These Korean Skin Treatments Are About to Take Over U.S. Dermatology Offices
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Katie BerohnFri, April 3, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC
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In-Office Korean Skin Care Treatments Are HereCastellani
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When Khloé Kardashian told me in a recent interview she’d traveled to South Korea for a suite of lasers and skin boosters, I wasn’t surprised. For those chasing good skin, it seems to be the only place that really matters, drawing 1.17 million medical visitors in 2024, often for dermatology and plastic surgery. Now many of these coveted treatments are making their way stateside. They’re best performed under a doctor’s supervision, so you can be alerted if they are contraindicated for you. Here’s a guide to some of the in-office remedies you may soon find at your local dermatologist’s office—and how they might change your skin care plan for the better.
For Tightening
Wielding a handpiece, a practitioner delivers monopolar radiofrequency (MRF) currents to the skin to help tighten, contour, and plump. In America, we know this technology best from devices like Thermage, which firms and tones—but some patients have said it feels uncomfortable. Alternative Korean MRF treatments like Everesse and XERF have become popular among some U.S. doctors. Everesse, which uses a continuous water-based cooling technology to lessen pain, delivers a wavelength that causes friction and heat to stimulate neocollagenesis—the body’s way of rebuilding structural proteins, like collagen and elastin. Employing the same wavelength, XERF uses a second frequency to reach deeper, below the fat, for a lift, says David Kim, MD, a dermatologist in New York who recently opened his new practice, Soho Derm. XERF also has a system that keeps skin from overheating (Kim says the treatment feels like a hot stone massage). The downtime for each is minimal to none. For best results, Kim recommends two treatments, three to four months apart.
For Smoothing
In Korea, there are more than 30 different wrinkle-erasing neurotoxins available, compared to a paltry six in the United States. Korean mainstay Letybo, now FDA-approved, has a low protein load and a high purity, according to Eunice Park, MD, a facial plastic surgeon in New York. She says this means that it’s less likely for someone’s system to work up resistance, a rare effect experienced by 0.5 percent of patients, according to a 2023 study published in Toxins. “[Letybo is] often used in Korea for microdosing protocols like baby Botox and glass skin,” she says. “It doesn’t have a heavy, frozen look—it has a softer profile to it.”
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For Brightening
Merriam-Webster’s 2025 word of the year was “slop,” but in the beauty world, two words reigned: “salmon sperm.” We’ve seen PDRN, or polynucleotides—the DNA derived from purified salmon sperm—make its way into sheet masks, serums, and creams. In Korea, you’re able to get it injected to stimulate collagen and encourage regeneration, for an effect that is anti-inflammatory, brightening, and hydrating, according to Kim. In the U.S., doctors only have clearance to apply it topically after a fractional laser or microneedling, but that can still have benefits, since either treatment opens tiny channels for the PDRN to swim into. “For the next four to six hours after you get some sort of fractional laser or microneedling, your skin is highly absorptive,” Park says. “It’s like a vitamin boost to the skin.” Kim explains that while you might typically be red for three days after a microneedling treatment, the addition of PDRN might mean the redness lasts for only half a day. Non-injectable PDRN may be a natural sidekick to help speed healing time from other treatments.
A version of this story appears in the April 2026 issue of ELLE.
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