Every culture that has spent long enough thinking seriously about skin has arrived at a slightly different answer, shaped by climate, history, regulation and what each culture has simply decided beauty is for. This is the hub for a growing series looking at national and regional skincare traditions properly: the genuine cultural norms, the history behind them, and, as always in this Library, what the evidence actually supports once the folklore and the marketing are set to one side.
We are building this series one country at a time, in proper depth rather than as a quick, superficial comparison list, which means it will grow slowly and stay incomplete for a while. That is a deliberate choice: a genuinely useful look at Japanese, Korean, French, Indian or Moroccan skincare traditions, to name a few we intend to cover, deserves the same fully referenced treatment we give an individual ingredient monograph, not a single paragraph in a listicle. Below is what exists so far, with more added as each piece is properly researched and written.
Japan
Sun avoidance as the real anti-ageing routine, a regulated “quasi-drug” category most other countries have no equivalent for, the actual origin of double cleansing, and an honest look at some of the more unusual traditional practices, including one involving nightingale droppings.
Journal · Skincare
Japanese Skincare: The Cultural Norms and the Evidence Behind Them
Suppin, bihaku, sun avoidance, nuka, tsubaki oil and the geisha facial, properly researched and referenced.
What’s coming next
Korea, France, India and Morocco are all on the list, each for a genuinely different reason: Korea for its distinct regulatory and product-development culture, and for popularising double cleansing internationally even though the format itself began in Japan, a distinction that piece will make properly; France for its pharmacy-led, dermatologist-first approach to skincare; India for Ayurveda’s centuries-deep formal tradition; and Morocco for argan oil and hammam culture, among others still to be decided. If there is a specific country or region you would like covered, we are always taking suggestions.