Decoded Korea

"Sulfate-free" is printed on shampoo bottles, body washes, facial cleansers, and toothpaste. The marketing message is the same one behind "paraben-free" — these ingredients are bad, and this product does not have them. We checked the two most feared sulfates — Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) — across our 10-country regulatory database. Neither one has a single regulatory restriction in any country we track. The sulfates that are actually regulated? Most consumers have never heard of them. What sulfates are Sulfates are surfactants — they make products foam and help remove oil and dirt from skin and hair. SLS and SLES are the two most common sulfates in personal care products. SLS is the stronger cleanser; SLES is a milder, modified version. The concern about sulfates is that they can strip natural oils from skin and hair, causing dryness and irritation — especially for people with sensitive skin, eczema, or color-treated hair. Th...

Retinol is probably the most recommended ingredient in skincare. Dermatologists recommend it. Beauty editors rank it above everything else. K-Beauty brands put it in serums, creams, and sleeping masks. It has decades of published research behind it. For most of that history, most countries did not regulate how much retinol a cosmetic product could contain. Canada had a limit (1.0% Retinol Equivalent), but Korea, Japan, China, the US, and the EU had none. That changed in April 2024, when the EU adopted Regulation 2024/996 and set concentration limits well below Canada's. We checked our database to see how this compares across 10 countries. What retinol is Retinol is a form of vitamin A. In skincare, it promotes cell turnover — old skin cells shed faster, new ones replace them. This is why retinol is used for fine lines, uneven skin tone, acne, and texture. It is one of the few cosmetic ingredients with clinical evidence supporting its anti-aging claims. Retinol is not a single...

Walk into any Olive Young in Korea and try to find an SPF 30 sunscreen. It takes a while. The shelves are dominated by SPF 50+ products — not because stores choose to stock them that way, but because that is what Korean companies make. We pulled the data to see how extreme this really is. Using the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) functional cosmetics product database — 189,692 product filings from 2008 to early 2026 — we looked at every sunscreen product registered in Korea and counted SPF values. The result: in 2025, 69% of all registered sunscreen products were SPF 50+. That is 2,805 out of 4,067 sunscreen filings. The numbers, year by year SPF 50+ was not always dominant. In 2013, only about a third of registered sunscreens were SPF 50+. The share crossed 50% in 2016 and has stayed above 60% since 2018. Year Total sunscreens SPF 50+ Share 2013 220 75 34.1% 2014 2,585 968 37.4% 2015 2,789 1,287 46.1% 2016 3,356 1,917 57.1% 2017 ...

"Paraben-free" is one of the most common claims on skincare packaging. It is on drugstore moisturizers, high-end serums, and K-Beauty toners. The message: parabens are bad, and this product does not have them. But if parabens are so dangerous, why has no country banned them outright? We queried our regulatory database covering 10 countries and found that not a single one prohibits all parabens. What parabens actually are Parabens are a family of preservatives derived from para-hydroxybenzoic acid. They prevent bacteria and mold from growing in cosmetic products. Without preservatives, a jar of moisturizer would become a petri dish within weeks. The most common parabens in cosmetics are Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Propylparaben, and Butylparaben. These four have been used in cosmetics for decades. There are also less common variants — Isopropylparaben, Isobutylparaben, and others — that have a different regulatory status. The concern around parabens started with a 2004 ...