The term ‘glass skin’ comes from the Korean skincare sector, known worldwide as K-beauty. It refers to a complexion that is luminous and dewy with no obvious pores. Smooth and perfect, like glass.
You don’t have to go to Korea to get impossibly-beautiful glass skin. You just have to find a natural skincare routine that goes further than the usual cleanse, tone, moisturize routine. Results won’t happen overnight, but they will happen. Generally, you’ll start to see your new glass skin face emerge at around the two-week mark.
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to achieve clear, glowing, glass-like skin,
Step 1: Double Cleanse
Asian skin care introduced us to double cleansing, and we haven’t looked back since. You won’t achieve glass skin by haphazardly swiping a cleansing cloth over your face at the end of the day.A clean canvass is a must when it comes to your skin care routine, especially at night when your face has collected all that dirt, grease and makeup residue. Start with a cleansing oil or micellar water for your first cleanse, then follow with a gentle foam wash or cream cleanser.
Step 2: Gentle Exfoliation
Once the skin is thoroughly cleaned up, use a gentle exfoliator. This exfoliation is necessary for cleaning pores and getting rid of dead skin, thereby leaving the skin radiant while getting rid of blemishes. Never scrub your face hard with an exfoliator. It is done in a circular motion with the finger rips pressing lightly against the skin. You do not have to do this every day; thrice a week is enough.
Step 3: Tone
The Korean skincare experts suggest you tone your skin multiple times, letting the toner sit for a few seconds between each application. Traditional toners are often ignored because some find them to be too drying, but in Korean skin care, they take on an entirely different role. K-beauty toners are formulated with refreshing and moisture-enhancing ingredients (like green tea, galactomyces, ginseng and floral water) and are applied not only to restore the skin’s pH levels but also to provide base hydration and allow better absorption of oncoming products.
Step 4: Add an Essence
An essence lies between a moisturizer and a serum in terms of its properties and is normally water-based. It helps build a healthy skin through hydration. Like targeted treatments, they’re formulated to address skin concerns like pigmentation and redness but with the added purpose of delivering mega moisture and hydration.
Step 5: Treat with a Serum or Ampoule
The Korean counterpart of serums, ampoules typically contain a higher concentration of multitasking active ingredients. These concentrated actives help nourish the skin, reverse signs of aging and promote collagen to help provide firmness, minimize pores and even out skin tone.Now it isn’t really possible to make this serum at home, but if you want natural products which can have the same effects, you can consider honey and aloe vera, which can be put together to prepare a mask.
Step 6: Moisturize
Moisturizer has the task of locking in hydration, to leave your skin looking dewy and gorgeous. Even oily skin needs moisturizer. In fact, oily skin can become even oilier if you don’t use moisturizer as part of your routine. Cica, which is short for centella asiatica or gotu kola, is a sought-after ingredient in Korean skin care because of its healing, anti-aging and barrier-restoring properties.
Step 7: Apply an Eye Cream
You can’t make glass skin happen if you’re rocking dry patches and bags under your eyes. Apply an eye cream or serum to nourish the fragile eye area that tends to be drier than the rest of your face
Step 8: Sun Protection
To protect your skin from sun damage, you should apply some kind of sun protection every day. This could be a sunscreen or a BB cream. Look for products that use minerals to protect your skin, rather than chemical sunscreens.
Last tip, drink water!
A final step to achieving glass skin is drinking enough glasses of water every day. If you’re dehydrated on the inside, it will show on the outside. As a general guide, for every 1kg of body weight you should drink 0.033 litres of water. If you’re 60kg, that means about 2 litres of water a day. Herbal teas and other non-caffeinated beverages count towards your total.
