Korean Beauty Trends 2026 with Vanessa Lee, RN

GlowLab with Susan Yara

Vanessa Lee, a cosmetic RN and founder of The Things We Do in Los Angeles, returns to GlowLab to share her latest insights from Seoul, where

Key takeaways

• Korean clinics are shifting away from stacking multiple treatments in one day, focusing instead on specialized, personalized care.
• Pharmacies in Korea have become essential hubs for post-treatment care, offering medications, supplements, and skincare that support inner health and outer beauty.

Main topics

• Korean aesthetic trends for 2026
• Preventative medicine and post-procedure care

Notable quotes

"We're doing maybe two treatments, maybe five at most—and you choose. I was like, wow, what's happening?" – Vanessa Lee on clinic trends.

Conclusion

Vanessa Lee's trip to Seoul reveals a future of Korean beauty centered on prevention,

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) What led to the bruise? Ah, so I did... Speaker 1 (0:03) I know there was a treatment you have not talked about yet. Yes, yes. Speaker 2 (0:05) Oh my God. There's so many treatments that like I'm forgetting about them. I know. So I was speaking to one of the doctors and I was like, I really need to address, you know, just the skin around my eyes because I know that it's one ninth the thickness of the rest of the skin on the face, but I don't want Botox dead eyes. And he was like, okay, we're going to do some skin talks mixed with Regeron. So I remember last, last trip, they were like, you don't need to do Regeron. Yeah. You have to do it like six times in a row, one month apart and then two months. apart in order for you to see a difference and he was like if we mix this if we do like that double stack treatment you can see the results longer no longer than six months but you will see the results longer welcome Speaker 1 (0:43) to glow lab we're gonna have a lot of fun and learn a lot together last time i had vanessa lee on the show you guys loved her so much you asked me to bring her back and it was perfect timing because she just got back from seoul again and so i decided to bring her back this time to talk about all the latest korean beauty trends that she saw and she also did a a couple of other things that I thought were unexpected. So we're going to talk about it all on the show today. And if you don't know who Vanessa Lee is, she is a cosmetic RN. She happens to be one of my favorite injectors and she does a lot of procedures on me. In fact, I'm going to go do one tomorrow with her. And she is also the founder of the things we do here in Los Angeles. Vanessa. Hi. You actually just got back Speaker 2 (1:22) from Seoul. We are fresh from Korea. I'm so fresh that I'm still slightly bruised. Where? On my left under eye. Okay. There's a little bruise there that you may or may not see. Now that you say it, I can slightly see Speaker 1 (1:34) it. Speaker 2 (1:34) She's Speaker 1 (1:34) getting better at makeup skills, Speaker 2 (1:36) so I covered it up as best as I could, but it's still there. So we're fresh. Speaker 1 (1:40) I mean, a few days ago. I arrived back. Well, you obviously saw some new trends. So let's Speaker 2 (1:45) just Speaker 1 (1:45) hop right into what you saw while you were in Seoul. Speaker 2 (1:48) Yes, totally. Speaker 1 (1:48) So many things. Oh, Speaker 2 (1:49) my gosh. I visited around four to five different clinics. One of them was traditionally more of like a medical health screening, more of like a luxury hospital, but still offered. aesthetic and wellness treatments which was so fascinating to me and then of course i did all of the things yeah i visited a few different places because i saw that there were some up incoming treatments and just like in the us there are a lot of things that are trendy out there too i think in our last interview we talked about not falling prey to the trends yeah i fall prey to everything Just so you know, I'm here to test Speaker 1 (2:22) it all out for everybody. Exactly. Like Speaker 2 (2:25) I want to get to the bottom of like, what's the real real? Yeah. And I don't want to wait until like two to three years later until we really find out like this is boots on the ground journalism here. Exactly. So I Speaker 1 (2:35) tried a few different locations that I've never Speaker 2 (2:37) tried before, and it was fascinating. OK. So what I saw was a difference in the amount of treatments being stacked within. one sitting. So before, I mean, my two other trips was really like anywhere from like eight to 12. One clinic was like 15 treatments within the same procedure day, which was like a little insane for me. Yeah. But also was kind of like you're watching this stuff on TikTok and you're like, well, kind of everyone's doing that. So maybe that's the norm out here. Every single place that I went to, which. every doctor will go over some of their specialties every doctor that i visited had not just a wealth of knowledge so much experience but were also like different kols of their industry so key opinion leaders people really respected within their fields every single one of them was like we'll do maybe two treatments maybe maybe five at most and then you choose and i was like wow what's happening so i feel like everyone is really reigning in on a specialty instead of trying to be jack of all trades okay and that's something that's really different i also found that this round even the shopping experience was very different in the sense that the concentration was on preservation and preventative inner health so that had a lot to do with what your skin is going to look like on the outside olive young now has a subset store called olive better which is kind of their answer to the pharmacies. Speaker 1 (4:01) Interesting. Olive Better. I don't know the name, but Olive Better. Speaker 2 (4:05) I walked by it and I was like, Olive Better. That looks like Olive Young. And I was like, oh. This is Olive Young's answer to the pharmacies, because as you know, I don't know if you've seen the videos, but everyone's all about Olive Young is fantastic to pick up your cosmetics and certain things. But the real deal is at the pharmacies, which is quite true. Actually, every doctor's office that I've been to, every clinic out in Korea afterwards, you are suggested to pick up certain things to just like help you with your post care at pharmacies. And so picking up. you know, scar gels or antibiotics or any kind of like steroids or interestingly enough, some of them prescribe antiplatelets to get the swelling down as quickly as possible. Wait, antiplatelets? Yes. What are antiplatelets? So Dr. Hanjin Kwan, he is the CEO of a company that makes Ultracol. It's almost like their version of Sculptra, but much more predictable results with less swelling. And the results are supposed to be also a little bit more gradual. So sometimes with sculpture, we want to see it as fast as possible. The onset of ultracol is a little bit slower, but the results are always uniform. And in their studies, it was really, really difficult to find patients with any kind of late onset nodulation or granulation, which is really impressive. When I had a treatment with him, of course, I studied with him and then I was like, would you like to also inject me? He did Speaker 1 (5:26) the back of my hands. He did your hands. He did the back of my hands. Speaker 2 (5:29) Was it this trip? It was last year, which I still see the results. I love the results so much and I don't feel like I'm due just yet. Probably next year, Dr. Anjan Kwan, I'll be calling you. But he was like, we prescribe antiplatelets as well. So that along with the steroids and antibiotics, he's like, I just want to get ahead of everything and not have as much swelling. You guys are traveling back. So it really takes the swelling and inflammation down. Speaker 1 (5:53) Antiplatelets take the swelling and inflammation down. Speaker 2 (5:55) Yes, along with the steroids. So antiplatelets, and we don't do that here in the U.S. So here in the U.S., we're kind of more reactive with things, which that's, you know, what's better. Yeah, fine. I think better for the office, knowing that a lot of in Korea, a lot of people who are coming and then flying back within sometimes the same day, Speaker 1 (6:13) a Speaker 2 (6:14) couple of days later, it's better for those patients. I don't know if we necessarily need that here in the U.S., but again, Korea acts very preventatively with things. I Speaker 1 (6:22) love preventative. Yeah, me too. I mean, shoot, I'm flying out. I'm going to go see you tomorrow and get my sculpture. I'm so excited. In my head. We're going to do some new Speaker 2 (6:29) placements too. And Speaker 1 (6:29) then I'm going to hop on Speaker 2 (6:30) an Speaker 1 (6:30) airplane. Yes, yes. Looking Speaker 2 (6:32) like Stewie, you said. Yeah, so we might, yeah. So you will have this kind of like width. in this outer region, this lateral region. And so it kind of gives you this fullness that is Stewie like. But it's OK. It's going to go down in the next couple of days. You'll be totally fine. Yeah, I already know. We're Speaker 1 (6:47) prepared. We know how it goes. But if we had the anti-platelets here, Speaker 2 (6:50) I'd Speaker 1 (6:51) be into that. And we do. It's just Speaker 2 (6:52) not typically prescribed along with minimally invasive treatments here in the US. But that goes back to all of the prevention and tying into going into pharmacies afterwards. And because pharmacies have really blown up, they've blown up in the sense of you're picking up up medication there. You're also picking up some supplements there for just like general inner health. and how that reflects in outer beauty. And you're also picking up skincare there. And so a lot of people are finding in their trips to Korea and in their itineraries that the pharmacies are the place to go. And it's not just an Olive Young moment. It's like the girls who know, know, and you're at a pharmacy. Wait, Speaker 1 (7:29) I think we're going to see an uptick after this of those like TikTok videos where, you know, how everyone was going into the French pharmacies and essentially like ruined the French pharmacies, Speaker 2 (7:37) though. Yes. And they were like picking up all the same French pharmacy products. I feel like this is going to be At the pharmacies that I went to, I picked up Biafine. And you know, that was a French girl secret. French girl pharmacy secret, Biafine. So it's really cute too because they have these mini Biafines. Because typically the Biafines are like huge. Massive. And so they have these like little ones in Korea. Which I feel like really is going to blow up because it's about all of these like tiny tubes. Yeah. That are like. eight bucks that are so efficacious and so strong in what they're giving you as far as results. They're in these tiny tubes and everything is so affordable, so accessible. So you really load up at the pharmacy over there. I Speaker 1 (8:18) love that. Yeah. And then Speaker 2 (8:19) with Speaker 1 (8:19) Olive Better, Speaker 2 (8:20) you walk into Olive Better and it's really interesting because they're trying to mirror the experience that's happening at the pharmacy. But of course, because it's not a pharmacy, it's mostly wellness. So there's like healthy snacks, jelly sticks with collagen. PDRN sticks that are also jelly form. They love a jelly in an aluminum. Speaker 1 (8:40) And I love that because I love the texture. I do too. I feel like it's my like midday snack if I want something. Speaker 2 (8:45) And it's Speaker 1 (8:46) usually like really Speaker 2 (8:47) low in carbs or low in sugar. I had a pomegranate one on the way over here. Almost spilt it on the outfit. That was great. I was like, totally worth it. PDRN. Yeah, I love it. Okay, so they have the snack experience, the collagen stick experience. And then they have a lot of these like teas, beauty teas. So they have a counter where you walk through and there's like 20 teas lined up and you can smell them. You can see what each tea is meant for as far as like beauty, calming any kind of stress and anxieties, all of that. So it's really kind of like 360 wellness without the medications of a pharmacy. Speaker 1 (9:21) Okay. Yeah. Interesting. I already love the way this is all sounding because it's kind of like the wellness and longevity trend here, like 3.0. Speaker 2 (9:30) Yeah. If we think about Eastern culture in general and how we think about medicine in the East and a lot of traditional Korean medicine is taken from traditional Chinese medicine, everything is kind of intertwined. Speaker 1 (9:44) And Speaker 2 (9:44) so if you think about the ancient royal families in China, they would only pay their physicians if everyone was well and healthy. So you were getting paid every day. People were healthy. If sickness. was prevalent, you are not getting paid. So everything in Eastern medicine really ties back to prevention. So the physicians, the doctors were all getting together. How can we keep people? What are the patterns we can recognize? How can we diagnose people as closely as possible to what they need and individualize the plan so that someone is as healthy as possible and can battle illness when it shows up versus in the US we're very reactive. So sickness is here. Now, what do we do about it? And sometimes it's, I mean, I think, you know, U.S. health care, it's very, very aggravating for patients. And so if you think of aesthetics, it's approached the same way. So in Asia, everything is about preservation, maintaining the collagen you have, holding on to it, really working on that collagen banking before we knew collagen banking was a thing here in the U.S. And now I find in the U.S. where years ago everyone was like preventative treatments is a scam. don't say yes to it. Wait until all of your wrinkles are there, then treat it. It's unnecessary. And now we're like, oh, maybe we got it wrong. Maybe we should work on prevention after all. And that's what Korea and really like most of Asia has really mastered is prevention. Yeah, for sure. Speaker 1 (11:06) All of Speaker 2 (11:06) that is tied. Speaker 1 (11:07) to what we're putting in our bodies, the teas, the snacks, the Speaker 2 (11:12) soups, the sunscreen, the laser treatments earlier on, all of those things are all in one. And in the US, I feel like we really compartmentalize those things. Totally. Where it's... bunched up all together in this beautiful beauty package where really it's about being healthy and skin health. And then, Speaker 1 (11:30) you know, some fun things here and there. Yeah, for sure. Speaking of health, though, you actually did go to a clinic that you focused on. You did like I was so shocked watching this video. I was shocked. You got like a whole panel done. Everything. Everything was like they had their own lab there. Tell me about it. Yes. So Speaker 2 (11:44) I booked through HiMedi, which is a concierge service, which is very, very easy to go through. And by the way, this wasn't a paid partnership. I paid for everything myself. But I booked through HiMedi because I tried doing the hospitals myself and looking up like a more luxury experience. I had done a full health screening in Korea the year prior and it was like 250 bucks. It was beautiful as far as Speaker 1 (12:06) $250. $250 girlfriend. Can I tell you what was included? It was like Speaker 2 (12:09) nine different tests. I had my first mammogram in Korea. What? Which cost me like 30 bucks, by the way. And Speaker 1 (12:15) you got your results right away. Speaker 2 (12:16) Oh my God. Well, with that experience, you wait about a week. Okay. But that's fast, you know, in comparison. And it was like two hours