fermentation and the benefits of probiotic skin care.
The result is a luxurious creamy formula that acts as a shield to protect the skin from external aggressions. As someone with super dry and aging skin, I was really impressed by the ability of this serum to lock in moisture.
Usually by this time of the year, my skin needs very occlusive formulas to stay hydrated throughout the day, but this serum was truly a game changer It’s honestly so good, that on some days I wear it on its own without following up with a moisturiser.
Now, because I know that this serum is not easy to get outside of Korea, I’m going to include some alternative products with similar properties. I know some of you are surprised I didn’t pick Sulwhasoo’s First Care Activating Serum for this cycle, but to be honest, as much as I like this product, I find that its lightweight texture works better as an essence than as a serum.
So if you intend to use it as a preventive anti-aging serum, I personally recommend following up with a thicker moisturiser so you protect your skin ahead of the fifth cycle. By the fifth cycle, signs of aging start to become generally more prominent.
Complexion starts to lose its radiance, skin is not as elastic as it used to be and you might develop some dark spots caused by UV damage. In this phase it’s a good idea to use ingredients with powerful anti-aging properties, like Red Ginseng, Cordyceps or Pine Needle Oil.
And when it comes to Red Ginseng, it’s impossible not to think about Donginbi. Donginbi is a beauty brand founded by the Korea Ginseng Corporation, which is widely considered to be the best Ginseng manufacturer in Korea.
All their products contain their award-winning Ginseng, including the Red Ginseng Power Repair Emulsion If you watched my video on Korean Ginseng, you might remember that I already recommended the Moisture & Balancing Emulsion.
Well, after that video I decided to get this product, which is supposed to be a more powerful and concentrated version of the Moisture & Balancing Emulsion. The main difference between the two is that the Moisture & Balancing Emulsion contains only Wild Red Ginseng Condensate, whereas the Power Repair emulsion features a blend of Wild Red Ginseng Condensate, Wild Red Ginseng Oil and Wild Red Ginseng Extract.
I’m stressing the fact that this product contains Wild Red Ginseng because, as I said in my video on Korean Ginseng, Wild Ginseng has been proven to be a lot more effective than Cultivated Ginseng. And the fact that this product contains 3 ingredients derived from Wild Ginseng makes the formula Incredibly silky and luxurious.
As you spread it on, it feels like a very light mousse that melts into the skin, making it soft and smooth without any residue or stickiness. This is a beautiful serum that smooths, repairs and plumps the skin without feeling heavy, which is something quite rare to come across when it comes to highly concentrated anti-aging serums.
Like before, I’ll leave you some valid alternatives based on products I enjoyed in the past. After the fifth cycle, the functions of our organs and the connections between them gradually decline. In this stage, the blood flow in the body decreases along with energy levels.
In this phase, the skin becomes visibly less elastic and wrinkles become more accentuated as you get closer to the seventh life cycle, which corresponds to menopause for women. Before that moment, it’s a good idea to focus on complex combinations of herbal ingredients that have the ability to target all different aspects of skin aging.
In fact you will notice that Hanbang skincare products designed to be used after the fifth cycle tend to contain a rich blend of herbal extracts, instead of focusing on one or two ingredients in particular.
A great example is the Hwanyu Imperial Youth First Serum by History of Whoo. This serum contains a combination of 74 herbal extracts and the way they’re formulated together is based on the core principles of Eastern Medicine.
In Eastern Medicine it’s believed that the universe is composed of two opposing forces called Yin and Yang. Herbal remedies and herbal skincare products based on Eastern medicine are formulated to reflect this vision of the world.
This means that ingredients with opposite (*’complimentary’) properties are combined together to maximize the effects of each ingredient. The final result is a very unique and elegant formula that is not quite anything I tried before.
If you look at it, you can see that the serum has a classic translucent gel formula that spreads easily on the skin. And to be honest, the first time I saw the texture I was quite disappointed because I’m not usually a fan of gel formulas, but I immediately changed my mind after wearing this serum on my skin for a couple of hours.
It’s hard to describe but this product almost feels like a shield that keeps your skin in place, so it doesn’t crease as much when you use your face muscles. And the best part is that this serum is truly invisible on the skin.
Usually products with a similar effect create like a protective film on the face, but this product simply sinks into the skin and disappears. So you can’t feel it when you touch your skin, but you can sense it’s there when you move your face, which is truly phenomenal, I think.
We’ve come to the end of today’s video. I hope you enjoyed it and please don’t forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more informative content on Korean Beauty. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time!
