Do you ever wonder why most Koreans have pale skin? Well, contrary to Western culture that believes the beauty of tanning their skin, most Asians believed fair and pale skin is more attractive and a sign of wealth.
Those with tanned skin means that you do not have the luxury to relax indoor because have to work outside to earn a living. If you watch to K-pop video or Korean drama, you probably find that most celebrities are fair skinned regardless the gender. Although it seems silly, Koreans believe pale skin is more desirable and better.
So why do Koreans have pale skin?
- They are extremely aware of UV Rays
- Whitening and brightening skincare products
- They apply a lighter shade of foundation
- After Effect/photo filters
They are extremely aware of UV rays
As we all know, UV rays damage our skin cells. They use sunscreen every single day. Sunscreen is considered as the last step of Koreans daytime skincare routine. Korean women apply an adequate amount of sunscreen after their moisturizer. If you are a kbeauty fans, you probably notice that most primer, foundations or bb cushion are formulated with SPF to protect your skin from the sun. This gives you an insight that sunscreen plays a crucial role in their skin routine. Many Korean YouTubers also layer the foundation with SPF on top of their sunscreen.
Secondly, if you ever traveled to Korea, you know Korean love wearing long sleeves even in the summer. The mean temperature is about 22.5 to 25 degrees Celsius in the summer in South Korea. However, you can still spot many women are wearing long sleeves with an iced drink on their hands.
If long sleeves and sunscreen are not enough, the umbrella is here to save the day. Umbrella is our best defense against stormy weather, most of us anyway. In Asian countries, it is common to see people walking around with an umbrella on a sunny day. Of course, Korean is no exception. They carry a small UV umbrella in the bag to filter out direct UV.
Whitening and brightening skin care products
Koreans are well known for their glowing skin. They are willing to spend time and money when it comes to skincare, whether it is check-in with the dermatologist or splurge on skincare products. Well, happy skin happy life.
I bet 90% of Korean women own or used to own a whitening product in their life. Korean women might add whitening serum or whitening masks to their skin routine to clarify the skin. Whitening products remain popular throughout the year, especially in the summer. Korean is obsessed with sheet masks, especially for sheet mask can brighten up their skin instantly. Korean women are smart enough to repair sun damage at night and defense with sunblock during the day.
Brightening and whitening skincare products have increased popularity over the decades. Try to search for whitening advertisements on Youtube, you’ll be shocked how many whitening products are out there. It also shows that this is not a misconception, women in Korea are certain that having pale skin is more beautiful.
Whitening products help to tone up the skin tone and fade dark spots. The common ingredients for skin whitening including niacinamide, glutathione, and alpha arbutin. These ingredients are effective to even up skin discoloration and brighten the skin.
Furthermore, some might even undergo procedures like skin lightening injection. The injection possesses as a strong antioxidant that reduces melanin production. It is still debatable whether the injection is safe, regardless, many still willing to risk their health to get the porcelain skin.
They apply a lighter shade of foundation
So, what happens if Korean women unable to get that pale skin tone they desire from skin care and blocking out the sun?
They get a quick fix with a lighter shade of foundation. It is common to apply a lighter shade foundation in Korea.
Quick example. It’s obvious that singer Seolhyun has a darker skin tone, nevertheless, her face is pale. (I’ve attached a link to google image)
Another factor that caused the scenario is the limited selection of shades in the foundation.
Due to most Korean women’s desire to have a lighter skin tone, you often find many Korean brands offered a very limited foundation shade for selection. In the past, most of the brands come out with just two shades which are shade 21, and shade 23. Shade 21 for fair skin, and shade 23 for darker skin tone.
Nowadays, Korean beauty is getting recognized internationally, many brands are more aware of the foundation shade they offered. Especially after Fenty Beauty launched 40 shades of foundation back in September 2017.
For instance, Innisfree introduced to the world their customized foundation. You are able to find your perfect match by choosing moisture level, coverage level, and shades. Even though there are only 9 shades to pick, it definitely shows that the international market is gradually changing Korean beauty brands. After all, everyone deserves to get a perfect matching foundation and be beautiful right?
The power of After Effect
Photo filters are very popular in Korea. Download application like Makeup Plus and Paris on your smartphone, I guarantee the effect of the photo filters will wow you. Kpop idols are big fans of pink filters which make them look cute and youthful. Other than that, they will also adjust the brightness of their pictures.
Apart from photo filters, they also apply filters on dramas and music charts. If you compare tv shows like running man vsKoreann drama. You’ll notice the differences. Korean drama tends to have a brighter and softer focus. Lighting might be one of the factors too.
Look at Running Man lead member Song Ji Hyo in the drama vs reality show Running man
Of course, JiHyo is still a very gorgeous attractive star, but it’s undeniable that her skin tone is different in the scenes.
Let’s take another example, Nation’s first love Suzy Bae. Depsite being only 23 years old (born in the year 1994), she has shown the world she is very talented in singing, dancing and acting. Suzy definitely having a flawless face but we can’t help but notice the differences in her skin tone. You can find a lot of examples on google.
Being fair and pale is still the ideal in Korea, but no matter what we believe everyone is beautiful in their own way. It leads to our conclusion that being fair and pale is the standard of Korean beauty, at least for now. And, Korean women will go out of their way to achieve that.
