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Bare Seoul
Korean skincare, bared Seoul — a woman with glass skin in clear coastal water

Bare Seoul — honest Korean skincare reviews and guides

민낯  ·  From Seoul, ingredient by ingredient.

Reviews and guides that start with the ingredient list and say who a product actually suits.

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Two worlds, one routine

Seoul technique, American rules

Korean skincare gives you the method: gentle, layered, and led by what's actually in the bottle. The US sets the rules, and they are stricter than most people expect. Sunscreen here is regulated as a drug, the list of permitted UV filters is short, and several of the filters that make Korean SPF so pleasant to wear are not on it. We read one against the other.

한국  ·  From Seoul

What Korean skincare does well

  • Short, focused formulas — a couple of well-chosen actives rather than a long list
  • Gentle, layered steps that build hydration instead of stripping it
  • Textures light enough that you'll actually wear them every day
In the US  ·  미국

What we read it against

  • Sun first — every SPF weighed against the FDA's approved filter list
  • Formulas judged on the ingredient list and the evidence behind it, at the price
  • What genuinely ships here, and what only arrives through an importer

Why we built Bare Seoul →

The Korean routine

Six steps, in the right order

How to layer them →
1 Cleansers Cleanse Cleansers 2 Toners Tone Toners 3 Essences & Serums Treat Essences & Serums 4 Masks Mask Masks 5 Moisturizers Moisturize Moisturizers 6 Sunscreen Protect Sunscreen
Beyond the routine

Targeted treatments

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Best of
Targeted treatments

Best Korean pimple patches

Three Korean pimple patches that earn their place — a do-it-all hydrocolloid, a microneedle patch for spots that haven't surfaced, and a value pick — plus when a patch won't help at all.

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피부  ·  Find your match

Browse by skin type

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DryOilyCombinationSensitiveAcne-proneMature
Sunscreen, and the rules

Why Korean sunscreen is a different product in the US

Here, sunscreen is regulated as an over-the-counter drug, and what a brand may put in it comes from a short list of permitted UV filters. Several of the filters behind the light, wearable textures Korean sunscreens are known for are not on that list. We explain what that means for the protection you're actually getting, and point you to the FDA.

Read the sunscreen guide →

No therapeutic claims — we point you to the FDA, the American Academy of Dermatology and the Skin Cancer Foundation.

Why you can trust this
  • We judge a formula on its ingredients and the evidence, then explain it in plain English
  • We give honest verdicts, including the products we'd skip
  • We read the label against the rulebook — and say which country a rule applies to
Guides

Learn the basics

All guides →
The routineHow to build a Korean skincare routineThe famous ten-step Korean routine comes down to three or four steps that matter. A plain-English guide to building one for your skin — in the right order, and built around the one step that matters most.IngredientsNiacinamide: the quiet all-rounder in your Korean routineNiacinamide turns up in Korean toners, essences and exfoliants as a supporting player, a few lines down the ingredient list. Here's what this form of vitamin B3 does for skin, and the actives it sits happily beside.The routineA Korean skincare routine for dry and dehydrated skinSkin that feels tight isn't always short on oil — often it's short on water, and the two want different fixes. Here's the Korean way to layer hydration, and the step that stops it evaporating before the morning's out.