What we are reading, and what we are prepared to argue.
Two things live here. Our own writing about what is worth using, what is not, and what the rules actually say. And a reading list of the best writing about Korean beauty from elsewhere in the world — other people’s work, credited to them, with a line from us on why it earns your time.
Written by us
We sell some of the products named below. Assume that and read accordingly.-
The fastest improvement is usually a subtraction
Read itAdding a product is the easy move and the expensive one. Removing one is free, works faster, and is the...
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The words we are not allowed to use, and the ones we choose not to
Read itTwo lists. The first is the law. The second is the one that actually says something about us.
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Your Korean sunscreen is legal here. The confusion is American.
Read itEvery filter in the popular Korean sunscreens is on the EU permitted list. The doubt travelling around European comment sections...
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The ten-step routine was never the instruction
Read itIt described a market, not a face — and Korea started arguing with it years before Europe had finished adopting...
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What we rejected, and why
Read itThe products and whole categories that did not make it, with the actual reasons rather than a polite silence.
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Anua put a number on the bottle, and it is true
Read itA brand built on one ingredient, one product we recommend constantly, and one we would talk most beginners out of.
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COSRX has not ruined its own best products
Read itThree products from the brand everyone starts with, one of which we sell knowing we make almost nothing on it.
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Torriden is excellent at being boring
Read itThe most boring brand in the catalogue, and why that is the compliment it sounds like.
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Beauty of Joseon makes a sunscreen you will actually reapply
Read itTwo products in, several left out, and the honest state of what we can and cannot verify about the brand.
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How we choose what to sell
Read itThe ten questions every product has to pass, the ones we are still waiting on answers to, and why we...
