I’ve heard this from every makeup artist I’ve interviewed in Korea: Base makeup doesn’t start with a foundation or even a primer — it begins with properly prepped skin. At the very least, this means toner, essence, and cream. Toner sops up any dust or dirt on the skin. It also preps your complexion for an essence — which is basically a nutrient-packed skin fertilizer — and the moisturizer as your hydrating finale. Jung Saem Mool has her own line of these basics, and I am absolutely smitten with the Mool Cream , which has a consistency that melts beautifully and plumps up skin. Happy, well-hydrated skin is the first step in expressing a beautiful, even skin tone, making it so less foundation is needed in the next step.Surprisingly, this three-step process was the most awkward for me to learn. I know how to rub and pat products onto my own face, but having to do this on someone else teaches you a lot about the right way to do it. The first rule of thumb is to follow the hair growth of your face to smooth on product. This generally means swooping symmetric half-circles across your cheeks, forehead, chin, and down the nose. This is important in getting face fur to lay down flat and out of the way, a small distinction that makes a difference when using minimal amounts of foundation.When it comes to Korean makeup, if you’re not applying blush on the centers of your cheeks like Pikachu, you’re doing it wrong. Part of the rationale for this is that Korean faces often tend to be rounder and less angular, so applying blush on the apples of the cheeks and sweeping it out just looks like Nike swooshes sitting awkwardly on the face. But this doesn’t mean you can’t do this look if you don't have a round face. Applying blush just on the centers of your cheeks, right under your eyes, gives the face a romantic blush that’s softer than the contoured sweep that's currently all the rage — this gives the face a more youthful glow. Again, the slightest touch of pigment will suffice here, since having bright orbs of color right in the center of your face can only be pulled off with barely-there shading. Or by a Pokémon.With all the makeup we used, I noticed the brush was never “loaded up.” Whereas makeup application has always been about getting whatever it is on your face and then buffing and blending out, the technique here was more about building featherlight layers. So for the blush, a small tap of color was swirled on to lend the softest glow to the face.