Skin Care
Buy and sell skin care in Costa Rica.
Korean skin care has a following of its own in Costa Rica, and it is sold the Korean way, one step at a time: a cleansing oil, a foam, a toner, an essence, a serum, a cream. Plenty of people start with the whole routine and end up keeping three of the steps, and the rest, often still sealed, are what turn up here alongside sheet masks, eye creams and the moisturiser bought for the wrong skin type. New and pre-owned both appear. With anything that goes on the face, what counts is a printed date, an unbroken seal and a seller who says when an opened bottle was first used.
Cleansers, toners, serums and creams, in the order they go on:
most routines here follow the Korean sequence, so the steps are worth knowing before you buy any of them. A cleansing oil or balm goes onto dry skin first and a foam or gel cleanser follows it, the double cleanse. Toners and essences are the watery layer that comes next. Serums and ampoules are the concentrated step, sold in small dropper bottles, and a cream or a lighter gel cream closes the routine, with eye cream as a small tube of its own. Sheet masks come one to a sachet; wash-off and overnight masks come in tubs. Body lotions and butters have their own shelf under body creams and lotions, and daily sun protection and self-tan sit under sunscreen and self-tanners.
Gel cream or rich cream, and the acid toner left nearly full:
buy by texture and skin type, one step at a time, rather than a whole routine at once. Oily and combination skin tends to get on with gels and watery essences; dry skin wants a thicker cream or a balm, and a balm that suits dry skin will feel greasy on an oily face long before the day is out. Exfoliating toners with acids and serums with retinoids are the strong end of the shelf, and they are also the bottles people put away after a few nights, which is why so many turn up second-hand barely touched. When a listing says which skin type something was bought for, read that line before the price.
A Korean serum and what it is worth once opened:
a serum, ampoule or cream from a Korean line runs around ₡10,000 to ₡17,000 new in Costa Rica. Sealed, and with its date well ahead, one can fairly ask a good part of that, because it is the same bottle the shelf sells. Once the seal is broken most of the value goes: a dropper that has touched a face and gone back into the bottle cannot be checked by anyone, so an opened serum is something to pass on cheaply to a buyer who knows what they are getting, not a way to get the money back.
A vitamin C serum that has turned orange, and other signs on the bottle:
vitamin C serums start pale and darken with air, light and heat. A light gold after opening is normal; a deep orange or brown means it has gone. A sheet mask sachet should feel full of liquid when you press it, and a flat, dry one has leaked. On the box, look for a printed expiry or manufacture date, the small open-jar symbol that gives the months of use after opening, and the name and address of the company that made it. Popular Korean products are copied, and the copies give themselves away with blurred print, spelling mistakes on the box, a smell or texture that is not quite right, and often no date at all. A sealed bottle offered for a price that makes no sense for a new one is the other warning.
The unopened steps of a routine you gave up on:
list them one by one rather than in a bundle with the opened bottles, because the sealed ones are what buyers come for. Photograph the date and batch code on each box, and for anything opened, say roughly how much is left and when you started it. Mention the skin type you bought it for and why you stopped, too drying, too heavy, a scent you did not like, because the next person is choosing on exactly that. Keep everything boxed and out of the sun while the listing is up: a buyer coming in from San Ramón for a vitamin C serum will tip it towards the light to check the colour before handing over any money.