Koreans are known for their innovative beauty products, and pressed serums are just one of their many offerings we love. A serum and moisturiser hybrid, it helps to intensely treat your skin while hydrating at the same time.

Pressed serums are made using a ‘slow cooling’ method over a 36-hour period instead of the usual way of processing ingredients with heat. This supposedly helps to preserve the efficacy of the extracts. They also tend to have a unique texture: it starts off with a jelly-like gel-cream texture, then morphs into a liquid that gets quickly absorbed as you massage it into your face. Visually, it initially looks like a cream but appears more like an essence as you apply it.

This one, in particular, is great for all skin types, even sensitive skin. The calming cream contains iceplant extract which is rich in zinc and minerals to help boost collagen production and leave your complexion soft and fresh.

This has a top layer that is a mixture of essential oils and thalassotherapy water (a healing blend using seawater) and a bottom layer of highly moisturising cream that you can blend yourself with a spatula to activate the ingredients to ensure your skincare is fresh.

The lightweight formula delivers instant moisture, strengthens your skin’s protective barrier and plumps skin for an instant glow.

Great for dehydrated complexions, this ultra-moisturising cream soothes and smoothes fatigued and dry skin damaged by internal and external stimuli.

It contains ceramides encapsulated into fine particles so the highly concentrated ingredients can be delivered deep into the skin. This doubles the efficacy of restoring the skin barrier, and hydrates by strengthening skin’s moisture retention ability.

This also helps treat skin that is thin, rough, sensitive and dry. It promotes cell generation in skin to rejuvenate and boost the overall health of your complexion. It even has a hypoallergenic prescription and is free of 10 harmful ingredients including parabens and mineral oils which can irritate skin.

This refreshing gel-cream gives skin instant moisture while forming a protective layer over your complexion to prevent moisture loss. Formulated with Lady’s Mantle, this has antioxidant, calming and anti-blemish properties, it also helps to delay skin ageing.

Clinically proven to increase skin’s moisture by 18 per cent, it also helps to soften dry, scaly and flaky skin, while controlling excess sebum, giving you tighter pores and less oily shine. Raspberry leaf also increases skin’s resilience and acts as a relief for redness.

This energising gel-cream moisturiser not only hydrates, but also leaves tired and dull skin feeling and looking refreshed and invigorated. It has a lightweight, whipped frosty texture that absorbs quickly, giving you a smoother and softer complexion. Its Bamboo Waterlock complex combines bamboo sap and fibres, which are rich in essential amino acids and proteins, to help hydrate skin and lock in moisture.

Ophipogo Japonicus root extract calms and strengthens, while Diospyros kaki leaf extract tones and tightens pores. Paraben-free, sulfate-free and phthalate-free, it is also suitable for sensitive skin.

This is a must-have if you have dry skin or are planning on going on a winter vacation. Infused with Orchid Elixir, a key ingredient extracted from Jeju Orchids through a hot-water extraction process, it has intensive antioxidative properties to fight free radical damage and keep the complexion youthful.

This not only reduce fine lines and improve skin’s resilience, it also helps recover skin’s natural density and firmness.

Great for oily or combination skin, this hydrates while also preventing the production of excess sebum. The cream has a light, bouncy texture and leaves a cooling sensation to calm sensitive skin.

It has a non-sticky texture that gets absorbed quickly and helps to balance the complexion and control oil and sebum production. And if that’s not enough, it also has brightening anti-ageing ingredients to enhance skin elasticity, treat fine lines and leave your complexion with a soft glow.

This lightweight gel moisturiser is made with soothing and hydrating rose water. Infused with Damask rose extract grown in the world-famous rose valley of Bulgaria, this fragrant gel-cream soothes dry, irritated skin while replenishing essential hydration.

Unlike high-temperature distillation, the rose water is extracted at low temperatures and high pressure to preserve the full benefits of the rose’s active ingredients.

This fourth generation Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Cream EX is six times more concentrated than that of previous products and helps to restore skin’s natural regeneration abilities and strengthen its defence systems.

It helps to stimulate collagen and hyaluronic acid by suppressing skin-damaging elements, leaving skin looking healthy.

Its light and cooling texture provide freshness to skin which has become dull and tired from UV and environmental stresses.

Bamboo sap fermented with three flower extracts hydrates and boosts skin’s moisture retention abilities, while Aquafirm (a naturally fermented ingredient that contains Red Snow Tea from Tibetan highlands and four major medicinal Mycellium fungus) strengthens aquaporins, the moisturising protein found in the skin cells. It leaves the complexion soft, plump and dewy.

Created based on 800-year-old imperial recipes, this multi-tasking anti-ageing cream enhances skin radiance while treating wrinkles, fine lines, and dullness.

It contains three main ingredients used by the ancient Korean courts to enhance skin self-regeneration: Cordyceps (Ja Yoon Silk), deer antler collagen, and aloeswood. Together, they speed up cellular regeneration while minimising free radical damage to give you a more youthful, healthy and flawless complexion.

Text: Moh Shuying/Female