2023 UMMA’s K-Beauty Awards, by Skin Concerns, Skin Types, and Top Picks

Welcome to our end-of-the-year celebration of all the best Korean cosmetics in 2023!

UMMA is your favorite global K-beauty (skincare, makeup, haircare, and bodycare) wholesale supplier based in Korea that provides over 140 top and niche brands (12,000 products) to sellers in America, Europe, Africa, and all over Asia.

As a celebration of all things K-Beauty (and of course, to provide an exceptionally special discount promotion for all our sellers’ community family), we have put together the 2023 UMMA’s K-Beauty Awards event.

How We Chose Our Winners

We’ll let you in on our secret – as a wholesale supplier, we have internal insight for which Korean cosmetics products are global top sellers. We gathered our data and nominated 4-5 products according to skincare needs (skin concern and skin type). Then, we let you decide who the winner is!

After 10 days of voting, 61 product nominations for 14 categories, and 400 voters, we have come down to these 29 award winning products!

[Closed] $50 Special Discount Available for Award Winner Wholesale Supply

Offer ends December 31, 2023! Sign in for details.

Get ready for an extensive look into this year’s winners and top picks from UMMA:

Winners by Skin Concern

Best for Acne | COSRX Acne Pimple Master Patch

COSRX’s Master patch pack comes with 24 patches of three diferent sizes. This product is one of the original hydrocolloid pimple patches in the market that’s been loved by the beauty community for many, many years. It is one of the most sold and repurchased items on our wholesale ecommerce! Applied directly on active pimples, it helps heal and prevent scarring.

Best for Dark Spots | AXIS-Y Dark Spot Correcting Glow Serum Corrects & Brightens

Super affordable and gentle enough for sensitive skin, this dark spot treatment serum has gone viral and consistently selling out all year for doing exactly what it claims. It contains a golden blend of 5% Niacinamide, plant derived Squalane, Rice Bran and other natural ingredients to correct dark spots and exceptionally glow up your skin. Remember, consistency goes a long way with this product!

Best Anti-Aging | Some By Mi Retinol Intense Advanced Triple Action Eye Cream

A clinically tested eye cream that reduced dark cirlces and improves fine lines and wrinkles in just 2 weeks. Another high demand product that consistently sells out our stock! This Some By Mi eye cream contains Retinol and retinal in patented technology that delivers the two highly effective ingredients in the most optimal condition. Meanwhile, the formulation excludes 20 types of harmful ingredients to boost gentleness so even sensitive skin types can take advantage of this miracle product.

Best Brightening | Jumiso All Day Vitamin Brightening & Balancing Facial Serum

Jumiso’s products always bring a smile to the faces of those that use their products because of how effective they are at what they claim. The All Day Vitamin Serum is no exception. Containing 86% Vitamin Tree extract (known as having one of the highest vitamin content from a natural source) and 2% Niacinamide, this product will keep the dullness away and help balance out uneven skin tone to reveal a brighter, healthier skin.

Best for Glow Skin | Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum Propolis + Niacinamide

It’s nearly impossible to keep away ‘Beauty of Joseon’ with the keyword ‘glow skin’ this year. While the Relief Sun : Rice + Probiotics Sunscreen by the brand has been the topic of many, the Glow Serum : Propolis + Niacinamide is the winner of our ‘Best for Glow Skin’ category in 2023. The perfect blend of 60% Propolis extract, 2% Niacinamide, 0.5% BHA balances your skin’s oil-water balance, soothes blemishes, and hydrates the skin to reveal honey-like glowing skin.

Best for Extreme Dryness | ETUDE Soonjung 2X Barrier Intensive Cream

Consider this your Holy Grail for daily moisturizing cream. It contains Amorepacific’s exclusive SoonJung Panthensoside™ (Panthenol & Madecassoside) that strengthens skin barrier to protect and soothes irritated, dry skin. The formula is also optimized to maintain healthy skin’s pH, and excludes 10 ingrediens harmful for the skin to better suit even the most sensitive skin. This product is consistently selling out, and for good reason!

Best for Uneven Skin Texture | COSRX Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence

COSRX’s Snail Mucin Essence may be in the running for best overall K-beauty of 2023! This product really doesn’t need an introduction, and is our indisputed winner of this year’s best product for uneven skin texture. It contains 96.3% snail secretion filtrate, which is known to be one of the most exotic but highly effective skincare ingredient that moisturizes and smoothes out blemishes to reveal egg-like smooth glass skin.

Best Pore Care | Manyo Pure Cleansing Oil

Your pore care routine should always start off strong with a highly effective cleanser. Manyo’s Pure Cleansing Oil is the winner of our Pore Care category considering the results you see in melting away blackheads, excess sebum and impurities. It clears and revitalizes the skin like a clean canvas for your next skincare steps to lessen the appearance of pores.

Bonus Round 🍏 Best Vegan | Dr.Ceuracle Vegan Kombucha Tea Essence

This vegan milk tea cream-in-essence by Dr.Ceuracle is unique in appearance and user experience, and also highly effective in what it claims. Much like a vegan lifestyle, this product claims to detoxify the skin with 78% Vegan Tea Complex and probiotics. It purifies and revitalizes the skin by adding the proper hydration and nutrients, while balancing out oil-water and impurities, leaving skin feeling soft and velvet-like.

Winners by Skin Type

Best for Normal Skin | IsNtree Hyaluronic Acid Aqua Gel Cream

Frankly, Isntree’s whole Hyaluronic Acid product line is on our top seller’s list – it’s that good. The Aqua Gel Cream was picked as the winner of best for normal skin. Although great for all skin types, this gel cream is the perfect addtion to your daily routine for moisture restoration without any heavy or sticky aftermath.

Best for Combination Skin | BANILA CO Clean It Zero Cleansing Balm Revitalizing

Banila Co’s Clean it Zero cleansing balms are each catered to specific skin types. While the original still stand strong as a hero product, the Cleansing Balm Revitalizing has won the hearts of voters that picked it as best for combination skin. The serbert-like cream-balm cleanser flawlessly removes even the heaviest of makeups and removes excess sebum and impurities while restoring moisture balance.

Best for Dry Skin | COSRX Hyaluronic Acid Intensive Cream

Another win taken by COSRX, this Intensive Cream was picked best for dry skin. The unscented soft cream formula absorbs quickly and goes well under makeup. It contains 3,000ppm of Hyaluronic Acid and 57% Vitamin Tree fruit water to deliver deep moisturization, leaving skin looking plump and youthful.

Best for Oily Skin | SKIN1004 Madagascar Centella Ampoule

This is the Centella Ampoule that changed the game for all centella products. Each bottle contains 100% pure extract of Madagascar Centella Asiatica, which is claimed to have 7 times the active power compared to other regular centella ingredients. A claim backed by thousands of reviews resulting in immediate calming and hydrating effects, as well as long term skin smoothing and oil balance effects for acne-prone skin.

Best for Sensitive Skin | Pyunkang Yul Moisture Cream

Pyunkang Yul has been a quiet winner globally for quite some time now for its herbal formulations that are perfect for those with sensitive skin. Of the many great candidates, the Moisture Cream is a simple, clean, and highly effective moisturizing solution with all of the gentleness. Packed with Barberry Root extract, Coptis Root, other natural ingredients, the condensed yet non-sticky formula is not watered down by any added water.

UMMA’s Makeup Picks of 2023

Best Concealer | Thim Skin Cover Concealer Duo

Thim is an up-and-coming niche Korean brand that delivers practical products in innovative packaging and collector’s chic design. The best things about the Skin Cover Concealer Duo is that it is portable, and you have two options for coverage. The creamy stick concealer easily hides dark spots and focus areas that need a thicker coverage, while the liquid is useful for larger areas of the face you wish to highlight. We have added this product to our list of Picks for its uniqueness, practicality, and affordability.

Best Primer | VDL Lumilayer Primer Fresh

Many don’t understand the benefits of a good primer. It prepares the skin for a smoother base makeup application by providing a thin coating to smooth out any bumps and pores, and they usually come with added skincare benefits. The Lumilayer Primer Fresh provide the perfect ‘glass skin’ base prior to foundation, a hint of pinkish luminescent undertone, plus anti-wrinkle benefits. If you have not yet considered one, this is a great beginner primer to start with.

Best BB Cream | Missha M Perfect Cover BB Cream SPF42 PA+++

A scent of luxury washes over you as you apply this globally best selling BB Cream of many years. The 3-in-1 BB Cream provides skincare benefits, sunscreen protection, and smooth base makeup coverage that seamlessly blends into the skin. With Missha’s BB Cream, you can reapply without the fear of caking or flaking. And with the added skincare ingredients, such as collagen, peptides, ceramide, and hyaluronic acids, it actually helps moisturize your skin with every application.

Best Cushion | Amuse Dew Jelly Vegan Cusion

Amuse has steadily become one of the most popular vegan makeup brands globally this year. The Jelly Vegan Cushion is EVE Vegan certified, and contains 43% Japonica Juice, 10,000ppm Panthenol, 10 Hyaluronic Acid and Vita 11-Complex to help your skin glow naturally from within. The mesh-type application and fine powder foundation delivers enough coverage to cover blemishes, redness and pores while maintaining skin’s dewy, translucent appearance.

Best Lip Tint | Rom&nd Juicy Lasting Tint

Skincare may take the main stage of the K-beauty scene, but we just had to make room for K-beauty makeup on our UMMA’s Picks – just for Rom&nd’s Juicy Lasting Tint. This all time steady selling 3-in-1 lip tint is constantly going out of stock! It provides a glossy effect when first applied like lip gloss, stains the lips like lip tint for long-lasting color, and the color is highly pigmented like lipstick.

UMMA’s Skincare & Hair Picks of 2023

Best Trending Hydration Serum | NUMBUZIN No.6 Deep Sleep Mask Serum

We felt it was right to mention NUMBUZIN on our list of top Picks for the year 2023, considering how suddenly and fast the brand has come up the rankings. Each number represents a skin concern it addresses, so there are many favorites to choose from according to need. But we chose the simplest yet most essential need for our top picks – hydration. The Deep Sleep Mask Serum contains 63% Iceland Glacier Water, 5 layer Hyaluronic Acid, and Niacinamide to provide your skin with its most basic need – deeply and effectively.

Best Cult Favorite Hair Treatment | ELIZAVECCA Collagen Ceramide Coating Protein Treatment

Elizavecca’s Collagen Coating hair treatment products should not be missed when mentioning Korean hair care – it’s been an absolute favorite among the beauty community for years, and continues to be a steady seller. The Protein Treatment is a wash off treatment used to recover damaged hair from various hair treatments, such as coloring, bleaching, and perm. You will see immediate improvements in texture and strength, and visible shine.

Best Overall Toner | I’m From Rice Toner

Continuing the streak for best skin smoothing and brightening toner, this global best seller needs recognition this year as well! I’m From’s Rice Toner contains 77.78% Rice extract and Niacinamide, which work wonders together, such as providing deep hydration, protecting the moisture barrier, softening the skin to eliminate dead skin cells effectively, delivering active nutrients your skin needs to purify and rebalance, and leaving skin with a luminous soft glow.

Best Value for Cost Sunscreen | Active NIne Intensive UV Shield Airy Sun Soothing Essence SPF50+PA++++

You will not find a Korean sunscreen in any market packed with so much value at such a low cost! The Airy Sun Essence is a lightweight sunscreen that absorbs quickly without greasiness or white streaks. It provides a soothing moisturization with 60% moisture ingredients, such as Allantoin and Aloe Vera, and has natural cooling ingredients to prevent skin aging from heat (Soothing Cooler*).

Best Foam Cleanser | SKIN1004 Madagascar Centella Ampoule Foam

Just like the Madagascar Centella Ampoule, the foam cleanser is a perfect match for those with acne-prone, oily skin types. Many mistaken excess oil needs to be stripped completely to solve their oily skin problem – but it is important to leave essential skin oil and barrier in tact while cleansing so as not to over-cleanse and make the problem worse. A little goes a long way with this dense foam cleanser. The lather gently cleanses while maintaining skin’s healthy condition.

Best Daily Cream | The Face Shop Rice Ceramide Moisturing Cream

*[Alert] Overlapping giveaway event ongoing: Claim an additional product (5+1)with the purchase of 5ea The Face Shop Rice Ceramide Moisturizing Cream (Read details on this blog)

Rice has always been a popular skincare ingredient, so there’s a lot of competition, and The Face Shop has always been a top player for many years. The Rice Ceramide Moisturizing Cream contains all the great natural ingredients to restore and retain your skin’s natural moisture barrier, suche as Rice Bran Oil, Rice extract, and Ceramide. All of the richness with none of the stickiness or irritation, this is the perfect addition to any routine needing a daily moisturizer.

Best Redness Relief Toner | I’m From Mugwort Essence

The unique refreshing scent of Mugwort Essence works like magic on acne-prone and red, irritated skin. Ideal for oxidizing and detoxifying skin cells, the essence has a very high repurchase rate. The beauty community loves using this essence as a replacement for tea tree oils that may be too harsh for their skin. All of the gentleness and all of the redness relief is why we chose this Mugwort Essence to be on our list of top Picks.

Best Breakout Prevention | NEEDLY Daily Toner Pad

The NEEDLY Daily Toner Pad has quickly become one of the top steady sellers that everyone with any skin type needs in their skincare routine. This toner pad has changed the toner pad game for all brands – that’s how great this product is! It contains a perfect balance of BHA and PHA for gentle exfoliation to soothe and smooth out irritation, blemish, and pores. After wiping or longer application when used like a sheet mask, you will see the significant difference it makes for the rest of your skincare routine.

Best Multipurpose Toner | The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution

If you know you know. This multi-purpose toner goes on body, face, and scalp to even out skin tone and texture, and even reduce odor under the arms! While, yes, The Ordinary is a Canadian brand, we can’t help but love and acknowledge the magnificence of a multi-tasking skincare created brilliantly. Bring out your natural, healthy glow.

Best Snail Mucin Vegan Alternative | Mixsoon Bean Essence

It’s hard not to keep rooting for Mixsoon’s Bean Essence to out rank COSRX’s snail essence as the vegan alternative. The mucin-like texture is incredibly unique, considering the ingredient that provides this experience comes from fermented soybeans(25%). Blended together with other natural ingredients, like Pomegranate, Barley, and Korean Pear Juice ferments, this essence will gently dissolve dead skin cell, reduce blackheads, and reveal egg-like smooth, plump, and glowing skin.

Take advantage this promotion to stock up on these of the Award Winners for the holiday season & New Year! Offer ends December 31, 2023 KST.

For more details of the promotion, sign in and click on the main giveaway banner on the homepage.

Why Choose UMMA?

UMMA powered by Craver. is one of the largest global K-Beauty supplier in South Korea, with 8 years of experience in global distribution and curation of K-beauty. We hand-pick only the best and trending brands and products for you to source from, so you can skip the time-consuming research, sourcing, and delivery waiting.

In fact, we provide an even faster delivery service, called u-quick. This is how it works: we stock up on 2000+ best selling products in high demand around the world, and we ship them within 48 hours of confirming your order. These products can be found when you use the ‘view u-quick’ filter.

Furthermore, we provide a cash back loyalty program with UMMA points (1 UMMA Point = 1 USD) for every purchase according to membership status to continuously support the growth of our members.

Lastly, we work hard (we really do!) to provide 1:1 sales and customer service, source products requested from you, and a plan a multitude of promotions for you to experience various kinds of dedicated support from us.

If all of this sounds like a good opportunity for you, don’t hesitate to join our K-Beautiful family now. For more details about our service, check out our FAQ page.