In the interests of transparency, nobody ever said adopting a Korean beauty regime was easy. This is one dedicated country of beauty practitioners and the sheer number of steps they go through each and every morning to anoint themselves with the required unguents could be likened to the ancient Egyptians' embalming process. But my oh my, do they have amazing skin.

Pretty much every beauty innovation of the last five years has come by way of Korea. We're talking BBs, CCs, sheet masks, treatment lotions, essences, ampoules. I could go on. As a nation they're light years ahead in elaborate skincare technology and because they've invested heavily in research to counteract the effects of environmental pollution (of which they suffer greatly), they're now at the forefront of the global battle against ageing. It's stirring stuff.

Such is the trend for Korean beauty ephemera, dedicated online beauty boutiques like KoKo have been springing up to offer us backward Europeans a slice of cutting edge Korean tech. But it's not just the products. The very notion of a multi-layered, dedicated skincare ritual (which incidentally includes the most considered approach to cleansing I've ever witnessed) is something we can all attempt to adopt at home. You just might need to get up an hour earlier.

Click the gallery above for 12 Korean beauty habits it's well worth getting into.