Why Has Cica Become K-Beauty’s Favourite Viral Skincare Ingredient?
If you have spent considerable time scrolling through Instagram looking for skincare, chances are you have seen one ingredient being talked about more times than you can count. It’s called Cica.
It is suddenly everywhere. Influencers, celebrities & skincare enthusiasts are recommending it left, right and centre. In Korean skincare, it has become a primary selling point in Korean face serums, oil-free moisturisers, barrier repair face creams, skincare products made for sensitive skin and products promising hydration, barrier support and calmer-looking skin.
But here’s what might shock you. Cica has been around longer than Instagram and a lot longer than us. Officially known as Centella asiatica, it is a plant native to parts of Asia and has been used for centuries in traditional medicine across India, China & Southeast Asia. In Ayurveda as well, Centella asiatica is known as Mandookaparni & has traditionally been associated with wound healing & skin health. It has also been consumed as a leafy vegetable in parts of Southeast Asia.
This little plant has quite the resume. It has gone by several names across cultures too like Gotu Kola, Indian Pennywort, Tiger Grass & Bua-bok.
For centuries, it was used in traditional medicine for wounds, burns and various skin conditions & that is how modern science eventually began looking at it through a different lens.
Why Is Cica Everywhere In Korean Skincare?
Korean skincare has played a huge role in turning cica into a global skincare phenomenon. The ingredient fits naturally into a philosophy that places considerable emphasis on hydration, maintaining the skin barrier & supporting skin that has been exposed to everyday stress.
And the appeal is easy to understand. Your skin is constantly interacting with its environment & when all of it compounds, it can place pressure on the skin barrier and its natural ability to maintain balance. An ingredient that has been researched for its relationship with inflammation, collagen and skin repair naturally becomes interesting in that context.
But cica is not popular simply because Korean skincare made it popular. There is actual science behind the interest.
What Does Centella Asiatica Actually Do?
This is where the story becomes more interesting than simply calling cica a soothing ingredient.
Centella asiatica contains several bioactive compounds, with asiaticoside, madecassoside, asiatic acid & madecassic acid among the most studied. Research has explored their potential influence on fibroblast activity, collagen production, inflammatory responses, oxidative stress and different stages of wound healing.
A systematic review of Centella asiatica and wound healing identified clinical studies examining outcomes including wound contraction, granulation, re-epithelialisation, erythema and wound appearance. Other reviews have looked at the triterpenes found in Centella asiatica and their potential role in collagen and extracellular matrix activity, as well as their antioxidant & anti-inflammatory properties.
This does not mean every cica serum or moisturiser will produce the same result.
And that is an important distinction in modern skincare. Two products can both contain Centella asiatica and still be completely different formulations. The source and standardisation of the extract matter, so does the concentration of its bioactive compounds, what it is combined with matters, the delivery system matters and most importantly the reason it has been included in the formula matters.
This is where skincare can move beyond the race to find the next viral ingredient because an ingredient list is not a formulation strategy. A well-designed formulation starts with understanding what the skin needs and then selecting ingredients that can work together towards that objective.
And this is exactly where Centella asiatica becomes interesting from a skin longevity perspective.
Your skin remembers everything. It is living, adaptive and constantly working to maintain itself. Every day, it encounters UV exposure, pollution, heat, environmental stress and the everyday wear and tear of life. At the same time, its natural systems are continuously working to protect, repair & recover. Over time, the balance between damage and recovery can change.
That is the premise behind skin longevity. It is not simply about making skin look younger or treating one visible concern at a time. It is about understanding the biological processes that influence how skin ages, repairs and maintains itself and finding better ways to support those processes through time.
Centella asiatica does not become a “longevity ingredient” simply because it is popular in skincare. It becomes relevant to a longevity approach because the biological processes being studied around it are relevant to how skin maintains and repairs itself.
That is precisely why we use Centella Asiatica also known as Cica across our skincare range. It is also one of the five plant-derived components of LONGÈVE BLEND™, our bioadaptive longevity composition developed as part of our approach to supporting skin resilience through time. Rather than using Centella asiatica simply because cica happens to be trending, we use it because its researched biological properties align with the kind of skin processes we want our formulations to support.
The idea with our LONGÈVE BLEND™ is not to isolate one ingredient and call it the answer. It is to understand how different botanical systems can contribute to a formulation designed around the broader needs of skin. That is also why LONGÈVE BLEND™ appears across our skincare range rather than being restricted to one hero product.
<For internal use only –> put all longeve blend products add to cart page link here>
At The Lab of Skin Longevity™, we look at ingredients through the biological processes they can support and how they work within a complete formulation. For Indian skin longevity brand Karmic Beauty, this is what longevity-led skincare means at its core. It means using globally researched ingredients and nature-derived bioactives at concentrations that make a difference, so that there is a clear reason behind every formulation. It means looking beyond what is trending today and thinking about what skin needs to remain resilient through time.
Citations
- Arribas-López E et al. A Systematic Review of the Effect of Centella asiatica on Wound Healing. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8956065/
- Sun B et al. Therapeutic Potential of Centella asiatica and Its Triterpenes: A Review. 2020. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2020.568032/
- James JT et al. Centella asiatica in Cosmetology. Advances in Dermatology and Allergology, 2013. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3834700/
- Nagoor Meeran MFN et al. Therapeutic Properties and Pharmacological Activities of Asiaticoside and Madecassoside: A Review. 2023. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9983323/
- Sun B et al. Centella asiatica and Its Metabolite Asiatic Acid: Wound Healing Effects and Therapeutic Potential. 2023. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9966672/
