Q. What are some good cosmetics recommended by a researcher with 15 years of experience? 

A. Sometimes when my friends ask me what kind of cosmetics I like, I answer, “Don’t use products that are too cheap or too expensive.” Products that are too cheap are likely to use low-quality raw materials, and in the case of cosmetics that are too expensive, I’ve seen many products that are far from the manufacturing cost and are set at a price that is magic for marketing. That’s why you need to choose products that are in the middle price range.    

Q. Is there a way to check all the ingredients to see if they contain the effective ingredients I want? 

A. Check which ingredients are in the front of the full list of ingredients, and whether the efficacy ingredient you want is at the front. Since the full list of ingredients must be listed in order of content for ingredients over 1%, the first 10 or so ingredients account for more than 90% of the product. If there is an ingredient you want among them, it is expected to be contained in high content, so you can expect efficacy. The best products are those that list the content of the ingredients. These products are products that confidently prescribe the optimal content of ingredients based on papers or clinical trials, so you can use them with confidence.    

Q. What is the appropriate number of cosmetics in your opinion? 

The simple cosmetic types that we usually think of are skin, lotion, essence, cream, and eye cream, right? From the perspective of a researcher who only thinks about skin, all five types are not necessary. Skin is for skin texture management, lotion is for oil-water balance, essence is for concentrated effects, cream is for moisturizing and nutrition, and eye cream is for eye care.   

First, the skin texture-improving function of the skin actually ends at the cleansing stage. After washing your face, just pat your face dry or wipe it with a cotton pad and then apply the next step of cosmetics without delay, and the skin will have done its job sufficiently. 

Second, the oil-moisture balance function of lotion can be performed by skin, lotion, essence, and cream. 

Third, essences with concentrated efficacy are released on the market with various functions and formulations, so if you choose an essence with a function and formulation that suits you, you can finish with one. In the summer, I only use two types of essences: an anti-inflammatory and soothing essence and a whitening essence. And in the winter, I use a soothing and moisturizing essence and an anti-wrinkle essence in a concentrated emulsion type. 

Fourth, creams that focus on moisturizing and nourishing are not necessary for oily skin in the summer. This is because the sebum that explodes in oily skin in the summer is already moisturizing and nourishing. That is why creams are recommended only in the winter for oily skin. For normal and oily skin, if you have just one cream that contains the desired effects, you will not need essence. 

Fifth, eye care products are extremely commercial products made because the skin around the eyes is thinner and more prone to wrinkles than the rest of the skin. In fact, when prescribing eye creams, they do not over-prescribe functionality, but prescribe at the level of essence and cream. So if you want to care for your eyes, you can apply essence or cream to your eyes once more and do intensive care. However, if you want to fill in wrinkles around the eyes, you need an eye cream with that function.

In conclusion, when choosing cosmetics, avoid unconditionally choosing skin, lotion, essence, cream, and eye cream from the same line. I think it is best to know your skin type accurately, choose a formulation that suits it, and then choose a product that contains the functions you need within that formulation category.  

Q. I don’t need to use all 5 products. So, what is the appropriate number of cosmetics? 

A. Skin, lotion, essence, and cream can be called 'emulsion' in comprehensive chemical terms. In cosmetics, it refers to a mixture of water and oil that do not mix with each other. If we distinguish skin, lotion, essence, and cream in terms of emulsion, it is the content of the water phase and the oil phase. If you think your skin is lacking in oil, choose a formulation with a high oil phase content, and if you think your skin is too oily, choose a formulation with a low oil phase content. Sometimes, for 'dehydrated oily skin' that has too much oil but not enough moisture, we recommend choosing a formulation (skin, essence) with a low oil phase content, but reapplying it several times so that the supplied moisture is not lost. For example, in the case of dry skin that needs wrinkle improvement, I think that if you choose a thick emulsion-type essence or cream with a high oil content to sufficiently supply oil and nutrients to improve dry skin, and additionally choose a product with a concentrated wrinkle improvement function, you can have sufficient skin care with just 1-2 essence creams.    

Q. What are your thoughts on clean beauty? 

A. Each brand's blacklist regarding clean beauty is a prerequisite for designing cosmetic prescriptions, but from the researcher's perspective, the clean beauty trend is limited and also an element that hinders research. For example, let's say that an extremely effective ingredient A has been developed. What if we have to use ingredient B, which is against clean beauty, to stabilize that ingredient? From the researcher's perspective, the optimal choice is to prescribe an amount that minimizes the side effects of ingredient B in order to provide effective ingredient A to consumers. However, sometimes, when a product is labeled as "not a good product!" just because it has a reconciliation or EWG rating, it is disappointing for the researcher. It is true that consumers have more information than before, but we need truly smart consumers who can properly judge whether this information is true or false. I want to see more such smart consumers so that our researchers can invest time in research that can develop truly smart cosmetics, rather than research that has been focused on concepts that seem plausible.    

Q. What is the difference between the concept content and effective content of the main raw materials in cosmetics? 

A. The composition of cosmetic prescriptions can be mainly divided into raw materials that make up the formulation and concept raw materials that provide efficacy. Most research institutes in Korea conduct efficacy concept research and formulation research separately. The efficacy concept research team discovers efficacy ingredients and determines the effective content that can exert an effect on the skin or skin cells through evaluation, and the formulation research team studies the formulation by applying the effective content of the ingredient and then releases the product. At this time, researchers have two concerns. The first is stabilization of the effective content and the second is price. Most effective ingredients are unstable on their own, but they often make the cosmetic formulation itself unstable. Because of this, they cannot prescribe the effective content and have no choice but to reduce the content to stabilize the cosmetic formulation and then release the product. Another price aspect is that the company needs to measure the price so that it can make a profit, but since most effective ingredients are very expensive, it is difficult to apply them as effective content. Then, researchers compromise by reducing the effective content to a level that can make a profit and release the product. Many products on the market have difficulty using the effective ingredients as effective doses for the two reasons I mentioned. Nevertheless, products released with effective doses are truly excellent products. When using these products, what I hope consumers will do is recognize that the effective ingredients are prescribed as effective doses for slight changes in odor, discoloration, and separation, and be tolerant of this. Then, as a researcher, I think I will be able to focus more on the 'effectiveness of actual cosmetics'.        

Sincere Beauty, Mulgeo pursues sincere beauty. 

We develop our products based on the belief that for healthy skin, you should apply less cosmetics, but the quality of what you apply should be top-notch. All products adhere to the principle of indicating the main effective ingredients and content.   

Start your journey to genuine skincare with Mulgeo.