Skin Grocer Blog · No. 03
The Routine Issue
The Korean 10-Step Routine Is Dead
Nobody in Seoul is doing ten steps on a Tuesday. What replaced it is shorter, cheaper and far better suited to a woman with a job, kids and four minutes — here's the structure, and the two steps most people should delete.
Written by The Skin Grocer Team — Fortnight of 6 July 2026
How many steps do you actually need?
Four, most nights. Cleanse, hydrate, treat, seal — plus sunscreen in the morning. The ten-step routine was a Western retelling of a Korean marketing era that Korea itself moved past years ago; the current domestic conversation is about 'skip care' and 'skin minimalism', with multi-function products replacing single-function ones.
The reason isn't laziness — it's that more steps means more chances to irritate. Every additional product adds preservatives, fragrance, surfactants and actives that can interact. The most common skin problem we see in customer emails isn't dryness or acne. It's a barrier wrecked by too many products used too often, which then gets treated with another product.
The two steps most people should delete first: the second exfoliant, and the essence that duplicates a serum you already own. If you're using an acid toner and a scrub and a retinoid, you have three exfoliating steps and a compromised barrier. If your essence and your HA serum are both watery humectants, you're paying twice for one job.
What's worth keeping when you do have time: a proper oil cleanse at night if you wear sunscreen and makeup (and you should be wearing sunscreen), and an occasional mask. Those are additions with a clear purpose. Everything else has to justify its place.
TORRIDEN
Dive In Soothing Cream
One cream that hydrates, soothes and seals — the multi-function step that lets you delete two others.
⭐ Why we picked it
- —Low-molecular hyaluronic acid plus centella in one step
- —Light enough for humid nights, sufficient for most skin in winter
- —Fragrance-free, so it doesn't compete with anything else in the routine
Skip care / skin minimalism: what Korea already knows
Korea
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Australia
🔥🔥 catching on
- What is it?
- A Korean shelf philosophy rather than an ingredient: fewer, better products, each doing more than one job. Toner-essence hybrids, cream-serums, cleansing waters that skip a step. It's the direct commercial response to the ten-step era.
- Why Koreans love it
- Time, money and irritation, in that order. It also suits the way Korean women actually shop — high repurchase of a small number of trusted staples rather than a rotating cast of new heroes.
- Should Australians care?
- Especially here. Our climate swings hard between a dry, air-conditioned winter and a humid, high-UV summer, and a bloated routine is far harder to adjust than a four-step one. Fewer products also makes it possible to identify the culprit when something goes wrong — which is impossible with eleven.
Try it
ROUND LAB
1025 Dokdo Toner + Lotion Special Set (200ml + 200ml)
Two steps, one purchase, both fragrance-free.
A$45
TORRIDEN
Dive In Trial Kit (Global)
A whole minimal routine in travel sizes before you commit.
A$35
TORRIDEN
Balanceful Cleansing Gel
One cleanser that handles most days without a double-cleanse.
A$34
If your skin is feeling…
🧼 Over-cleansed
TORRIDEN
Balanceful Cleansing Gel
Replaces a stripping foam. If your face squeaks, that's damage, not clean.
🧪 Too many actives
TORRIDEN
Dive In Serum
The rest week product. Pure hydration while your barrier recovers.
🕖 No time
ROUND LAB
1025 Dokdo Lotion 200ml
Hydrate and moisturise in one pass. Ninety seconds, done.
🌡️ Humid summer
S.NATURE
Aqua Oasis Moisturizing Gel
Swap your winter cream for this and delete a step until March.
🛏️ Late nights
TORRIDEN
Dive In Mask Pack 1pc
The whole routine in one sheet when you genuinely cannot.
One product per concern. Not seventeen. That's curation.
The “I can't be bothered” routine
The four steps, in order, with the reason each one earns its place. Delete anything that isn't on this list until your skin is calm.
01 · Cleanse
Once at night. Add an oil cleanse first only if you wore sunscreen and makeup.
TORRIDEN
Balanceful Cleansing Gel
02 · Hydrate
Onto damp skin, within a minute of washing. This is the step that does the most.
ROUND LAB
1025 Dokdo Toner 100ml
03 · Treat
One active, some nights. Not three, not nightly, not while your skin stings.
TORRIDEN
Dive In Serum
04 · Seal
Cream at night; SPF instead in the morning, over a lighter moisturiser.
TORRIDEN
Dive In Soothing Cream
Four products used every night beat eleven used when you can face it. Consistency is the active ingredient nobody can sell you.
Building a routine around a life, not the other way around
Design the routine for your worst evening. If it survives a 10pm finish with a sick kid, it'll survive everything else. That usually means three products within arm's reach of the sink, not a shelf of jars in a cupboard.
Keep sunscreen where you get dressed rather than in the bathroom — the most-skipped step in Australia is skipped because of the walk back down the hall. Small logistics beat willpower.
If you're in the second act — kids grown, more time and budget, and your face is finally the priority — the temptation is to buy a big routine at once. Don't. Add one product a month, in this order: sunscreen, moisturiser, hydrating layer, then a single active. You'll know exactly what worked.
And take a photo in the same light every four weeks. Skin changes slowly enough that memory is useless, and a photo is the only honest way to tell whether that serum is earning its place.
Read the full guide →3 weeks with ROUND LAB 1025 Dokdo Lotion 200ml
3 weeks, two testers, morning and night
- Absorption
- 9/10
- Under SPF
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Dry skin in winter
- ⭐⭐⭐
- Value per ml
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Our verdict
“The clearest step-deleter we've tested: hydration and moisturiser in one, no fragrance, no pilling under sunscreen. Very dry skin will still want a cream at night on cold weeks. Everyone else can genuinely drop a product.”
The Skin Grocery Basket — For a four-step reset
TORRIDEN
Balanceful Cleansing Gel
Stop stripping.
A$34
ROUND LAB
1025 Dokdo Toner 100ml
Water in.
A$18
TORRIDEN
Dive In Serum
The one treat step.
A$38
TORRIDEN
Dive In Soothing Cream
Seal and soothe.
A$40
What should we simplify next?
- ADo I really need to double cleanse?
- BMorning routine: how short can it get?
- CWhich products can I safely layer together?
- DSheet masks — worth it or landfill?
Tell us which one to dig into next. We actually read them — and the answers become the next issue.
Send us your question