K-Beauty has long reigned as queen of the cosmetic realm on TikTok and around the world. Korean beauty and makeup trends are iconic, innovative, and often designed to bring out your very best features in a safe, long-lasting, and health-forward way.
For generations, the forefront of beauty has been found in Korea, and it’s little wonder why modern skincare girlies take inspiration from K-Beauty.
So what does summer have to hold for makeup and skincare from Korea? We’ve got your closer looks at the products, practices, and trends that are sure to be a hit for your 2023 hot girl summer.
Korean Makeup Trends for Summer
Makeup is a unique and creative way to express our personal identities and to feel cool and comfortable in our own skin. With the right products and practices, we can create looks that are bold and iconic or soft and sweet, and everything in-between.
And if you’re on the search for the most innovative and stand-out styles of them all, there’s no beauty like K-Beauty. These are just a few of our favorite trends from Korean beauty culture for the summer.
Sustainable and Refillable Products
What’s hotter than sustainability? This summer, you’ll enjoy saving your wallet and saving the earth by embracing sustainable and refillable products and skipping the single-use ones. Makeup tends to expire quickly, and it can be unsafe to use old or poorly stored makeup, which means there’s a lot of waste associated with the art form.
This summer, however, we’re moving away from the single tubes and empty pods and moving toward refillable lip and cheek colors, as well as moisturizers, lotions, and other skincare essentials.
Simple and Multi-Use
The packaging isn’t the only thing playing double duty this summer. Korean skincare has long embraced the hydrated and sleek look, often referred to as glass skin makeup, and this time we’re going even simpler.
We can expect to see an embrace of easy-to-use and multi-purpose products in K-Beauty this summer. If a product can hit several points during your skincare routine, it’s sure to be the rage. A quick and easy practice will help to clear up your day for the important things.
Y2K Reigns
Of course, you can’t go wrong with a little bit of nostalgia. Y2K fashion has us all in a chokehold, and for good reason. The whimsey, nostalgia, and creativity of early 2000s styles are a sure hit for younger and older generations, and many of us never got rid of our favorites from high school. (Triple-layer lace camisoles, why not?)
Y2K fashion has a modern space-age vibe, embracing iridescent and bright colors, and the makeup looks are much the same. They’re bright, bold, and colorful and may include statement eyes and a little extra glitter.
Fruit Juice and Lush
If you love sipping lemonade by the pool, this new K-Beauty trend is sure to be your favorite. One of Korea's most popular summer makeup trends is fruit juice makeup, which is all about embracing youth and brightness. It’s about making your skin look glowy and fresh, just like fruit bursting with juice.
Fruit juice makeup makes the most of fresh summer colors like pinks and oranges, and is typically applied around the eyes, lips, and cheeks. If you’re all about a rosy, sunshiny cheek, this is the style for you.
Love for Vitamin A
Vitamin A is a staple of any makeup routine — and diet too — and it’ll never truly go out of style. That said, vitamin A is getting a little extra love out of Korea this summer, with a revival and highlighting ofvVitamin A products, including retinol and retinoids.
Vitamin A is essential for healing the skin from damage, reducing the development of breakouts, and generally helping you get that gorgeous glow, even before you add the highlighter. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate our skin this summer. Always make sure you’re doubling up on sunscreen when wearing vitamin A products.
Next Level Plant-Based
What’s better than going all-natural? Along with the move toward sustainable and reusable products, we’ll likely see an increase in plant-based products coming out of Korea—and some of them may be a little unexpected.
Plant-based products are often better for our skin and for the environment. This is the summer for embracing innovative solutions and trying new things.
New Uses for Blush Powder
If you’re looking to embrace more subtle styling this summer (Y2K can be a lot, and getting glitter out of your hair… don’t even get us started), the blush nail trend is perfect for you. The blush nail trend embraces the best of neutral nail colors with a bit of a twist.
Rather than giving a full coat of polish, the blush nail trend mimics the appearance of blush on the cheek. In fact, you’re going to take a little of your favorite blush or pink eye shadow and apply it right at the center of your nail, before sealing it with a topcoat. Cheeky and chic-y.
Kimchi for Your Skin
Okay, maybe not kimchi, but don’t be surprised if you notice your favorite influencers using more fermented products this summer. Yes, we said fermented, but we promise you’ll love it. Fermented products are another way of practicing responsible, sustainable skincare and makeup application, and they’re likely to start moving in as the replacement to single-use face masks.
Fermented products can be surprisingly healthy and revitalizing for the skin and can even help to reduce signs of aging. It’s not likely that we’ll see kimchi face masks any time soon, but keep an eye out for kombucha and fermented tea masks this summer.
High-Tech Home Beauty
Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century only dreamed of the high-tech skincare tools and products that promise to be all the rage this summer. These products will likely focus on skincare and rejuvenation.
You can expect to find ultrasonic face cleansers, which help to get deep below the surface of the skin to clean out the dirt, debris, and sebum buildup that leads to acne, and LED face masks, useful for reducing inflammation and even the development and appearance of acne and breakouts.
Face Contouring Tools
Contouring is essential for getting that snatched look we love, and the new tools and methods gaining in popularity make it easy for even novices. Contouring devices are another one of the high-tech products you can use right at home, and they’re a can’t-miss when it comes to defined jawlines and youthful-looking skin.
Essentially, they help to improve the elasticity of the skin, which makes it easy to get the contoured, defined look you love, so you can apply as much or as little makeup as feels right.
Designed for Masks
Face masks can make for a pretty big challenge when it comes to protecting and caring for your skin. While they reduce exposure to germs and outside pollutants, they can cause sweat buildup and often cause our face makeup to wear off too quickly. This summer is about reducing the side effects of mask makeup to maintain that sleek and beautiful look all day long.
The focus will likely be on both preventing the acne and build-up that develops with the use of masks and reducing transfer. Keep an eye out for products that won’t transfer to the inside of your mask, like foundations and lipsticks.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for the latest in beauty, makeup, and skincare, there’s just no culture like K-Beauty culture. It’s always one step ahead, and it’s the place to turn for innovation, trendsetting, and the products and practices to watch out for in the new season.
So what does summer 2023 have to hold? Overall, we’re seeing a huge shift in the movement toward reducing waste and embracing sustainability, and we couldn’t be more excited. We can’t wait to make the transition to low-impact, reusable products and to try out some of the plant-based and even fermented ones.
We’re also seeing a love for the bright and the bold, with fruit juice makeup and an homage to Y2K culture that really pops on the gram. And, of course, Korean beauty is all about caring for your skin, so hydration, cleansings, and vitamin A are all on the menu for the hot summer days.
For all the trends fit to print, and the content fit to post, 10PM Curfew has you covered. Learn more about the latest in Korean styles and the best trends to watch for this hot girl summer from our team today.
Sources:
K-beauty: The rise of Korean make-up in the West | BBC News
How to Make Your Beauty Routine More Eco-Friendly | Vogue
Like It or Not, Gaudy Y2K Style Is Roaring Back | Vogue
Vitamin A | The Nutrition Source | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health