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our buying guides
Welcome to our buying guides! We're here to help you make informed decisions while shopping and provide you with the knowledge to confidently explore the brands we know and love. With our guides, you can discover what sells out quickly, uncover the unique characteristics and special ingredients of each brand, and even find out what has made certain brands famous. Remember, knowledge is power, and we're here to empower you to make the best choices for you.
INNISFREE SKINCARE & COSMETICS: ESCAPE TO THE ISLAND!
innisfree is the number 1. beauty brand in Korea (amid stiff competition), so you know they’re doing something right! Despite its popularity, the brand remains true to its core mantra: affordable skincare using sustainably sourced ingredients of the highest quality. Innisfree uses natural materials from the pristine volcanic haven of Jeju Island, famed for its purity and efficacy.
acure: clean beauty that delivers
100% vegan, 0% pretentious. That's the motto of straightforward American brand Acure Organics. All of its products are formulated with 100% natural ingredients, without any parabens, sulfates, mineral oil, formaldehyde or PEGs. And the best thing about Acure? The brand knows it's not enough to be natural: it also has to work. Acure's ranges have been designed to produce results, taking your skin and hair from blah to brilliant.
COSRX: THE ‘PAULA’S CHOICE’ OF KOREA
The creator of theOG Pimple Patch(which acts like a magic want to make zits disappear overnight) and the belovedAdvanced Snail Mucin 96 Power Essence(raved about by Emily Ratajkowski), it's hard to go wrong with COSRX.
UPCRICLE SKINCARE: OUT OF THE DRAGON'S DEN AND INTO YOUR BATHROOM
This, young, award-winning U.K. brand is making recycled beauty sexy! UpCircle Beauty is a pioneer in the by-product beauty industry. Its vegan and cruelty-free skincare products are handmade in small batches, using perfectly good, skin-loving ingredients discarded by other industries. For instance, UpCircle has saved over 350 tonnes of coffee grounds from landfill alone! But that's not the only reason to try their range: do it for the excellent results and reviews.
DEAR KLAIRS: THE MOST SOUGHT AFTER BRAND ON WISHTREND – AND HERE’S WHY
Simple but enough. Basic but ultimate. Mild, but powerful. That's the Klairs philosophy. This cruelty-free and eco-friendly Korean skincare powerhouse creates clean, high quality and functional formulas that work with even the fussiest of skin types.
LILY LOLO MAKEUP: THE OG CLEAN COSMETICS BRAND
From Los Angeles to London (and now Australia and NZ), British award-winning green beauty brand Lily Lolo is taking over the world! Cruelty-free, clean and ethically produced, it's become one of the most sought-after mineral makeup brands because of its flawless and skin-friendly application. And let's not forget its inclusivity! 90% of Lily Lolo’s range is vegan and its holy grail mineral foundation comes in no less than 20 shades. We stan.
KITSCH ACCESSORIES: CONVENIENCE MEETS LUXE
This female-founded US brand has been making waves around the world since 2010, thanks to simple but innovative hair accessories and beauty tools. In fact, Kitsch is especially well-known for its hair care line, with its scrunchies, headbands, clips and the like dominating the Tik Tok reels. But there's so much more worth exploring with this brand. We go through our favourites below.
Innersense beauty: For zero waste makeup fans
Your natural haircare journey starts with Innersense! This California-based, plastic-neutral brand is one of the early pioneers of clean, luxury haircare powered by organic chemistry. Expect high-quality formulas, free from parabens, silicones, sulfates, synthetic fragrances and other questionable ingredients.
Neogen: Enter the Korean pharmacy
Ahh Neogen, we love thee like a summer’s day. It's cruelty-free, innovative, affordable, doesn't contain any nasty ingredients (parabens, mineral oils, sodium lauryl sulfates or artificial colours) and best of all, works for all skin types. One of the most popular drugstore brands in Korea, Neogen uses proprietary ingredient blends to achieve your anti-ageing, clearing, hydrating and brightening goals.
BY WISHTREND: GREAT INGREDIENTS PLUS EFFECTIVE FORMULATIONS EQUALS VISIBLE RESULTS
Who is By Wishtrend? Well, it’s not just a skincare brand, but also a global K- Beauty retailer with an incredible brand curation. It has incubated Korean hall-of- famers such as COSRX, Dear, Klairs and I’m From (to name a few). Clearly,Wishtrend knows good skincare!
ABOUT pyunkang yul: Korea’s most accessible hanbang brand
Named by Vogue and E! as one of the 6 natural Korean brands worth getting to know, cruelty-free brand Pyunkang Yul is all about minimalism (how gorgeous is the apothecary-style packaging), balance and maintaining the skin's optimal temperature.
Axiology Cosmetics: For zero waste makeup fans
Creator of the world's first zero waste 3-IN-1 lip crayons with intense pigments, Axiology Beauty just gets it. All of Axiology's products are made with a max of 10 sustainably-sourced vegan ingredients, the majority of which are organic. Its boxed packaging is made from recycled waste from Balinese beaches (yes, really!) and its lipstick tubes are made from 50% recycled plastic. It's beauty that puts the planet first.
Skin&LAB: SKIN&LAB: CLINICAL RESULTS AT HOME
With a medical approach to skincare, the formulas from cruelty-free Korean brand SKIN&LAB aims to give you clinical results at home. This means derm-approved, hypoallergenic products that deliver on its promises. Central to its message is maintaining a healthy barrier no matter your skin goal - so while you're treating one skin concern, you aren't creating another in the process.
purito: back to basics
The brand’s products are designed to heal a compromised skin barrier, which is often the source or symptom of various skin conditions. From rosacea to hypersensitivity to cystic acne, barrier function is vital to skin health and infection prevention. So, think of Purito as an investment, to keep your skin healthy and glowing over the long- term.
JOURN BEAUTY
Turn your makeup into skincare with Journ Beauty! Not only does this skin-focused cosmetics brand create makeup to address specific skin issues (such as hyperpigmentation, inflammation and acne), their products are also good for your skin! Yes, that's right: Journ blurs the line between makeup and skincare by creating products that conceal but also treat and improve your skin over time.
RAEKA BEAUTY: A SOUTH ASIAN BEAUTY BRAND
Get to know Raeka Beauty, a proud South Asian brand that represents the very best of the vibrant Asian sub-continent: it's bold, colourful and inspired by ancient wisdom. This vegan and cruelty-free Texan-based brand exploded on the skincare scene a few years back, and adds a strong voice to the (woeful) lack of brown representation on the skincare scene. But let it be known that its products are for everyone! You'll love Raeka's clean, herbal formulas which marry powerhouse Ayurvedic ingredients such as tumeric, camphor and Indian Sarsaparilla with clinical favourites such as vitamins C & E.
AXIS Y SKINCARE: A BEAUTY BRAND WITH A DIFFERENCE
AXIS-Y has an edge over the competition. Yes, it's clean, vegan and cruelty-free like many other companies (feels like that should be a given these days, right?!). And yes, it has products that really work. But here's what we especially dig about it: AXIS-Y is modelled on the ever-changing climate we live in, taking into account seasonal temperatures, pollutants, stress and all the other environmental factors that can impact our skin's health.