K-beauty has moved beyond the skin care aisle

During a recent five-week visit to Korea, one thing became immediately apparent: While consumers overseas continue embracing K-beauty products, many Koreans have already moved on to the next step.

For years, Korea's beauty industry has been synonymous with sheet masks, BB creams and the famed 10-step skin care routine.

Those products helped turn K-beauty into a global phenomenon and cemented the country's reputation as a beauty powerhouse.

Today, however, the conversation has shifted from cosmetics counters to the country's ubiquitous dermatology clinics, where aesthetic treatments have become part of everyday beauty routines.

Scheduling a laser treatment or skin booster has become almost as routine as booking a haircut or nail appointment.

Beauty in Korea is increasingly treated less like a luxury and more like maintenance.

Instead of asking which moisturizer someone uses, friends compare lifting treatments, collagen-boosting procedures, skin booster injections and pore treatments.

Recommendations for clinics are exchanged as casually as restaurant tips, while discussions about the lat