Health & Wellness

The Korean Beauty Treatments a Cosmetic RN Says Are Actually Worth the Hype

April 24, 2026

If your entire skincare routine was built from whatever went viral on TikTok last week, Vanessa Lee would like a word. She’s a cosmetic RN, the founder of one of LA’s most sought-after med spas, and the woman who literally took Kim and Khloé Kardashian to South Korea for treatments they couldn’t get stateside. On GlowLab, she sits down with host Susan Yara and breaks down what Korea gets right, what the US is still catching up on, and which treatments are actually worth the hype.

The US is about 15 years behind Korea and it shows

Lee has been training with South Korean plastic surgeons and dermatologists for years, spending tens of thousands on education that most American providers aren’t getting. The difference? “In Korea, we have so much competition here that we have to be so impactful and so impressive in one treatment,” one of her Korean mentors told her. “I better be able to show my patient, here’s why I’m different from the 30 other plastic surgeons and dermatologists in this one building.” That pressure has made Korean providers incredibly efficient at stacking treatments for maximum results with minimal side effects.

Meanwhile on this side of the Pacific, Lee says, “We’re now waking up to, ‘Oh my gosh, what are our global counterparts doing?’ And we can learn so much globally. It was like an echo chamber of the US is the best in this, and like this is how we do things, and now we’re realizing we’re a little bit behind.”

Korean women aren’t getting facelifts until their 60s and 70s

In the US, the conversation around facelifts has been creeping younger and younger, with women in their 40s being told it’s time to go under the knife. In Korea, that timeline looks completely different, and Lee’s mentor credits their technology for it. “We have enough technology and sophistication of our techniques that we’re able to preserve collagen and elasticity and the face shape the correct way so that we can put the true lift off until the 60s and 70s,” he told her. As for the American approach, he was blunt: “You guys have been doing toxin, filler, nothing. Maybe a CO2 here and there. And then facelift.”

Basically, the Korean philosophy is about building and maintaining over time instead of waiting until everything falls apart and then going surgical.

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The treatments she actually recommends

If you’re expecting a list of intense procedures that leave you looking like you lost a fight for two weeks, think again. Most of what she recommends is way less scary than what’s currently trending on your feed:

The Bioglow: Sculptra placed underneath the hairline to thicken tissue and fight gravity, combined with PRFM (growth factors from your own blood) in the thinner areas around the eyes and mouth. “Not only are you going to get skin improvement all over the face…[but] people always notice there’s a glow in the skin,” Lee says.
PicoSure Pro with Korean glass skin stamping: A laser that’s been around for decades but is now 50 percent stronger in its latest version, followed by growth factors stamped into the skin for that Korean glass skin glow. Lee says with the right settings learned from Korean providers, you can see real results in one to two sessions instead of eight to ten.
Threads: Still controversial in the US, but Lee says Korean providers have been doing them safely for decades and their patients still get facelifts later with zero issues. “Patients come in and they’re like, ‘My friends told me not to do this, but I really want to do it and I know that you guys are the place to do it,'” she says.
Onda Pro: The painless fat-reduction and skin-tightening treatment Lee was fully skeptical of. “If it doesn’t hurt, then it’s probably not working,” she thought. Fifteen minutes on the back of her arms, no numbing, and she was convinced it was a waste of money. A week later she was filming a video in a tank top and noticed a visible difference. “After one treatment, you really see such impactful results,” she says. “Like an everyday person—not even someone with an aesthetic eye—is now seeing these results.”
Micro infusion: For anyone who just wants better skin without going full anti-aging mode. “It’s the easiest. There’s slim to no downtime and you’re absolutely beautiful the next day,” Lee says. “I do that for red carpet all the time.”

Obviously every face is different and what works for one person might not be the move for you. As Lee puts it, the right plan is “customized according to your natural anatomy, your heritage, your lineage. It’s not customized to whatever you want. It’s really truly what’s appropriate for you and the essence of your natural beauty.” So before you book anything based on a viral clip, find a provider who actually takes the time to look at your face and figure out what makes sense for you specifically—because the goal was never to look like someone else. It was always to look like the best version of you.

Listen to the full episode on GlowLab with Susan Yara, available wherever you listen to podcasts.