Althea Korea

Althea Korea is an online store, launched in the mid-2010s, that sells Korean beauty products directly to consumers and ships them from Korea. Its catalogue covers the familiar K-beauty categories — cleansing oils and balms, essences, sheet masks, ampoules, cushion foundations and sunscreens — alongside its own house-label products.

A retailer belongs in a skincare glossary because where you buy affects what you actually receive. Authenticity, how fresh the batch is, and how the parcel was stored and transported all matter for products where stability is part of the point, such as sunscreens and antioxidant serums. Cross-border orders also arrive under the labelling rules of the country of origin.

That last point is worth taking seriously: an imported sunscreen may carry an SPF or PA rating measured under a different regulatory system than your local one, and ingredient restrictions vary between markets. Read the full ingredient list rather than the marketing copy, patch test anything new, and treat this entry as a description of a retailer, not a recommendation to buy from it.