I feel like my discovery process is really limited. I see the same balance gel mask products being promoted on every platform and I’m never sure if something is actually popular in korea or just popular with the western k-beauty community, which feels like a different thing.
the things i didn’t like about sheet masks, is the dripping, the weird smell sometimes, the fact that they dry out and start pulling moisture back from your skin if you leave them on too long, the environmental waste and honestly they always felt a bit damp and uncomfortable
Do you guys here find any balance gel mask products that pair really well and the gel mask sticks and doesn’t slip? particularly interested in any sources that track what is actually moving in korea, as opposed to what is being marketed to western audiences.
by Street_Sand_4216
5 Comments
Watch the review video, not the commercial!
Totally feel this. A lot of K-beauty discovery in the West is basically “whatever affiliates are pushing” vs whats actually trending in Korea.
One thing that helps is checking domestic retailers rankings (Olive Young, etc.) and then cross-referencing reviews, not just TikTok/IG.
If youre building a repeatable discovery process, I wrote up a simple framework for separating real demand from influencer marketing here: https://blog.promarkia.com/
Learn how to read ingredients lists and how the chemicals operate and you’ll be able to have a lot more independence
I do my research here on reddit from user experiences and search ingredients on incicoder. If you really care about the effectiveness of a product then I suggest you’d do the same rather than trying to track what’s “popular” in Korea. It could all just be marketing, inflated numbers or people following trends which doesn’t indicate efficacy. None of the AB products I use are considered popular but they work for me after years of trail and error. To answer your question, I liked the abib collagen jericho rose jelly masks. They come in 2 halves to fit on your face more comfortably and don’t dry out or slip. But in general masks aren’t something I would rely on, you’re better off using a serum with the same ingredients and formulation to have long term results.
If you’re seeing it from every influencer you’re probably seeing sponsored content not being disclosed OR they all just happen to be latching onto the same trend they saw elsewhere at the same time. Remember that their goal is often just making content and not always giving a 100% impartial review.
You can even go to websites like Olive Young and see what’s Top in Korea vs Top Orders (basically the rest of the world).
With that said I watch a wide variety of videos (and not necessarily new content) and browse reddit and other reviews a lot to try and get a holistic picture of how people feel about a product. I generally don’t see one review and believe it – I always seek out reviews from everyday people and not just influencers.
Before I decided to buy Erborian red cc correct for my rosacea I probably watched and read like 30 different reviews of it to make sure it wasn’t some snake oil misleading product. lol