Soko Glam’s annual Best of Beauty Awards is upon us. In case this is the first you’re hearing of the e-comm holiday, allow me to describe it: customers of the K-Beauty retailer vote for their most favorite, must-have, holy grail products. Then, the winners are revealed on the site at discounted prices. From now until the 15th, the victors of the 2020 awards are 15 percent off with the code “ELITE15.” Below, a list of my personal favorites, including a nourishing cleansing balm and a healing, fermented essence.
This essence from Neogen is beloved by beauty guru Michelle Phan, and is chock full of fermented ingredients, including Bifida Ferment Lysate, Saccharomyces Ferment Filtrate, and Rice Ferment Filtrate, all of which all work to deeply moisturize, nourish, and heal the skin. This dewy-inducing, hydrating essence also works wonders when it comes to healing old blemishes and scabs.
If you’ve been looking to just up the general radiance of your complexion, go for this vitamin C serum from in-house brand Good (Skin)Days. It is formulated with all-star ingredients, like (10 percent) ascorbic acid, camu camu, and licorice root (for adding radiance and lifting hyperpigmentation); niacinamide (for smoothing out and illuminating); and ginseng and mushroom (for calming and soothing). This is an incredible morning serum, which you can apply before your sunscreen, that’ll make your skin look glowy for the rest of the day (and beyond).
The truth of the matter is, there isn’t a ton you can do topically to brighten up your dark circles. However, a good surge of hydration will at least take the edge off, and perfectly prep the undereyes for a little color-correcting concealer. This eye cream from Acwell is one of my favorites doing just that: it’s a blend of licorice root water (to soothe and heal) Bifida Ferment extract (to nourish) and Caffeine (to depuff).
A good cleansing oil or balm is the first step to any good skin-care routine: it ensures your skin is as clean and dirt free as possible before bedtime. And this, from Then I Met You, is a really good cleansing balm. It has, in fact, reached a kind of cult status in the skincare community: it won Allure’s Best of Beauty Award in 2019 and is beloved by a bevy of skincare gurus, including Skincare by Hyram. It contains antioxidants, fatty acids, and vitamin E to make sure your skin is left soothed, nourished, and moisturized and never stripped.
On those days where I wake up with gargantuan, mean, under the skin breakouts, this is the sheet mask I reach for. It’s packed with tea tree and willow bark to help knock down inflammation and gently exfoliate the skin, and the chamomile and asiatica pennywort ensure everything stays nice and soothed and calm. This helps reduce the risk of more pimples popping up, without totally drying out your skin.
