by: Cai Maroket
The Korean Wave, or Hallyu, is all the rage and the hype can be felt across the globe, from their pop music to television shows to designer fashion. Undeniably one of their biggest exports, though, are Korean beauty products, or collectively more commonly referred to as K-beauty by its loyal followers.
What used to be considered cult favorites by the beauty elites and the K-culture obsessed are now becoming mainstream thanks to blatant product placements in popular Korean dramas and the many online stores that have begun stocking up and reselling. Alongside this surge in interest are YouTube content creators who focus solely on reviewing Korean products to help educate the masses and, at the same time, build awareness on the wonders of K-beauty.
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It was a cloudy Saturday when I got the chance to meet up with Liah Yoo, a Korean beauty YouTuber with over 140,000 subscribers who is known for her detailed reviews of a wide range of Korean beauty products. She visited the country to do a meet and greet with her subscribers and arrived in Manila the night before, after a trip to California where she was invited as a guest speaker to participate in Los Angeles KCON, a convention dedicated to celebrating all things related to Korean pop culture. Despite being jet lagged, she arrived at the cafe looking fresh—something expected, considering her beauty know-how. With how the US embraced K-culture amazingly, I just had to ask her about her KCON experience.
“It was crazy and really fun. The crowd was crazy and people would line up for hours and hours just to take pictures with us, so it [YouTube work] was very rewarding,” she said with a smile. “As a freelancer or as a YouTuber, you don’t really have a team, you don’t have a colleague…you pretty much work on your own and you really don’t know who’s beyond the screen so just meeting them in person was very refreshing.”
BEAUTY BEGINNINGS
A quick look at her YouTube channel can show you that she’s really passionate about what she does—enough for her to decide to pursue YouTube content creation full-time. Most people in the beauty industry share that their beauty habits are heavily influenced by their upbringing, usually citing their mothers and grandmothers as inspiration. It’s not the case for Liah, who says that her mother was the type to stick to the bare minimum. “It’s actually funny because now I teach my mom how to use brow products or Korean cushion foundations,” she says with a laugh.
So how did she find herself in the beauty industry with thousands of subscribers hanging on to her every word? Where did it all begin? “I went to an all-women’s university and there were so many cosmetic shops on the way to school. I would just stop by the stores and randomly try out stuff and I think that kind of developed into my hobby or another passion of mine.”
Despite having been on YouTube for around four years (her very first video is a now-deleted review of Lush products), it wasn’t something she expected to be her main source of income. She didn’t even take up cosmetology in college. “I was actually studying Architectural Design in university and was really passionate about what I was studying…but at the moment I was about to graduate and look for a job, I found out that being in the design field in Korea could be really, really challenging because it doesn’t pay well,” she shares candidly. “You have to dedicate pretty much your entire life because they’ll try to make you work 24/7 and I wasn’t really ready for that.”
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This realization led her to exploring her options, which ultimately led her to pursuing her passion for Korean beauty and landing a job at Amore Pacific, one of the biggest cosmetic companies in South Korea that owns brands like Aritaum and Innisfree. Liah’s experiences under Amore Pacific only strengthened her interest in the beauty industry, having been exposed to the ins and outs of the trade, from business and product development to marketing. Her main takeaway from her time there? “Skincare is really, really important to Korean women, so a lot of people really invest hundreds and hundreds of dollars buying skincare products that they will repurchase over and over again. But Korean women are always on the hunt for a better product!”
LIFE ON YOUTUBE
When her YouTube channel picked up traction, Liah had to decide which one to focus on. In the end, it was content creation for YouTube that felt like her true calling, not to say that she didn’t love her two years at Amore Pacific. “It was a good time in my life. If I didn’t do Youtube, I would still be there.”
Now with more than 140,000 subscribers and more brands reaching out to collaborate with her, the sky’s the limit for Liah Yoo. Content-wise, all her videos, whether they be travel vlogs or makeup tutorials or the most random things, are warmly received and ideas are endless. “I always have no time to film all of my ideas, actually. So it’s always flowing inside. I just can’t find enough time to do everything.”
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But more than anything else, it is her product reviews that really pique the public’s interest. “There’s a million different products out there, which means you get at least a thousand different ideas. A lot of people are subscribed to my channel because they are interested in finding out my opinions on new product releases in the Korean market. They always ask me to review products when they launch, so through communicating with my subscribers, I kind of developed the entire concept of my channel as more of a reviewer rather than a makeup artist.”
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A QUICK Q&A WITH LIAH YOO
What are the most important beauty rules for you?
Cleansing! I do four cleansing steps. I’m very obsessed with skincare in general but when it comes to cleansing, I’m very strict about it. I never go to bed with makeup on even if I come back home at 6AM or whatever. I would make sure my makeup is removed. First is eye makeup remover, and then I use cleansing water to just remove all the base makeup. Then I use a cleansing oil to remove all the residue and then, lastly, I use a cleansing device with any foam cleanser.
Using any type of mask is something I firmly believe in. I don’t use it every day…every other day at most, except when I travel because my skin can get really sensitive over the weather changing. So I always use sheet masks by the end of the day whenever I’m traveling, no matter what.
Less is more when it comes to everything, I guess. I know my cleansing routine is very extensive but in terms of moisturizing…well, a lot of Korean women use up to 12 different skincare products at once. I piled up so many different serums and used up a lot of active ingredients at the same time when actually, all you need is to hydrate yourself. Hydrate your skin really well.
You’ve lived in both the US and South Korea. What’s the biggest difference you’ve noticed when it comes to western and Korean beauty habits?
In terms of makeup, Western women in general prefer matte foundations. They want full coverage…really made up, whereas a lot of Koreans prefer having a natural glow, like a no makeup makeup look.
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Americans go really, really heavy with contouring. Koreans don’t really call it contouring. We just call it ‘shading,’ so it’s actually just creating a shadow on the outer line of your face. So it makes you look like you have a smaller face, and having a smaller face is very desirable in Korea for some reason. And Koreans wouldn’t do chiseled cheeks that Americans do. We would only contour our noses, like the side of the nose bridge, and also the edges the face, especially the jawlines. Koreans love sharper jawlines.
Any skincare products you’ve never heard of but got surprised by when you were sent their products?
Cosrx is one of them. They send me heaps of products and I’ve only heard of them from my Korean-American friends, actually. I like what they’re doing with their skincare because they’re very straightforward and also they don’t put artificial fragrances in it. They target sensitive skin and problematic, acne-prone skin.
Holika Holika was one of the brands that I wasn’t that interested in and I didn’t really go out to Holika Holika stores and buy, but they started sending me stuff and I was really impressed by their makeup products.
Who is the Korean beauty icon you look up to?
Kim Hee Ae. She’s actually an older actress and she’s the face of SK-II in Korea. Her skin is just timeless. She doesn’t look like she aged at all. She’s around 50-years-old but she looks so young, especially her skin. So poreless and so firm. I would love to age gracefully like her.
If you were to stick to just three makeup products, what would they be?
For base makeup, a BB cushion. I really like the results of a liquid foundation but I guess with cushions, what’s attractive is that it makes your makeup routine so much shorter and fuss-free, so you can basically do your base makeup in under 3 minutes. A brow product, because you can actually use a brow product for your eyes, and false lashes.
How about skincare?
A really good hydrating serum and a really good moisturizer because even though I have oily skin, moisturizing is essential for any skin type. Also a boosting essence, which is a water-type product.