Inside-Out Connections. A Wellness Podcast.

Korean Skincare: What do we actually need to know? With Lauren Lee

• Tracey-Anne Oxley • Season 1 • Episode 20

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Korean skincare — or K beauty — is everywhere right now, but what does it actually mean, and is it really suited to us here in Australia?

In this episode, I sit down with Lauren Lee, founder of Jelly Ko, to unpack the philosophy behind Korean skincare from a really relatable perspective. We explore why hydration is at the centre of K beauty, what women are getting wrong when it comes to skincare, and how to simplify your routine without getting caught up in trends.

We also dive into mature skin, well ageing versus anti ageing, barrier health, rosacea, skin boosters, and the growing movement towards a more preventative approach to skincare and wellness.

This is an insightful and grounded conversation for anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by skincare and just wants to know what actually matters. 

What We Cover

• Lauren’s journey from lawyer to founder of Jelly Ko
• What Korean skincare actually is and why it exploded globally
• Is K beauty suitable for Australian skin and climate?
• The biggest misconceptions women have about Korean skincare
• Why hydration is central to healthy skin
• Mature skin and what really matters as we age
• Well ageing versus anti ageing
• Skin barrier health, rosacea and overdoing active ingredients
• Korean beauty trends and skin boosters
• How stress, lifestyle and internal health impact the skin
• Why less can often be more with skincare

Where to Find Lauren

Instagram: @lauren.kbeauty
Brand: Jelly Ko
Website: jellyko.com
Podcast: The Korean Beauty Show

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SPEAKER_01

Welcome to Inside Out Connections, where we explore the link between your skin, your gut, emotional health, and your deeper sense of self. I'm your host, Tracy Ann, a wellness coach exploring what it really means to reconnect from the inside out. Today's conversation is one I've been really curious about, and honestly, one I don't know a lot about. We're talking all things Korean skincare or K Beauty. And I wanted to come into this episode not as an expert, but as someone asking the questions I know so many of you are probably thinking too. Is it actually suited to us here in Australia? And what about for the mature skin ladies? Are we overcomplicating things? And when it comes to our skin, especially as we age, what actually matters? To explore this, I'm joined by Lauren Lee, founder of Jelly Co., who has a deep understanding of Korean skincare, not just from a product perspective, but from a philosophy of how we care for our skin. Lauren, welcome to the show. Thank you very much for having me. I wanted to start with you today. From lawyer to beauty industry, when did you know you were on the right path?

SPEAKER_00

Oh God, that's a that's a tough question right off the bat. Some days I still wake up and wonder if I'm on the right path. But no, I think I've never regretted leaving law for the beauty industry. And it's just been a very gradual evolution. I was involved in the industry for the first time back in 2011 when I came on exchange to Korea. I did the last semester of my law degree here. And then it just really organically and naturally happened. And to see the growth from then to now is just mind-blowing to be honest. I was on the phone to my brother who lives in Australia yesterday. I haven't lived in Australia now for 10 years. So I go back, but I don't have a sense of what's going on in the same way that he does. And he's like, no, I saw something about K Beauty on a bus yesterday. And I was like, Well, what? It felt like an underground secret society back in 2011, and now it's really gone mainstream. So now I kind of sometimes feel like, yeah, I must have been on to something, but I I don't think I realized at the time.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, I have to admit, I've heard of it, but I just know nothing about it, which is why I'm so thrilled that you're here today. So, what first drew you into the world of Korean skincare specifically, and how did Jelly Co. come to life?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I think um the big thing for me, so 2011, if you take your mind all the way back there, it was kind of like pre-Instagram. And it was, I guess, a very different time in terms of advertising, marketing, skincare, all of that sort of thing. A lot of the brands that are really popular now didn't kind of exist. So I think it was a time, particularly in Australia, where skincare was not sexy, not cool. And it was kind of something that only the people that needed to be interested in what they put on their skin cared about it. So if you had psoriasis or eczema or rosacea or acne or something like that, then maybe you paid a bit of attention to it and everyone else just kind of was blissfully unaware. So it wasn't cool to like talk about what you were using or do a shelfie or like that all came much later. So I had to pay attention to my skin from an early age, because unfortunately, I was one of those people that had skin issues my whole life. I had terrible acne the whole way through school. So I sort of was forced into that world of like paying attention, sun care, all of that sort of thing from a really young age. So by the time I went to Korea, I was no stranger to like dermatologists, all of that kind of world. And I went in not knowing really honestly anything about the country. I ended up in Korea by accident, to be honest. I applied to go to the University of Hong Kong on exchange, and they rejected me because I'd already been on exchange a few years prior to another really popular uni. And they were like, you're taking a place away from someone else. This is a really popular university. You need to choose somewhere else if you still want to go on exchange. So I was like, okay, I don't know where to go. Um looked into all the options available to do law in English somewhere in Asia and Korea came up as an option. So I arrived, didn't know anything about anything, and was shocked to find this like entire ecosystem of stores and brands and products that I'd never heard of. And it really was kind of like falling down the rabbit hole. That's the the only way that I can describe it. I was like, what is going on here? How does this whole world exist and we don't know about it? How are there all of these, like literally, even at that stage, there would have been thousands of different skincare makeup, all of these different products and whatnot, all of these stores. I didn't recognize a single one of them walking down the street. So that was my intro to it all. Uh, and I think my mind was just officially blown. I tried the products and it's just not anything like what we're doing in Australia. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And I know that their masks are huge, right? You can just have the most plump, dewy skin from a mask that you've worn overnight.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I feel like the Korean beauty philosophy, that was my intro to that, and learning about hydration and the differences between how they take care of their skin and how we take care of our skin. At the beginning, when K-Beauty was really taking off, there was a lot of focus on the steps of the routine. This is cleanser, then toner, then essence, then serum, then, you know, all these different steps, and learning what they all did, what they all meant. But then one of the things that I realized after having worked in the industry for so long is that the fact that there were apparently all these steps that people needed to follow, which isn't technically true, but that's how it was being marketed. A lot of people found that very confusing. And it was a barrier to people actually wanting to try the products because they were like, I don't know what I'm doing. It's all in another language. This is too confusing. I'm out. So when we actually launched our brand, that was one of the things that we didn't want to do. We didn't want to make it confusing. We didn't want to make it like you need all of these products, and if you don't use them all, it's not gonna work. We wanted to really just strip it back to like the essence of what Korean Beauty is all about and make it very approachable for people of all different ages. Uh, and I think that the thing that has surprised us probably the most is the age of the people that use our products. They tend to be a lot older than we were originally thinking. We have a lot of really loyal customers, pretty much from their mid-30s even into their 80s. So a lot of older women with much more mature skin. And I think that that's one of the things they like about our brand is that it's easier for them to understand. It's not constantly chopping and changing. A lot of Korean beauty brands love to jump on trends, and it's one of the things that gets reported a lot in the media, like what ingredient is trending. And so the products constantly change. Some people enjoy that, constant discovery and newness and what's the latest. But a lot of people, particularly if they're not big into skincare, they really appreciate having tried and tested staples that they can repurchase, refill, and fall back on. So that was my beginnings in the industry and seeing how it evolved. That's how we ended up starting our brand is we identified a gap in the market and confusing messaging that was a barrier to how people were actually approaching Korean beauty. And that's what what we tried to do is come in there, educate, and break down some of that confusion. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I'm 50 and I know when I was growing up, it was probably three steps. It was cleanse, tone, scrub, and then like a moisturizer. And that was it. There was no serums. It was really basic. It's evolved so much since then. But I like what you said because often when you are buying new brands, there is a lot of confusion about the steps, especially in in particular the placement of serums. And which serum should you put in what order? And for someone like me, and I think many people listening who feels a bit on the outside of K-Beauty, what is it really? And what are we missing or perhaps misunderstanding?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's a really great question. I think we approach things in K-Beauty just from a very different angle. So for a start, I know traditionally Western skincare has been like come in and treat whatever problems there are. So if you have acne, blast it with whatever anti-acne ingredients you need to get rid of it. If you have wrinkles, you get in there with a really high strength active and try and, you know, undo the damage, as it were. Whereas Korean beauty is really more about prevention, is better than a cure. So we're starting from a vase of taking care of the skin from a really young age, even when there aren't issues, there aren't problems. Like, even for example, I share this story sometimes to illustrate it because I know there's a lot in the media at the moment about kids using skincare and how problematic that is. But the way Koreans view it, like my daughters have been sent to school with lotion at the request of the school from the time that they were babies, and the teachers will actually apply it for them during the day because they see that as just like kind of necessary for the skin. The weather over here is quite different. We have four seasons. It gets really, really cold in winter, really humid and hot, and you need sunscreen in summers. So they just grow up with this culture of just taking care of their skin. It's kind of like ingrained, it's not seen as vain or unnecessary. It's the largest organ of your body. It cops a lot from the elements. So we've just got to take care of it. That's more the prevailing view. And then that flows through. By the time people are, you know, in their 20s and 30s, they've been using sunscreen forever. They've been cautious about staying out of the sun. They have been moisturizing. So the prevention is better than a cure thing, follows through the entire society. The way our healthcare system is set up in Korea is very, very different from the way it is, certainly where, you know, I'm I'm Australian. So I experienced that for a portion of my life. And now the Korean system. For example, we go and do health checks, full body checks mandated by the government every two years. And that includes everything from um eyesight, hearing, lungs, heart, just monitoring that everything is okay with your heart. We do pat smears for women. And it's actually tied to your company. So if you don't go and get the health check, your company can be forced to basically pay a fine for not complying. So that's how Korea approaches healthcare. It's like we have to do it. You really prioritize health. Very proactive. Yes. It's cheaper for society if we discover any issues at the beginning. So let's just test everyone. And then hopefully we'll catch things like cancer. If you catch it at the beginning, because you're doing these regular two-year checks, then it's not going to be such a huge burden on the healthcare system and society later down the track. So that has shaped my outlook of seeing how it's done. It's just a very, very different system overall. And then I guess tying it back to beauty specifically, we focus a lot more on hydration, keeping the skin hydrated.

SPEAKER_01

And the reason that that's a difference, isn't it? Because retinols I find they don't work for my skin. People talk about, oh, you need a good retinol as you're aging. But I find for me it makes my skin tighter, drier. Dry out. Yeah. That's right. So, but I feel that I respond better to hydration. So yeah, talk me, talk me, talk me through the philosophy of Korean skincare. And it is based around hydration. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00

For sure. That's not to say that we don't use retinol, and it has become more popular in the last maybe three to five years, I would say. So you will find people using it, but not at the same high strength that a lot of people do in places like Australia and the US. So hydration, the thought process is actually really, really simple. Number one, hydrated skin looks smoother, plumper, it reduces the appearance of fine lines. You don't tend to look as cakey and crepey when you're putting makeup on if the skin is properly hydrated. So it actually works to make you look younger than you would otherwise look. Dehydration is a real problem, particularly as we age. So the skin stops producing as much collagen, basically from our mid-20s, and then it naturally reduces with time. And the skin also dries out. Like by the time we're in our mid-30s and above, you just really start to feel that the skin is just a bit drier and fine lines and that crepiness appears, particularly for us Westerners, because we have thinner skin in general. Asians have a lot more elastin in their skin, collagen as well, that plumper look. So we have to work a lot harder as a baseline. I guess white people, just because of the way our skin is actually built, so much thinner. But when it's properly hydrated, a lot of those signs are reduced without having to do anything too crazy. You'll notice that the difference when you put your makeup on, if your skin is properly hydrated versus not. Like it gets to 3 p.m. And if you're not properly hydrated, you've got that flaking, that crepey look that we get under the eyes where everything just kind of sinks in and settles in. So hydration is just a cure for a myriad of sins, I think, is one of the reasons that it's so popular. Um inside and out, right?

SPEAKER_01

You're hydrating on the inside, drink lots and lots of water, and then you're hydrating on the outside, and then you get that beautiful glow. So I was looking earlier, the the global Korean beauty products industry is worth approximately 91 million US dollars, expected to reach 149 million US dollars by 2032. I mean, that is huge.

SPEAKER_00

It's a lot, yes. It's it's very, very high. Uh, Korean exports to the US overtook France probably about two years ago, but it's just going from strength to strength. The export numbers every year just kind of rise. The other thing that I'm seeing over here is a lot of people coming to Korea to manufacture. So global beauty brands, global founders in the beauty and wellness space actually increasingly coming here to tap into the manufacturing capabilities that we have across everything to do with beauty and wellness. So supplements, hair care, pretty much everything. One of the other things I do in my job is work as a consultant. So I work with a lot of people from all around the world who are in some way like either invested in the Korean beauty space or looking to learn more from what we're doing here to maybe bring it into their own clinics, bar, salon, or practice. And I'm working increasingly with a lot more founders who are looking to start their own beauty or wellness thing, or maybe they've already got one, but they're wanting to shift manufacturing here to Korea. That's the way it's going as well. Korea now has this reputation as the global mecha or epicenter of the beauty industry, which is a pretty big shift from 10, 15 years ago.

SPEAKER_01

So, what is the magic key ingredient to produce the hydration element in skincare products?

SPEAKER_00

As in like the uh the uh an ingredient in skincare for hydrating the skin.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. What what's different in the Korean skincare that's contributing to the hydration factor that we're missing in other products?

SPEAKER_00

That's a good question. So I don't necessarily think it is only to do with ingredients because in Korean beauty we do use a lot of ingredients that other Western brands maybe use, things like hyaluronic acid, for example, squalane, better glucane. It's not like these ingredients are specific to Korea. One of my personal favorites is Ectoin. So we've actually got that in our sleeping mask, and that is an extremely. People tell me when they try Korean beauty products that they just feel different on the skin. The sensation on the skin, the way they absorb, I think has a lot to do with it. And that's to do with machinery. I just feel like Koreans create very different products than the typical Western products as well. It's the overall experience of using it that is perhaps a little different, as well as, you know, the chemistry of a product itself. It's not always just one ingredient. In fact, very rarely would it be. It's the whole synergy of all of the different ingredients together in one formula that makes them just feel different on the skin.

SPEAKER_01

I think there's a misconception that perhaps for the people like me that didn't know a lot about it, Korean people obviously have different skin to Australians. So therefore, is their product suited for Australian skin? But to answer that, yes, right, because of the hydration factor.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I definitely don't um subscribe to the thought process that Korean beauty is is only for Koreans. I'm I've pretty much to only use Korean skincare for the last 15 years. Is there a difference in the makeup of their skin? Yeah, technically, yes, but skincare is skincare. Uh I don't think it really comes down to race. If anything, I think it has a lot more to do with the climate and environment. Uh, so choosing products that do work weight-wise and texture-wise is very important. So, for example, uh for our own products, you know, we've got a lot of customers in the US as well, and they have extremely different climates in each state. You know, the East Coast states is probably much more similar to Korea in terms of four seasons. They get a lot of snow, really dry conditions in winter, but humid in summer. That's not to say it can't work in different climates. It's more just about matching the thickness, the texture, the ingredients to the weather where you are. You know, some of the fastest growing uh markets in terms of consuming Korean beauty products at the moment are the Middle East and India. And I mean, they couldn't have more different conditions, really, from Korea in a sense. 40, 50 degrees, dry desert heat, that's quite different. But yet a lot of Korean beauty products work really, really well for people that are living there. I think it comes down more to matching the product to your specific skin and your specific needs. I mean, even in Australia, we have a variation between locations in terms of the dryness of the air and all of that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01

So, does your brand have a 50 plus SBF in it?

SPEAKER_00

So that is a great question. I wish I could say yes, but the reality is that it's extremely difficult to sell Korean sunscreens in Australia. In fact, it's so difficult that I'm not aware of any Korean sunscreens that are actually approved by the TGA in Australia for sale. There's a couple of reasons for that, and it's got nothing to do with the products not working. It's more to do with the regulations around sunscreen. So one of the biggest hurdles is actually that the product needs to be made in a TGA approved facility. Uh, and that's just not a very common thing that you will find with manufacturers and labs over here. So that's a pretty big hurdle to actually getting a product approved. So, no, we don't. Our two biggest markets at the moment for our products are the US, which is notoriously extremely behind the times with sunscreens. They are still using sunscreen filters that were last dated in 1999. So that doesn't give you a whole lot of filters to work with, and it certainly doesn't give you any of the newer ones that people rave about when they rave about Korean sunscreens. You're you're you're pretty hamstrung in terms of what you can actually use in the US. And it's a little bit similar in Australia. Australia regulates sunscreens as therapeutic goods, and the US regulates them as drugs. Basically, they fall under the FDA. So they're probably two of the hardest markets to actually launch a Korean sunscreen in. So for now, no, we don't have one.

SPEAKER_01

Got it. Okay. So for someone wanting to dip their toe into Korean skincare without feeling overwhelmed, what's one simple swap that they could or change that they could make would that would genuinely make a difference? So if they go, oh, okay, I just want to try something without going out and buying the whole range, what would be a your a key first step?

SPEAKER_00

Look, I always tell people that the best place to start is literally just to replace something Korean when something runs out in your routine. So if you run out of your moisturizer, then that's a great time to try something a little bit different. Maybe try a Korean one and see how you feel. And then you could do that for the other steps of your routine if you wanted. That that's honestly the best thing. Rather than go out and buy something that you either don't normally use, it's a completely different category of product that you're unfamiliar with, or it just has no place in your daily routine. You can literally just replace something that you use with something Korean and see if it's a good fit. That's honestly the best way. Because at least you know then if it's a moisturizer, you're gonna use it. You know, you don't want to go out and buy something wacky, say that you've seen on TikTok that you're like, how do I even use this? Like, just replace like for like, and then if You're liking the results, liking what you see, then you can kind of explore further. That makes the most sense, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's good advice as well. So, what is your number one best-selling product in the Jelly Co range?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so our best seller by far globally is our moisturizer, actually, which makes a lot of sense because it's a product that people use in their routine. Uh, but our bubble tea steam cream has been our number one bestseller since we launched it uh at the end of 2020. Uh, and we released a refill pack for that product last year, we're rolling out refills, and that actually picked up a prevention best of beauty award in Australia at the end of last year. So we we now can say that we are we have a beauty award-winning formulation. It's packed with over 10 different actives, uh, and honestly, it just works so well, particularly for skin that is drying out. It's the kind of product that once people try it, they invariably come back and buy more. Uh so that will be.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you you've got beautiful skin, so I'd imagine you're wearing that every day.

SPEAKER_00

Of course. Yes. It's a question I get asked a lot is do we actually use our own products? And the answer is yes. It would be a bit of a waste to go out and create all these products and not actually use them, which is not to say we don't use other things, but yeah, I use my own products every day, twice a day.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's good to hear. So you talk about well-aging rather than anti-aging. Can you explain what that means to you?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I just think that it's taking a much more long-term approach. We're not looking for quick fixes, we're not looking to like blast things off our skin or our face or, you know, aggressively attack anything. It's more looking at it from like a, well, technically, we're going to be aging from our mid-20s as we start losing that collagen for the rest of our life. So you kind of want to make those changes that are going to actually take you your skin where it needs to be over the long term. So I'm not a fan, much like you said, of like really strong retinoid products or anything like that. I it just does not work for my skin. I actually have rosacea. So I already need to be careful of what I put on my skin because it's quite reactive, reacts to a lot of different things. So blast your skin-off approach, I just think needs to be thrown out the window and just replaced with things that are sustainable for you. Like the best routine is the one that you're actually gonna stick to. And if you're using a product that makes your skin dry, flaky, irritated, sensitive, red, that is not sustainable. Taking that kind of a longer-term approach and finding things that work for your skin and just sticking to them. Like you can try new things here and there, but finding what really works and sticking with that rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater every time there's a new trend, finding something that works for you.

SPEAKER_01

That's good advice. So we hear a lot about hydration being central to K beauty. Can you explain why that's so ex so important, especially for aging skin? I mean, we spoke about the dehydration and the wrinkles. Are there any other factors that we didn't talk about?

SPEAKER_00

Hydrated skin is really important for a healthy barrier as well. Uh, so we're hearing a lot more about the impacts and adverse effects from having a damaged skin barrier. And unfortunately, uh, particularly for us Caucasian women as we age, things like rosacea can be a lot more common, certainly than it is in Asian women. So making sure that we keep that barrier nice and healthy and intact is actually really, really important because the barrier, like you would might be able to guess from the word, uh, keeps everything out. So it keeps out the things that we don't want to aggravate, irritate, inflame our skin. And inflamed skin ages quicker. That that is proven. So anything that we do that is too aggressive, too violent, anything that will disrupt that natural barrier then can lead to inflammation that cannot beat up the signs and symptoms of aging. So I feel like that's another reason that hydration is so important is because having a properly hydrated, intact skin barrier just helps everything else. A lot of people that I see online that are, you know, trying new ingredients or things like that. So many times they're like, this product caused me to break out or whatnot. And they post a photo of their skin, and this is what's happened. And barrier damage is becoming so, so common. A lot of photos I see, I'm like, that's rosacea, that's barrier damage, that's the the pimples, they're not true acne. This is just a sign that your skin barrier can't do what it needs to do. That's why I think I'm such a big proponent of taking it easy, not overdoing it, hydrating the skin properly, and obviously sunscreen and keeping yourself out of the sun. But I do think that over the long term, people will see the most difference doing that.

SPEAKER_01

And I just think sometimes less is more. And particularly with social media and the influences, all the information coming at us at all the machines that people are using, different from radio frequency to laser to and then plus all the active ingredients. It's like it's too much. It's a lot.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's a lot. Um, yeah, and I I I I couldn't agree more. It's not to say that I haven't tried some of those things, but I don't tend to incorporate like any of those kind of devices or red light or anything like that into my my daily routine. I just, to be honest, haven't found that it really helps, particularly a lot of the devices at the moment. If you have a good skincare routine, it's it's enough. So I think a good skincare routine really should be able to do away with a lot of those things. And like you were saying, to get sucked into what everyone's doing online. But at the end of the day, influencers, it's their job to try a million new products. As regular people, that's not advisable. You know, you if you see the sheer amount of products that influencers go through, I mean, I wouldn't go through that many in a year, probably, you know, but that's not my job. It's not my job to be constantly sort of sprooking the latest and greatest. Whereas that is a job for them. So I think keeping that in mind sometimes can, you know, talk yourself down off a ledge if you're talking about going out and buying 10 new products at once. Like that's not really advisable for your skin for so many different reasons. But first and foremost, because if your skin has a negative reaction to any one of those products, you're not going to be able to tell which one it was. That's right. If you just went out and bought 10 new things at once. So slow and steady wins the race. I definitely think so.

SPEAKER_01

It's good having conversations like this so people are informed. It's easy to jump on the next skincare bandwagon to try the new product, like you said. But your skin really needs time to adjust when you're introducing new things in. And with the hydration element, can you overdo it? Like can you break out from too much hydration?

SPEAKER_00

The only way that I think that that might work is if you were layering products together that maybe your skin had a negative reaction to. I don't know that you actually can over-hydrate the skin, but I think you can definitely do too much in terms of like using a whole bunch of products. One example I can think of, so there's um a method in Korean skincare that's very popular. It's called the seven skins method. And what it means is applying your toner in layers, up to seven layers. So that idea has like solid foundations in Korea. And one of the main benefits is then that you can cut down on other steps of your routine. So you will layer your toner and then just go over the top with a moisturizer and you're done. But somehow, somewhere along the line, this method and this idea have been maybe mistranslated, I guess. And I see a lot of people who are trying Korean beauty say, oh, I'm doing the seven skins method. And these are the seven different toners that I'm using to do the method. And I'm like, you're not doing seven skins, you're applying seven different products. That is not something that I would recommend doing at all. So I feel like maybe things like that have the potential to do more harm than good. Um, and sometimes it can just be that like the whole idea or concept has kind of been lost in translation somewhere along the line. Because the original idea was that that would cut down your steps to basically cleanser, toner, applied in layers, and then you would moisturize, and then you're done. So it's actually a lot less than adding all these different serums and oils and uh whatnot on the on the top. But if you're doing seven different products, that's a lot. There's potential. It's a lot. Like it's a lot just to go out and buy seven different toner products, let alone stand there and apply seven different products, any sort of ingredient. Oh, that that's the other thing. But you know, like obviously you do you if it's working for you. But like for me personally, that would not be a good idea.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. So talk to me about your range. I want to know more about your range. So for somebody like me with mature skin, and I know a lot of my audience is uh the mature skin ladies. Yeah. What would we benefit from the most?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's a really good question. So I honestly think that for a lot of our mature skin ladies, of which honestly, particularly in Australia, there are many of our customers, their favorite products are obviously our moisturizer, which is our best seller, but they also really enjoy uh our serums as well. So the two serums, we launched them together because the idea was that they could be used in tandem. One is a gentle retinol and collagen serum, and it's got four different types of hyaluronic acid in it. So the idea was that while you're using your retinol, you have all of these humectants and ingredients that will actually help keep the skin hydrated while you're using it. The second serum, which is probably one of my all-time favorite products, is our white truffle souffle serum. Uh, and it's infused with Europe. It's delicious. It's it's infused with uh European white truffle extract, but it is like this we we call it a souffle serum because the texture is really sort of springy and bouncy like a souffle. It's a barrier serum. So it's perfect for dry skin, sensitive skin, reactive skin like mine. I apply it night and day. But the idea of the two serums was that you could use your retinol on the first night, and then on your second night, you could do like a recovery night with this really intensely hydrating serum and kind of use them in tandem so that the skin never dries out. Uh, so I would say those three are probably the most popular for our mature skin customers. And a lot of them also do like our sleeping mask as well, which is like a jelly-textured mask. That is a lot lighter than our moisturizer in terms of texture because it's a gel, whereas the moisturizer is a cream. But it's basically like a night jelly that you apply, you know, 15-30 minutes before bed, and it cares for the skin overnight as you sleep, and then you wash it off in the morning. Um, so that's the one that's got ectoin in it, which is a fantastic ingredient for barrier damage. It's got panthanol, sodium hyaluron it, just a lot of really good ingredients for caring for the skin barrier, keeping your skin plump and just nourished. That one, that one also picked up a um Best of Beauty Award back in 2023, um, in the over 40s category, actually. So that is also another really good product for mature skin from our line.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's that's good to know. And I and I do think it gets complicated for for women of my age because what you were using before you start to go, oh, hang on a minute. I am I plateauing? Is my skin not, you know, reacting to this product anymore? And then we scramble and then we're trying other other products, and then we don't know if they're suitable for our skin. So it's good to know that you can alternate your retinol with uh hydration and and so on.

SPEAKER_00

We've actually got sample sizes for a lot of our products too, because if you do have reactive, sensitive skin like I do, that is really important so that you can do a test and make sure that you're not allergic to anything before you go and buy the full size. So we have four samples of our toner, our two serums and our moisturizer, and we're releasing them for our sleeping mask this year as well. So that will be five. And anyone that has skin issues, that's the first thing I always say is try a sample and just make sure because there's nothing worse than buying something and it doesn't work for your skin. Yeah. So, and and that way you can test the waters too, whether you enjoy the entire product. So, yeah, we we did make samples. That was one thing I really wanted to do.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that way you're not using the leftovers on your arms or your legs. You instead you can travel with it. Yes. So having been in Seoul for nearly a decade, did you say? Is it been 11 years? Did you say over, oh, over. What's something new and exciting emerging in Korean skincare that we haven't really seen here in Australia yet?

SPEAKER_00

Ooh. Um, well, I'm not sure if it's necessarily new and emerging, but I think it's it's getting more attention in Australia at the moment, and that is the idea of these skin boosters. So we've been doing them and seeing them in Asia for quite a while, but I think they're really starting to um come into the wide mainstream maybe consciousness at the moment. So, skin boosters, they're not fillers, they're not Botox, they are essentially injections that you can do that actually just improve the quality and the texture of your skin. So it's not the kind of thing that you would do and then be like, oh, she's had work done. Because we're not sort of plumping or freezing anything. It really is just changing the skin on a cellular level. And there's lots of different ones. There's ones with, you know, hyaluronic acid in them to obviously hydrate your skin. There are ones with, you might have heard it's it's not technically this, but salmon sperm. A lot of people are talking about like salmon sperm injections. Uh, it's usually actually PN, which is something a little bit different, but let's say derived from salmon. A lot of different ones that are coming out at the moment that are actually just designed to repair your skin. It's not the kind of thing, again, that within a week you'll you'll be like, oh, I can't move my face because I'm frozen. It's more that after a couple of maybe months, one day you'll wake up and you're just like, my skin is glowing. My skin looks healthy from the inside. That's the kind of thing that these skin boosters can give you. So a lot of people are really obsessed with them at the moment in Korea. Yeah. And there's skin boosters at home treatments. It's not. So it is the kind of thing that you would need to go and and see someone in a clinic for. But I know that there are more and more uh doctors in Australia that are doing that. A lot of them are, if they're on the pulse of what's going on in global beauty, they will be doing the latest treatments from Korea, just because Korea is coming up with so many of these, or at least marketing them and popularizing them. Sometimes when I I say, oh, this is a Korean beauty trend, people are like, Did you know that actually doesn't come from Korea? I'm like, okay, maybe it wasn't invented in Korea, but Korean beauty has popularized a lot of these things. Um, like BB cream, for example, technically was not invented in Korea, but a lot of people associate BB creams with Korean beauty because they marketed them really well and ran with the categories. So I would say skin boosters fall fall into that, but Korean beauty has really popularized them. A lot of people these days are coming to Korea for beauty trips. So they're coming here specifically with the purpose of going and having their skin analyzed, maybe doing some skin boosters, maybe doing some laser treatments, things like this, and packaging it into a holiday so that they can see the local culture, shop, explore, and get um beauty treatments done as well while they're here. It's a really big trend at the moment.

SPEAKER_01

Wow, I bet. That sounds like a wonderful holiday.

SPEAKER_00

That's right up my alley. A lot of fun. It's a lot of fun for sure. So, yeah, that is another thing at the moment that we're we're seeing a lot of. Uh, one of my friends actually runs a concierge business, bringing people over, usually from the States because she's Korean American, setting up the the these trips for them where they can go and see all these different specialists, anything from stem cells, which is one of the latest, but you have to come here to do that because it's not legal yet in a lot of countries. All of these different spas and saunas and treatments like that. So, yeah, very relaxing way to spend a week.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. It sounds like like gone are the days of going to Thailand for a facelift or a body haul makeover. It's going to Korea and and coming back with glowing amazing skin.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's trending that way for sure. Even just walking the streets at the moment, there's so many foreigners, which is funny because Koreans see me and they're like, oh, that's a foreigner. But I'm like, I've I've lived here for so long that I'm used to being the only, you know, foreign person walking down a street and I'm not anymore, which is like, whoa.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. So, from your perspective, how much of our skin health is really about the products we use versus what's happening internally? Things like stress, gut health, and lifestyle?

SPEAKER_00

This is a tricky one because I do think that some people are just naturally born with a healthier, more resilient skin. I think we cannot deny that genetics plays a factor, especially for things like acne. That tends to be the kind of thing that if your mom or dad had bad acne, you know, you might be more likely to have it. Uh, and can there be gut factors that play a part in acne? There definitely can. Is it good to follow, you know, a healthy diet to help maybe release some of the symptoms? Yes. But if you have like severe cystic acne like I did, it's not always the case that it's within your control to cure it. It depends what a person's triggers are. For some people, it can be things like alcohol, um, spicy food. If you know that one of those things is a trigger for you, then eliminating that makes a huge difference. So I do think there are some things that there is a more direct and established connection, and then for other things, it falls a little bit more into the unknown. But certainly for a lot of inflammatory skin conditions, it can be a combination of both what we put on the skin and what goes inside as well. So figuring out if there are any triggers, how you can either eliminate or minimize. I mean, for myself, I know that alcohol is one of my triggers for my rosacea. But sometimes you just want a glass of wine, you know. I agree.

SPEAKER_01

So you would limit you Yeah, you wouldn't know it, Lauren. Your skin is amazing. You wouldn't have known that you had such severe acne when you were younger. You've really looked after your skin, clearly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and the other thing is having figured what makes it worse as well. So, for example, I didn't realize until a couple of years ago that a major trigger of my rosacea was actually sunscreen. So, what my doctor and I ended up figuring out together was that chemical sunscreens were actually a major source of my flares, and that swapping over to a hundred percent mineral sunscreen really improved things. So, you know, even little little lifestyle changes like that, because there's nothing wrong with chemical sunscreens, and most people absolutely love them. Uh, and in fact, you know, they're usually touted as the next generation of sunscreens because they do away with things like the white cast that you get from wearing a mineral zinc-based sunscreen. But in my case, it was just the combination of chemicals was just either raising the heat in my skin too much, and that was sort of coming out in this rosacea. And I actually have the type two, which is the acne type, so it's like a double whammy of redness and acne. So things like that can can make a huge difference. You know, I I keep a trigger list of any um wines that I've tried that give me that flush immediately.

SPEAKER_01

That's the same thing. Yeah, some I just get a reaction. Retinol, I can get it as well. I can just get that little sensitivity across my cheeks. So, like you said, with certain red wines, um, being in heating as well can have that impact.

SPEAKER_00

It's like a vascular reaction. So anything that raises that that core body temperature can impact it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. Let's not talk about menopause. Um, but also a good thing to point out is fragrances as well. Some people have reaction to fragrances, which are in most products.

SPEAKER_00

That's true. Thankfully, percentage of people that have a true allergy to fragrances is estimated to be at about two to five percent of the general population. So it's actually very rare. It's less rare that people say that they just prefer to avoid products with fragrance in it at Because it gives them a migraine or a headache or they don't like lingering scent. Obviously, if you do have one of these skin conditions, then avoiding fragrances can actually help. I know for myself, even though I have rosacea, I can wear minimally fragranced makeup products and things like that, and it doesn't cause issues. The bigger thing for me is having anything with a filter on my skin that sort of blocks heat from being able to escape, which is why sunscreens are such an issue. But again, it's working out what your triggers are is really, really important. For some people, that can be fragrance. For some people, it can be things that are quite common, like niacinamide. A lot of people are like, my skin doesn't react well to that. Your skin can technically react to pretty much anything. Something that can be perfectly fine for most people can cause reaction in you if you're sensitive to it. And that's why, if you do have any of these kinds of skin conditions, introducing products one by one in isolation from anything else new, doing a proper patch testing period can really help because then you can kind of pinpoint. A lot of things like sunscreens can have a delayed reaction to. So you use it on the weekend and then realize Wednesday or Thursday that you've had a reaction to it. Um, so you know, it might take a few days to actually turn up on the skin. That's the other thing that I don't think I fully appreciated for a long time, is that it it can be hard to do. It's not always immediate.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So when you think about it now, what does good skin actually mean to you?

SPEAKER_00

Uh I think for me personally, it is accepting that there are some things that you cannot change about your skin. Some things are just the the way you were born, but you can keep it in a very, very healthy condition. I've accepted my fate that I think I'm always going to be a person that has skin issues, um, because that's just the skin that I was born with. All my life I've struggled with something or another. So I'm like, at this point, I've accepted that. But I think that in terms of looking, uh finding out how to care for it the best, what I need to do to make sure it looks the best, uh, and conversely things that are within my control that if I do or don't do them, it will look a bit worse. Uh, yeah, I think that's just it. You've got to make peace with it. But there are a lot of things that we can do: staying out of the sun, keeping a good diet, staying away from alcohol if that's a trigger for you. Basically, then just accepting that, you know, it's life. We've only got one of them. So, you know, you've got to live your life. You can't be too obsessed about any of these things, everything in moderation. Yeah. And then if you have to deal with the consequences of maybe taking it a little bit too far, sometimes then that's the way it is.

SPEAKER_01

And it's inevitable. We're aging, right? All of us are aging. We start aging from the age of 20. Everything starts going downhill from that moment, which is so sad when you think about it. That was such a long time ago for me. But there are things that we can do to support our skin and internally and externally moving forward. Looking ahead, Lauren, what excites you most about where skincare is heading?

SPEAKER_00

I think the new advancements that we are seeing in the industry, and particularly, you know, um in injectables and that whole area, I just feel like we're moving into a much more natural phase with everything. I guess the skin regenerative things for me as a person with an inflammatory skin condition is really exciting because I think that has the ability to, it's it's almost kind of like a hack, really, if you know, you weren't born with skin that's naturally really robust to be able to do things like boosters that can actually help, you know, rewire those cells. I mean, the other thing is, you know, my skin absolutely copped it when I had acne. I lost a lot of, you know, those natural collagen and that were permanently damaged. So seeing, you know, how far the scar treatments and everything have come along and all the advancements that we've made in that space, because I mean, having those skin conditions, I don't think it's going too far to say that it really can ruin your life, you know, especially if you've got, you know, scarring on the face, um, any of these kind of conditions where that's the face that you put forward to the world every single day when you're meeting people, talking to people. Um, and if you have something like this, you'll probably be familiar with the feeling that everyone just sees what's on your skin rather than the person behind it.

SPEAKER_01

So I think it shapes you, doesn't it? Having things like that happen in your life. And what I love about your story is that yeah, you've come around full circle and now you're helping other people. So it was inevitable that you were going to change from lore to doing something that meant a lot to you and obviously was significant in your life at a certain point. So I I love that you're leaning into something that really lights you up and you're clearly very good at.

SPEAKER_00

Look, I definitely feel a lot more passioned for this and a lot more sense of satisfaction in this area of my life professionally than I did as a lawyer. Um, which, you know, some people are like, oh, I'm sure you would have had so many times when people are like, great job. And I'm like, I was a litigator, so not really. No one is happy to see their litigation lawyer. And no one is happy, even when they win, because they didn't want to be in a litigation in the first place. Yeah. So for me, I think, yeah, I definitely feel a lot more sense of satisfaction. And yeah, it is. It is the kind of thing that really is life-changing for people if they can get skin issues under control.

SPEAKER_01

And when you're when you're winning awards for amazing products and you're getting reviews from 70-year-old women raving about your products and coming back again. No, that's absolutely the stuff that lights us up. That's the stuff we've got to lean into. So before we wrap up, I wanted to touch on your podcast. Can you tell me a bit about that?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, I actually started my podcast, The Korean Beauty Show, in the thick of COVID. Because up until that point, I had gone back to Australia and hosted Korean beauty workshops and things like that where people could ask a lot of questions and have dialogue and learn more about Korean beauty, try the products. And of course, COVID came along and we couldn't do that. Australia went into lockdown. I was here in Korea. And so I wanted a way to keep the conversation and the dialogue going. And I thought, look, why don't I just start a podcast and the people that used to really enjoy those workshops can listen and we can discuss whatever they want to talk about? And it just kind of grew a life of its own. I think I don't know how many episodes we're up to now. 260 something, like yeah, 70 something, I'm not sure. So how has it evolved? How did how did it start and where is it now? So I think it's an evolved uh beyond just talking about the products, which is kind of where it started, and a lot of, you know, like what is what is this hot ingredient to, really more behind the scenes of the industry and how it all works. And probably a little bit more analytical, to be honest, than it used to be. As a person, I guess, that has worked in the industry for a very long time. I've got like more opinions on things maybe than I was comfortable expressing when I first started. So yeah, I do go behind the scenes of some of the trending things that we're seeing online and the TikTok viral stuff and break down like what are we really talking about here? Is this worth paying attention to? Is the marketing ahead of the science on these kind of things? That's more where where we're we're going now, rather than just, you know, here are five or ten different serums that you can try. So yeah, I think it's it's evolved. This year has been a very busy year for me, so I am slightly behind. Used to do two episodes a week just with everything that I've got going on with work and the family as well. Uh, it's it was down to one a week, and then now it's more, it's a little bit less than that. I do need to get back into it. But we do have a huge back catalogue, and I will be um podcasting a bit more frequently for the rest of the year. It's just a place where you can go and I guess get a little bit more behind the scenes from an industry insider perspective rather than just whatever social media algorithm tends to throw at people, which can be a little bit misleading, maybe as well.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01

Which is so needed in this space. So before we wrap up, I'd love to offer a moment of a reconnection. A few gentle questions I ask every guest. What has your body taught you about yourself?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, what has my body taught me about myself? Look, I feel like my body does more than I give it credit for. But I also appreciate as I'm getting older that, you know, it's not as easy as I as I thought. I figure skated as a child and a teenager, and I've gotten back into it as a as an adult after, you know, sort of 20 years away from 20 years away from it. And I just, yeah, I look back then and I'm like, I should have appreciated more what I had. I'm turning 40 next year. I'm kind of surprised that it can still do, you know, it's still capable of doing things and movement and all of that. So I think, yeah, that's what my body has told me.

SPEAKER_01

And I love that because it's so true. As we get older and we're raising children, often I talk about this on the podcast a lot. It's it's important for us women to go find what lights us up. Something back in your childhood where you found that joy and you're in that flow state. I think it's really important as our children get a little bit older and we've got more time for ourselves to to re-explore that joy again. So I love that you've gone back to figure skating.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I could not agree more. Yeah. And that's why I'm doing it now. I just didn't have time to know. Just stay safe.

SPEAKER_01

Stay safe. Do your weights, look after your bones. So, what season of life are you in right now?

SPEAKER_00

So I think for me, my kids are still quite little. So I'm really in the thick of motherhood kind of stage of life. I've taken a step back from work in some ways. Podcasting less has been what probably one of the more visible ones, just because I really want to savor every moment. Now that my eldest is getting bigger, I've really realized that those years when the kids are really little is very fleeting. So I've I've really tried to lean into it a lot more with my youngest so that I'm there and don't miss anything. I guess I in the back of my head am aware that in a few more years' time they're gonna be like, you're not cool, we don't want to hang out with you. So while they're still in the phase of wanting to be with me, I just want to spend time with them. So that's the kind of phase that I'm in at the moment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I appreciate that. What are your go-to rituals you can't live without?

SPEAKER_00

Ooh, um, I've gotten back into the habit of taking a bath. Like just very indulgent, just like popping a bath bomb and putting like a face mask or something on and just sort of like chilling in the bath for like 20, 30 minutes, which as a mom of young kids is quite indulgent. But necessary. Necessary, yeah. So actually, that's one thing that I'm enjoying just maybe three times a week. I'm just like, I'll be in the bath. Like you people sort yourself out.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, there's nothing quite like a bath. Really? Oh, Lauren, I've loved this conversation and I've loved learning about the whole Korean beauty scene. It was so foreign to me, so you're a perfect person to have on. Where can people find you and connect with you to learn more about your products and your podcast?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So I am on Instagram. I am at Lauren.kbeauty, uh, quite easy. And then my brand is Jelly Co. That's K-O for Korea. So we are jellyco.com. And the podcast, like I mentioned, is the Korean Beauty Show podcast. So you can find us wherever you get your podcasts. And I also share the videos onto YouTube as well. If you're if you're the type of person that has has the time and inclination to watch uh watch the podcast, then yeah, you'll find my my um catalogue on YouTube as well.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you. Such a beautiful and insightful conversation. And I think the takeaway here is that skincare doesn't need to be complicated and hydration is key. 100%, definitely. Thank you very much for having me.

unknown

Bye.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks, Lauren.

unknown

Bye.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you. Thank you for joining me on Inside Out Connections. I hope today's conversation reminds you to tune in and find small ways to self reconnect. If this episode resonated, please share it with a friend or leave a quick review. Come join me on Instagram at insideout skin gutcoach.