South Korean women are obsessed with flawless skin. They use about 18 skincare products daily at an expense of about $130 a month. The demand for flawlessness, which indicates noble lineage, has propelled development of new treatments, such as lasers and photo facials. In fact, laser treatments in Korea are so common that they now cost 80 percent less than in the United States. Beauty guru Mary Schook, in the May 2011 issue of Marie Claire, says that “In the skincare world, South Korea has become the new France.”

You can walk into a Korean drugstore and find at least 15 versions of an over-the-counter cream just as potent as expensive department store counterparts in the United States. “Blemish Balm Cream,” better known as “BB Magic,” an all-in-one tinted moisturizer, zit zapper, sun protectant and antiaging treatment, used by Korean women for the past four years, is starting to show up on web sites catering to Americans.

According to Schook, the Korean’s greatest innovation is stem cell media skincare. Koreans use actual extract of stem cells from adult bone marrow and excess body fat tissue in their creams, rather than the synthetic stuff you see in most Western products. Schook is now selling a regimen called “Beaucell” that she swears takes years off and “basically makes your face look like it’s had fat injections.” It doesn’t come cheap, but what price beauty? A 6-week supply of Beaucell costs $2,000.

But at that price, you might do better to invest in injectables like Restylane or Juverderm or autologous (your own) fat injections. According to a recent position statement by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, “Scientific evidence for the safety or efficacy of stem cell therapies in aesthetic medicine is very limited, and marketing is pushing too far ahead.”