When I was first introduced to the Korean beauty world, my first instinct was to go hard or go home. Any product I could get my hands on went on my face. In hindsight, I realize I was probably my skin’s worst enemy—putting all these products on my face without actually understanding the list of ingredients and their purposes made my skin even more fragile and unresponsive to products. But that’s the thing: the skincare industry is much more complex and takes a lot of research and trial and error to find your way around it. It doesn’t help that beauty brands, in an effort to make it “simple,” end up creating more products to sell to cater to the conventional skincare routine. Enter Krave Beauty, a functional skin care brand founded by YouTuber Liah Yoo.

A few years back when I was scouring the depths of YouTube for reviews on skincare products, I happened to come across a YouTuber by the name of Liah Yoo. It was clear from the first minute of the video though that Liah didn’t approach skincare in a casual, surface level way that many of the videos on the Internet did. She went into the science of it and drew from her personal experiences to explain in an educational way, so that her viewers could actually understand what they were putting on their faces and why. Unlike makeup tutorials, skincare needs to be treated with a certain responsibility since, if done wrong, it can create serious skin issues. This is exactly how Liah, who also worked at brands such as Laneige and AmorePacific, spoke about skin issues. Videos such as “How To Treat Acne From The Inside out” and “Skincare Ingredients You Should Never Mix” populate her page and resonate with young viewers, such as myself. These are also perfect examples of content that set her aside from regular Korean beauty content we find on the internet today.

So of course when I heard about Liah launching her own skincare brand, I was excited. Finally, someone who truly understood the world of skincare and wanted to cater to the health of people’s skin instead of their wallets! Krave Beauty functions around the simple concept of less is more. Our skin is smart, it can even heal wounds, so we don’t need to feed it a surplus of products to maintain its health. Instead, what we need is to just give it the little push it needs to be able to function at top form. Unlike other beauty companies that sell you a variety of products to bombard your skin with, Krave Beauty sells you products that work with your skin while staying minimalistic. Playing right into the health trend that’s all the rage on the Internet, the brand features ingredients such as kale and matcha in the three products they have available. These three products being the Matcha Hemp Hydrating Cleanser, the Kale-Lalu-YAHA exfoliator, and The Beet Shield sunscreen. All these products are available in the United States and Korea, except for the sunscreen which is only available in Korea.

Matcha Hemp Hydrating Cleanser

This gentle cleanser is designed to cleanse your skin of all the impurities it doesn’t need while leaving your skin with a healthy pH, antioxidants, and plenty of hydration. The silver lining is that it does all of this without messing up your skin barrier. With ingredients like matcha to supply your skin with antioxidants, hemp oil with its antibacterial properties to relieve inflamed conditions, and vitamin B5 to strengthen your skin barrier, this product really does pack a punch—all while being absolutely gentle. It also doesn’t have any sort of added fragrance, so if you’re sensitive to strong scents this is perfect for you.

Kale-Lalu-YAHA

2018 has been the year for exfoliants. If you have been anywhere around any skin products this past year, you’ve probably heard of AHAs and BHAs. Despite its cute name, the Kale-Lalu-YAHA exfoliator is enriched with some seriously intense ingredients. Containing glycolic acid, the holy grail of exfoliation, it gently resurfaces skin texture to treat scarring, discoloration and signs of aging for bright and fresh skin. The kale in the product defends your skin against pollution and damage, while the vitamins and minerals in it give it the boost of energy it needs. What sets it aside from other exfoliants is that it also contains natural hydrators like aloe, hyaluronic acid and vitamin B5 that leave your skin replenished as opposed to stripped.

The Beet Shield

Sunscreen is often seen as a secondary product, one that you just sort of slap on after your skincare routine and as long as it has SPF, we don’t really complain. However, sunscreen is just as important as everything else we put on our skin. The Beet Shield sunscreen keeps this in mind, taking its formula to the next level. Rich in beetroot extract, the underdog of antioxidants, it provides hydration to the skin while protecting it from environmental damage and pollution. It also contains allantoin, which soothes sensitive skin and relieves skin irritation. And get this, it doesn’t leave a white cast.

Taking her experience from the industry and her sheer knowledge from the depth of research into the health of our skin, Liah has created a brand that speaks to us in the simplest of terms. It is for those of us who need to take a step back and be reminded that skincare is supposed to be about self care and love and not be stressful. It is also a way for those who are new to the art of skincare to ease themselves into it in a non-intimidating way. So, are you ready to #PressReset?