The US has only banned a total of 12 harmful ingredients from use incosmetics and personal care products, whereas countries like Korea have banned over 1400. But bloggers, YouTubers, and Reddit users have helped push the demand forward for safer, quality skincare in America.  Our collective ability to sniff out the difference between a sustainable brand and one just simply “greenwashing” has improved greatly. (Greenwashing is the practice of a brand presenting themselves as environmentally conscious to appeal more to the public, when in fact they are not.)

 

However, though K-beauty brands are pioneering skincare in Asia and other parts of the world, they’re still facing challenges when it comes to breaking into the American market. In part, because of a lack of vocalized understanding Western consumers and certain branding language being lost in translation stateside. For example, the term “whitening” is often misused in association with Korean skincare products that promote brighter skin. Of course, while the term “whitening”raises our serum soaked eyebrows in the West, in the context of Asian beauty, it’s just a rather awkward synonym for “brightening” and not “skin bleaching.”  A word like “whitening” is often used when selling Korean skincare products to promote a brighter skin tone more desirable to the Asian market, but in America, a word like that can raise some serum soaked eyebrows.