This Woman's "Glass Skin" Skin-Care Routine Is Going Viral

The latest K-beauty trend has nothing to do with fun products and everything to do with the final result. Glass skin, which is the fancy name for clear, luminous, seemingly transparent skin, is taking over social media, and one person's skin-care routine for achieving the look is going viral.

Ellie Choi, an aspiring makeup artist from Los Angeles, revealed every single step of her skin-care routine on social media, and her tweets are — weirdly enough — blowing up on Instagram. My Instagram explore page is filled with reposts of her skin-care thread, and all of the posts have about 20,000 likes. Why? In the accompanying pictures, her skin looks literally poreless and dewy, just like a newborn baby's. Seriously, her complexion is as crystal clear as glass, and her skin has that natural glow to it that is similar to when I wear tons of liquid, wet-looking highlighter.

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In her series of tweets, which have been screenshotted and posted as slideshow on Instagram, Choi starts off by announcing that she has combination skin. More specifically, she's "oily in T-zone and dry around [her] cheeks." From there, she dives into where any good skin-care routine should start: cleansing.

Every night, Choi starts off by taking off her makeup with an Allure-editor favorite: Neutrogena's Makeup Remover Cleansing Wipes. She doesn't stop there, though. (That might be where you're going wrong.) From there, Choi washes her face with one of two cleansers. The more affordable option she recommends is Cetaphil's Daily Facial Cleanser, which is about $7. She also loves the $19.50 Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cleanser. Both are decent options, if you ask me. Both formulas won't strip your skin of moisture, but will remove every ounce of makeup and grime from your face.

Once her face is all washed, Choi moves onto toner. "I use Clinique toner after face wash to remove any remaining dirt and oil for that extra clean," she explains. To be more specific, Choi stocks up on the Clinique Clarifying Lotion 3. Toning is a major key that many people leave out of their routines because of old-school fears that it will dehydrate your skin. Instead, it's another way to nourish skin. Sarah Lee, the co-founder of Glow Recipe and self-professed "toner addict," recently told Allure. "The idea is to thoroughly cleanse and clarify via your double cleanse, then use a toner as the first leave-on step that hydrates and treats."

Speaking of hydration, Choi smears on a "decent amount" of moisturizer to lock in hydration after toning. Her two ride-or-die products are Cetaphil's Moisturizing Cream and Wonjin Effects's Water Bomb Cream. (The latter is a better option if you have oily skin.)

Every other day, Choi adds an extra step to the mix. After cleansing her skin, she exfoliates with Skinfood's Black Sugar Strawberry Wash Off Mask. She said it helps with her "healthy, natural glow," and she's not wrong. Both sugar and strawberry are excellent yet gentle ingredients for sloughing away dead skin cells and letting your skin shine on its own. Also, once or twice a week, Choi breaks open a sheet mask from K-beauty brand Innisfree. (They go for about $1.80 each.)

A non-product-related tip Choi finishes up on is diet. "For me, eating fried and greasy foods affects my skin," she wrote. "Make sure to drink tons of water daily! Eat more [fruit and vegetable emojis]." Eating better and drinking more H2O is always a good idea, but water isn't as magical as everyone makes it sounds. "This is one of the biggest myths in all of dermatology," Tanzi once told Allure."Drinking six to eight glasses of water does not hydrate the skin from within. Drinking water is essential for overall health, but it has very little to do with the level of skin hydration."

Regardless, Choi provided a great roadmap to glass skin. Excuse me while I overhaul my skin-care routine.

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