hello and welcome to the Korean beauty Show podcast I'm your host Lauren Lee K Beauty expert the founder of style story where you can shop learn and explore the world of Korean skincare and the founder of K Beauty brand jelly Co so for today's episode I wanted to wrap up our discussion into the ingredient trends that we've been seeing in Korea in 2020 3 so on the previous Roundup episode I went through a lot of the different plant-based ingredients that have been trending here but 2023 has also seen a return in high-powered active ingredients including things like retinol collagen and peptides the other thing that I think K Beauty has been famous for for a while is that it does continue to develop new ingredients for uh all different types of skin issues and skin conditions and one of those that K Beauty is always very focused on is brightening the Skin So looking for new ingredients that can act as a replacement for uh the more popular ingredients like pure vitamin C so let's run through some of those that have really been making their mark on the industry this year and the first one is yua so yua is actually a citrus fruit it's very popular in East Asia and you can eat it you will find it in lots of different things cakes and teas and things like that it's packed full of natural vitamin C which does make it an ideal skin brightening ingredient so you'll often see it in products that are designed to be used on dull skin post acne marks dark spots and there have been a lot of brands in 2023 and and leading up to this year that have really been leaning into yua as an ingredient uh too many to name name here but I know some by me has an entire line so does hanu they are really focused on some of the more traditional Korean ingredients so that has been a very very popular mainstate for the year and the other big one I think a lot of our listeners will have noticed is retinol so retinol you uh if you if you're familiar with K Beauty you'll probably know that it has not been as traditionally popular in Korean beauty compared to Western Beauty so it's the golden standard in anti-aging for a lot of Western Beauty Brands and products but it hasn't traditionally taken off in the same way in Korea because of all of the side effects that go along with it the fact that you can experience a lot of irritation and damage in the process of adjusting to retinol use there's no doubt that it is a Powerhouse ingredient it can really transform your skin texture it can tackle everything from breakouts to Fine Lines sign of premature aging and it's good for a lot of different skin types as well breaker prawn skin uh drier skin types as well uh you know to really just refresh and Revitalize the skin but anyone that's ever tried to use it in their skincare routine before we'll know that often that goes hand inand with a lot of downsides so a lot of Korean brands have been bringing products to the market trying to tackle some of the perceived and very real downsides and we've seen more products than ever before introduced onto the market a lot of the big brands are doing a retinol product at the moment be that either an ample or uh an eye cream or moisturizer so I will include some of my personal favorite K beauty products with retinol in the show notes because there are a lot of different options on the market at the moment the other big trend for 2023 has been microbiome and probiotic skin care care and not just skin care but also what we call mongan hangum or edible cosmetics and this is really all of the different types of powders and gummies and things like that that people are eating to improve their gut bacteria and health so this is a relatively new area of research into the skin but much like when it comes to our gut bacteria and health our skin is also constantly interacting with the environment and it protects us from things like infection sun damage uh so a lot of different things have an influence on our Skin's immunity and what these products are trying to tap into is the idea that having a healthy microbiome for our skin can help protect us against skin conditions things like dermatitis rosacea flareups and whatnot um uh like I mentioned it's still quite a new area of study so there's a lot more work to be done on this but a lot of the big brands have been tapping into this trend and either coming out with new products aimed at protecting the Skin's microbiome or they have been updating preexisting products to include some probiotic ingredients in them one that I can think of off the top of my head that has done that is Lan with their water sleeping mask so it's now the the more recent version now has probiotics in the formula as well now collagen is another one of these that has been trending in both huaj Jang pum so skin care and Mong H jangum so the Edibles as well uh and a lot of brands are coming out with uh collagen drinks collagen gummies so there is no doubt that collagen is really important for our skin because it helps it to retain moisture and it also helps it to look younger uh once the body stops naturally producing the same amount of collagen we can see everything from sagginess to poor elasticity and a lack of collagen is one of the main reasons why our skin becomes drier and more wrinkled as we age I think the thing where it gets a a lot murkier is whether eating it or applying it topically can actually have the impact of improving our own natural collagen and when it comes to skin care I think the best way to think of skin care infused with collagen is just that it can help you maintain your hydration it's not going to replace the natural collagen levels that you've lost through the process of Aging but a lot of the products that do contain collagen will be beneficial for people that have things like fine lines and wrinkles and for skin that lacks elasticity what it's not going to do is replace and somehow restore that now there are treatments on the market here in Korea more invasive treatments that actually claim to be able to do this and I did run through hiu the high-intensity free uh high-intensity frequency ultrasound treatments uh in an earlier episode so go go back and have a listen to that if you are interested in it there are newer products coming out onto the market that can be used in clinic that are claiming to be able to reactivate and regenerate lost collagen but at the moment topical skincare is not one of those things and I personally have my doubts about the efficacy of uh the collagen drinks as well uh so you know I think my own personal stance on that is if you like them and enjoy them then I don't think there's any harm in taking them but I would be skeptical whether they have a lot of the benefits the the companies are promoting for them uh peptides that's the other big thing they are back in a big way a lot of brands are releasing products that contain peptides or are you know using peptides as a key call out now peptides again it's a naturally recurring part of the human body it's a short chain amino acid which are actually the building blocks for the proteins in our body and they also have a direct effect on our skin as we age similarly to collagen our own natural peptides begin to break down so applying peptides co uh topically through our skincare can help with some of our anti-aging concerns things like dehydration an uneven skin tone lack of firmness uh and there are a lot of different peptides that are being used at the moment in Korean skin care everything from RH oligopeptide 1 which is often referred to as EGF through to the Palmer toils uh and then we've also got our Co copper tripeptides lots of different ones uh and I will pop a link in the show notes to some of my personal favorite Korean beauty products that do contain peptides but that is another one that has been back in a big way so a lot of the scientifically proven ingredients have made a comeback this year in K Beauty in addition to the plant-based ingredients that are tapping into the vegan trend so look if you are a bit of an ingredient buff I hope that you have enjoyed this Roundup uh definitely I think it pays to know the science behind some of these so that you can look at your products with a little bit of skepticism with some of the claims that are being made by some of the brands uh but in general you know things like retinol or whatnot have been widely studied they are understood uh to work on the skin and you know I think there's a good reason why they are popular uh but that has been a big one that has made uh a a massive breakthrough in the Korean beauty industry which has traditionally been a lot more skeptical of ingredients like that so I hope you've enjoyed today's episode if you have I would love it if you could leave a rating for the show even just hitting five stars on your favorite podcast app is a really big help so thank you very much and I will be back in your your ears next week until then I'll 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