Search for a Korean night skincare routine in English, and there is a good chance you will eventually find a version with 10 steps: oil cleanser, water-based cleanser, exfoliator, toner, essence, serum, sheet mask, eye cream, moisturizer and sleeping pack.
It is one of the most recognizable ideas K-beauty exported. It is also easy to misunderstand.
The problem is not that nobody in Korea has ever done a long skincare routine. Some people enjoy layering several products, and some nights genuinely involve more steps. The problem is treating 10 steps as the standard Korean rule.
It is not.
A more realistic way to understand Korean evening skincare is to think in terms of choices: what you wore that day, how your skin feels, what you are trying to treat and how much time you want to spend. Some nights are longer. Some are very short. The available steps are not the same thing as required steps.
First, a note about what “Koreans actually do” means here
This article is not a national survey of Korean skincare habits.
It combines my observations of everyday skincare in Korea with the way major Korean beauty retailers organize and sell products. That distinction matters because there is no single routine followed by every Korean consumer.
Olive Young, for example, does not organize cleansing as one mandatory sequence. Its cleansing section separately lists foam and gel cleansers, oils and balms, cleansing waters and milks, exfoliators, wipes and pads, and lip-and-eye removers.
That does not tell us exactly what every individual does at night. But it does show why thinking of Korean skincare as one fixed ladder of ten products is too simple.
If you have already read my morning routine guide, the same principle applies there too: Korean skincare is better understood as a flexible set of options than a fixed number of required steps.
Do Koreans really do 10 steps every night?
Not as a rule.
Even Charlotte Cho, who played a major role in popularizing the phrase “10-step Korean skincare routine” in the U.S., has since explained that the idea was never meant to mean everyone in Korea performs all 10 steps every morning and night.
The story of how “10 products” became “10 steps” is more interesting, and I will come back to that below.
For now, the most useful way to think about the 10-step routine is as a menu of possible categories, not a nightly checklist.
Step 1: Cleansing depends on what you wore that day
For many people, the most consequential part of the evening routine is cleansing, but even here, “double cleanse every night” is too rigid.
If you wore makeup, a long-wearing base or products that are difficult to remove, an oil cleanser or cleansing balm followed by a water-based cleanser can make sense. That basic pattern is what people usually mean by Korean double cleansing.
Olive Young’s current cleansing selection reflects how established both sides of that routine are. Cleansing oils and balms occupy their own category alongside foam and gel cleansers.
But the first cleanse is not automatically required simply because it is nighttime. What matters is what needs to come off your face. A simple day with little on the skin and a full makeup day do not necessarily require the same cleansing routine.
This is also why sunscreen matters to the night routine. Different sunscreen formulas and how heavily you applied them can affect how you choose to cleanse at the end of the day. I looked at that variation more closely in my guide to the Korean sunscreens that rank on Korean beauty platforms.
Step 2: Toner is an option, not an entrance ticket
The classic 10-step graphic usually puts toner immediately after cleansing. That can make it look as though the rest of the routine cannot start without one.
In reality, toner is one product category among many. Someone may use a hydrating toner because they like the feel of it. Another person may use toner pads. Someone else may skip toner and go directly to a serum or moisturizer.
Korean beauty stores carry an enormous number of toners because there is demand for them. That is not the same thing as every Korean using one every night.
This distinction sounds obvious, but it matters because international K-beauty content can easily turn product availability into routine obligation.
Step 3: Essence, ampoule and serum do not all have to appear together
This is probably where the 10-step model becomes most misleading.
K-beauty offers a lot of treatment categories: essence, ampoule, serum, booster and spot treatment. Seeing all of them listed separately makes it easy to assume they should be stacked, but they do not have to be.
A more practical approach is to ask what the product is doing. Are you using something primarily for hydration? Brightening? A specific active ingredient? A skin concern you are currently trying to address?
For an ordinary night, one treatment product may be enough for one person. Someone else may layer two because the formulas work well together. Another may skip treatment altogether.
The number is not what makes the routine Korean. The availability of different textures and treatment formats is much more characteristic of K-beauty than the idea that everyone must use all of them.
Step 4: Moisturizer can be the end
On an ordinary evening, moisturizer can simply be the last step.
Cleanse the skin, use whatever optional treatment or hydration step you want, apply moisturizer and stop. There does not have to be another product after it just to complete a Korean routine.
A sleeping pack or richer night cream can be useful when someone wants extra moisture or occlusion, but that does not automatically make it a nightly requirement. Sometimes the routine ends because your skin feels comfortable, and that is enough.
What changes on an “extra-care” night?
This is where some of the products associated with the famous 10-step routine make more sense.
A sheet mask can be an extra step. Exfoliation can be an occasional step. Toner pads might be used differently depending on the product and skin condition. A sleeping mask might replace or supplement someone’s usual moisturizer.
These products are real parts of Korean skincare culture and retail. The misunderstanding comes when occasional care is compressed into one imaginary routine performed every single night.
If someone owns an exfoliant, sheet masks, toner pads, two serums and a sleeping pack, that does not prove they use all seven tonight. A bathroom shelf shows what someone owns; it does not automatically show the order of tonight’s routine.
What a realistic Korean night routine might look like
There is no single answer, which is the point.
One evening might look like:
Cleansing oil → foam cleanser → serum → moisturizer
Another might be:
Cleanser → toner → cream
A makeup-heavy day could involve eye makeup remover, cleansing oil and a second cleanser before skincare. An extra-care night could add a sheet mask or another treatment, while someone whose skin feels irritated may deliberately simplify everything.
These are examples, not a new Korean skincare formula.
The mistake would be replacing “every Korean uses 10 steps” with “every Korean uses four.” The number is not the rule.
How “10 products” became the “10-step Korean skincare routine”
This is the part that makes the history of the 10-step routine more interesting than the routine itself.
Charlotte Cho, co-founder of Soko Glam, was one of the most influential early interpreters of Korean skincare for American consumers. Soko Glam launched in 2012, and by 2014 Cho was explaining Korean multi-step skincare to English-language beauty audiences.
In a 2014 Into The Gloss feature, Korean skincare was presented as a multi-step process involving cleansing, exfoliating, treating, moisturizing and daytime SPF. Soko Glam also published educational content around the 10-step routine during the same period.
But Cho later explained that the famous number did not begin as a command to perform 10 steps every night.
In a 2024 interview, she recalled describing to American beauty editors how friends in Korea might have around 10 skincare products sitting on their vanities.
The editors responded, “Oh, so like 10 steps?” Cho recalled, and the phrase quickly took off.
Cho went on to explain that the idea was not supposed to mean everyone should use all 10 products every morning and every night.
That distinction matters. The original observation was closer to:
“There are many skincare products and categories in regular use.”
What became famous overseas was:
“Koreans do a 10-step routine.”
Those are not the same claim.
Once the phrase became recognizable, English-language beauty media continued to formalize it. GQ, for example, later published an explicit 10-step Korean skincare routine, helping make the number itself part of K-beauty’s identity abroad.
That does not mean the concept came from nowhere. Korean beauty did offer a broader range of textures, treatment categories and layering habits than many American consumers were familiar with at the time.
What got flattened was the difference between:
“Here are many things you could use”
and
“Here are ten things Koreans use every night.”
The real difference is flexibility, not the number of steps
The useful lesson from a Korean night skincare routine is probably not how to make your routine longer. It is how easily it can change.
What did you wear today? Does your skin feel dry, irritated or normal? Are you trying to treat something specific? Do you actually need another layer?
Those questions produce a more realistic routine than counting to ten.
They also explain something broader about K-beauty.
Korean skincare has a lot of steps available.
That does not mean Koreans use all of them every night.