Your Ultimate #DamnGood K-Beauty Shopping Guide is Here! Featuring Guest Host and Korean Skincare Expert Ava Lee AKA @GlowWithAva

0:00The following podcast is a dear media production.

0:07Welcome to Breaking Beauty, the podcast all about the breakthrough people, products, and moments in beauty. We're your hosts, Jill Dunn and Carlene Higgins.

0:20Hello and welcome back to Breaking Beauty podcast. I'm your co-host, Carlene Higgins, and I'm here with my jet-setting co-host, Jill Dunn. Hello, Jill. Hey, Carlene. It's good to be back. Just a couple of days out of the city. It was nice. Oh, good. Girls trip? Yes. I was hanging with my girls. There was 11 of us and we went to Nova Scotia. It's not, we went to Hunts Point, which no one will know where that is, but it's not far from your favorite place, Mahone Bay. Oh, very nice. Yeah, this was like an Airbnb on the water and the barrel sauna and beautiful. There was 11 of us. So it was just a girls weekend.

1:02Really fun to catch up with everyone. Some of these girls I've been friends with since first grade. So it's just like ultimate familiarity, ultimate roasting and just total comfort. It was really fun. Perfect. I love all of that. Your girl group's bigger than my girl group. That is a big group. And for anyone listening who is new to the show, we are two beauty editors turned beauty podcasters. And while Jill is with me here right now speaking, Jill, unfortunately, you were unable to sit in with us on this amazing chat I had with today's guest. Her name is Ava Lee, also known as Glow with Ava. So today's episode is a damn goods.

1:46It's all about K-beauty. So who else to have as our guest editor sitting in for Jill while she was away than Ava Lee. Ava has grown 1.7 million followers on TikTok, 750 ,000 on Instagram with her passion and knowledge for holistic beauty, all of which she learned from her mother, who often features prominently in Ava's content. And everything from teaching our fans how to do at-home facial massage for facial sculpting to sharing anti-aging traditional Chinese tea recipes to achieve hashtag jello skin. Yes. And she's really interesting because she was born in Korea, raised in China, and attended an international school with a lot of like Western teachings and whatnot.

2:36So she has this very interesting outlook, I think, on this topic and is able to kind of translate it to people in North America because she is based in New York now. That's right. She can actually read the Korean labels. She knows what they're for. And she definitely gives us the goods on some stuff that even I didn't understand. I was asking her to decode some, you know, certain terminology that we don't use here in North America. more recently Ava launched at by Ava this is her ingestible beauty supplement and herbal tea elixir line designed to achieve hashtag jello skin from within and by the way this is a term that Ava actually coined herself she was able to trademark it earlier this year and we're going to chat a bit about that just before we get into our damn good reviews I've been loving the supplements The teas that she has are so good.

3:32Yeah, they're really cool. Very different. It's more like raw ingredients than a tea bag. So I'd say that's how it really stands out. Very traditional what her mom used to prepare for her. So in today's episode, Ava joins me to talk about our holy grails when it comes to K-beauty because let's face it, Generation TikTok only is really now discovering K-beauty in the past couple of years. So it really is experiencing this renaissance once again. And in fact, I noticed that Sephora just picked up Then I Met You. So it is now available on their website and will go into all stores in March of 2025.

4:10So exciting. Yeah, I believe that's for sure in Sephora US. I'm not entirely sure about all of North America, but I love that line so much. And Charlotte Cho, she's just done so much to help bring that awareness to Korean skincare. She's been on our show as well. So we'll link to that in our show notes. Definitely. go back into our archives and listen if you haven't already. So we're going to be talking about Then I Met You's multi-award winning living cleansing balm, just as an example ahead, along with our all-time favorite K-beauty products going step-by-step through all 10 steps of the famous 10-step beauty routine.

4:47Actually 11 if you count ingestibles and supplements. Yeah. And no pressure, everyone. You can pick and choose. We're not going to come to your vanity and make sure you're using all 10 steps. We're just sharing from an expert what you can use. And I love the fact that Ava is actually personally responsible for making a lot of these products go viral in the first place. So we are going straight to the source. That's right. Including that, what was it called? The glow dance mask or something? The bio dance sheet mask that you see all the influencers wear on a plane. It comes in two parts. There's like the eye mask and then the lower half of the face and you wear it on a plane, it goes on white.

5:27It's a sheet mask. And then when it's all the juicy bits are soaked into your skin, it turns clear. Color changing mask. I love it. So Ava was personally responsible for making that go viral. This is the caliber of a guest host we have on today. So get your shopping carts ready. And a friendly reminder that every single product we discuss will be listed over on our website at breakingbeautypodcast.com under episode recaps. You can also find them on our Shop My Shell. Love it. Well, I can't wait to hear it. I'm so excited to see what y 'all talked about. Here she is, Glow with Ava.

6:08Taking a pause to shout out one of today's show partners, First Aid Beauty. Okay, the cold weather is coming. So I want to tell you about a product that is pretty much a no-brainer for everyone in my family now. It's First Aid Beauty's Ultra Repair Cream. I feel like this was made by someone who knows the depths of winter really well, because it's especially great if you're one to experience flaking. It's got tried and true ingredients like colloidal oatmeal and shea butter in it that are known to soothe dry skin. And I love that it comes in this big tub, so you can really use it anywhere where you need that SOS.

6:42And I actually love gifting this item to the guys in my life for Christmas because it does have that packaging that's great for all ages, all sexes. It's just a really good universal product. Try it for a week straight and you'll definitely feel more plump and hydrated without any greasy feel. I really like that it dries down pretty fast and there's no clogged pores either, which is super important when you have teenagers in the house like I do. So the dry cycle ends here. Demand more from your moisturizer. And we're excited to share a special offer available right now just for our listeners. You can order First Aid Beauty's Ultra Repair Cream today.

7:23Get 20 % off when you visit our exclusive URL, firstaidbeauty.com slash beauty and use our promo code beauty. That's firstaidbeauty.com slash beauty. don't wait get 20 % off with promo code beauty at firstaidbeauty.com slash beauty and now back to our guest are you single and struggling with dating or in a long-term relationship and want to take that next step or maybe you've been together with your partner forever and you want to spice things up we met at acme is a dating podcast for you and i really hope you come check it out. I'm Lindsay Metzeler and we have so much to talk about together. So check out We Met at Acme wherever you listen to podcasts and I can't wait to meet you.

8:23Welcome to Breaking Beauty podcast, Ava. One thing I think for people who might not know you, even though you're pretty much famous on social media. How did you become Glow with Ava? I never thought I was going to be on the internet ever either. So this is like a little bit of a plot twist in my career. Yeah. So actually funny story, we're here recording in Toronto. The last time I was here in Toronto was 11, 12 years ago. Oh my gosh. Yes. And I was here because I was here for three months training for investment banking for the Royal Bank of Canada. Oh my gosh. I know it well. That's my bank.

9:00Yeah. So that was my first real like job out of college and I was in the missing banking division. So we had to train here at the headquarters. So that was when I was here. Yeah. And 11 years later, I'm back here on a completely different industry doing a different thing. So 10 years can do a lot. Yeah. I started my career in the finance industry, did that for seven years, never thought I was going to leave, thought I was going to retire in that industry. But because it's a very male dominated field, I, you know, honestly, I didn't hate my job at all. Like I just genuinely thought this was the only thing I knew how to do, but I felt like I needed something on the side just to like, not a side hustle, but just like a little hobby.

9:39And back then I'm not even like a technology person. I didn't take pictures of myself ever. However, I guess I did like skincare. I didn't even think that I liked skincare more than other people because I grew up in Asia where it's just beauty centric. Right. So to give you background I am Korean born in Korea but grew up in China almost my entire life my parents are still there but have a very heavy you know Asian beauty influence okay on me and that's why I just had a lot of skincare I just thought it was a norm to have that much skincare right but I went back to Korea once a year came back with a suitcase of skincare I thought that was normal apparently it wasn't and my friends caught on they were like what is all of this so I was like telling my friends around me my college friends who just really didn't know even what a serum or toner was educating them bringing them snail mucin bringing them like sheet mask and I was kind of the influencer in my own very small circle yeah and because I was like always doing that I was like you know what maybe I should start talking about what a toner is because I felt like that was when KBD was kind of starting to gain some fame but not quite really like yeah there was no KBD Sephora or anything.

10:52So I kind of wanted to be that person to make sure there wasn't like misconceptions. So that's how I kind of like started my content on Instagram, where I just talked about how to use a sheet mask in stories. Never really showed my face on the feed because I was scared that I was gonna get fired. Oh, wow. Yeah. But that must have been hard with the sheet mask. But I only revealed on stories. And my account grew because I was doing tutorials on my stories. And people really liked that. So people were like calling me out, be like, go watch glow with Ava stories. She does really good tutorials on skincare.

11:26So that's how I really got started. The glow aspect, the glow with Ava just kind of came to me, not because I was like, I had glowing, glowing skin, but I was actually going through, or today I do, but through my health journey, that was when I was going through my whole gut health journey. And at the same time, ironically, I was changing a lot of things in my diet and my lifestyle to get better. And from doing that, I was seeing a glow that you can't really just see from a moisturizer. So it was from the beginning, a inner and outer glow. And I was like, you know what, glow with it, but just very catchy.

12:01And that just caught on. And I love doing it so much. I was waking up early all the time, shooting content, loved every, many of it. And to the point where I was like, you know what, I think I'm in the wrong industry. Yeah, exactly. Well, once you hit a certain number of followers, you kind of know. Yeah. One of the things I noticed looking at your Instagram is that I believe it was February of this year, maybe January, you actually trademarked the term jello skin. I did. Oh my gosh. So tell me about that. So jello skin was coined, I would say two and a half years ago. And I was getting a facial in New York by Gavin and he is a celebrity facialist.

12:40lord gavin lord gavin yeah he's been on our show yeah yeah we'll link to it guys yes yes link it to him because he's amazing and he was giving me a facial and he was just like keep touching my cheeks and he was like i've never seen cheeks with this much collagen and he was like keep bouncing it i mean like it is like your cheeks are like jello jello jello and he was like what do you do right and he also knew that you can't just get this from skincare products because it's like the inner balance that comes out and i was just like having a conversation and i was like you know what this actually has to be a trend this is to be talked about more and i coined the term jello skin because it was just really sharing everything that i do yeah i never only talked about skincare from the very beginning so it was a very natural progression progression yeah and i never had a term to talk about the things i always talked about but this was like the perfect way to describe my holistic lifestyle right in a way i didn't start with skincare even though everyone wanted me to do skincare right i really believe in the starting from the inside out first so i came out with my first like tea elixir which was never supposed to be like a permanent product but it's just like a tea elixir for your skin that i grew up drinking yeah so it's basically my mom's recipe my mom has a very very big role in the brand right now too and i really want to spread the concept of inner health outer glow yeah eating your skincare rather than just applying yeah topically i love that well i'm looking at it right now it's in this beautiful little sachet i think what's different from other teas there's you know lots of little bits and bobs that look like berries in there yeah but there's a very large item that yeah i'm like what is that so this is a jujube it's a red date so it's not like your medjool date that you see here in the west it is a red date it's so much more juicier and this little berry yeah has such high vitamin c content oh interesting and antioxidant power so when you boil it it becomes juicy it becomes slightly bigger yeah and by eating it like every single day i would eat one growing up yeah and that's like your vitamin C powerhouse in a way.

14:53And it's because of the texture and the juiciness, it's also known to help improve with fine lines, your skin elasticity. So it's a key component of our skin elixirs. And it's kind of like defines jello skin in a way for the skin elasticity. And the thing about our packaging for the skin elixirs is we have two formulas. I wanted to make sure that you could see everything. It's not a teabag. You boil it and then you can eat every single ingredient. So it's not a tea where you throw it out. You got to eat everything. Okay. I love it. All right. Well, today we're going to be talking about our favorite.

15:26This is a damn goods episode. And we're going to be talking about our favorites in the 10 steps that are involved in K-beauty traditionally, and now potentially an 11th step or a, maybe it's like the precursor. Maybe it's step zero. I don't know. So we're going to talk about that but i'm curious where you think k beauty is headed yeah is there something coming in general that like what's the next you know sheet mask or what have you i think korea is always ahead ingredient of something you know like last year you didn't really see that much of like micro needling like at home but now one company did like the whole micro needling serum at home right now there's like 10 companies doing it so like they're very fast production lines it's very very quick and efficient.

16:16So I think that's like a good and bad thing where trends come and go very fast in Korea. You got to latch onto it and it's gone. One moment at one company does like a peel off mask, like the Bionine's peel off mask, that color changing one. Oh yeah. We're going to talk about that. Yeah. Now like there's 10 companies doing it too, right? So it's a very, very highly competitive market in Korea. And I also think that's why they also want to reach out to a bigger audience. Yeah. It's fascinating. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Well, I think, you know, for myself, when I go to a lot of websites that sell K-beauty, it can be overwhelming.

16:50And, you know, there is a bit of a language barrier, whether you're talking about actually reading the label or the lingo, like ampoule. Oh, yeah, yeah. I don't, I, like, I've been a beauty editor for probably 20 years. I've worked in this industry. I still don't know what that means. What is that? Ampoule, I think it's like one of my favorite things ever. What is it? And it's also something I grew up with. So Ampoule is a very highly concentrated serum, let's say, for example. So it usually always comes in like a dropper. Yeah. And it's got more of like a very thicker. Okay. Not necessarily thicker, but like if you think a serum, for example, has like a 30 % concentrate of something.

17:28Right. Ampoule will have like a 60 % concentration, much smaller, but like you won't need like five pumps of it. You'll just need like two droplets of it. Oh, okay. And it still works kind of with your serum. If you just want a little bit of a certain ingredient, like a vitamin C or collagen or something. Okay. So it's like maybe what we would equate to like a booster. It's a booster. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for explaining that. Because then I was seeing like ampule sheet masks and I'm like, what the hell? I thought it was like in a certain format. Anyway, with all of that, we have the decoder right here.

18:00So we're going to get into it. We're going to do the 10 step K beauty skincare routine with our personal favorites after the jump.

18:15Thrilled that Dermstore is supporting our show this week. Did y 'all know that Dermstore.com has been around basically since shopping on the internet started 25 years ago. they launched and it was created by a dermatologist. And the goal back then is still the same as the goal today. And that's all about protecting and prioritizing your skin's health. I really appreciate that they have such a wide variety of brands. They have niche luxury brands like 111 Skin. They have a whole K-Beauty section. I know we're talking with our guests today all about K-Beauty. They have these really impressive professional grade skincare lines as well, like SkinMedica.

18:53And that's actually from the same makers of Botox. And I actually tried SkinMedica's legendary TNS Advanced Plus Serum. The good folks at Dermstore sent me one, and it's the most awarded, studied, and clinically proven growth factor formula. And I've been really enjoying using that. And there's so many other brands on there to explore. They actually even have makeup now. Anastasia Beverly Hills just launched on Dermstore. So it's really that one-stop shop. And great news, Dermstore is giving Breaking Beauty listeners 15 % off nearly everything on their site with code BREAKINGBEAUTY. It's really easy.

19:32You go to dermstore.com slash BREAKINGBEAUTY and use code BREAKINGBEAUTY for 15 % off select items. And some brand exclusions apply. Once again, dermstore.com slash BREAKINGBEAUTY to get 15 % off select items. We'll link to the software in our show notes and on our website. Now back to the show.

20:00Okay. So let's get started. Step one, it's got to be cleansers, right? Yep. The first one is going to be a double cleanse oil cleanser. Right. There are many oil cleansers that I absolutely love. Yeah. But I have to talk about the vanilla Coke. That's my first OG cleanser that I love. The pink one. right okay now they have five different colors but i always go for the pink one that's like the og and it just never gets old the formula is just too good yeah this is like 20 years later yeah i'm still using it what do you love about it it melts your makeup away so easily it's very gentle on the skin it never hurts my eyes i rub my entire mascara eyes all over it nothing okay yeah and it's like $19.

20:41We can say it's like$11. It's a giant tub. It lasts me a very long time. Okay. Amazing. One that launched, I guess, last year, Mixoon has a cleansing oil that's beautiful. My mom actually introduced me to it. She was like, it smells great. It just like so much more gentle on the skin. And yeah, if you use that, you can't go back. Okay. Yeah. All right. We're going to link to everything, everybody. My favorite in this category, and I will be honest, I'm not a big double cleanser because you don't wear that much. I don't wear. Yeah. I mean, I do. I probably wear more than you think, but I don't wear a lot of heavy eye makeup.

21:16So I really rely on micellar cleansers and I'm really big on reusable cloths, you know, like the halo or the makeup eraser. I am actually not. Really? Yeah. And is that on purpose? Do you not like them or you just don't use them? It's just not something I grew up with or like habitual, right? Yeah. Can't break a habit. It's hard. Exactly. And I think I always say I'm lazy slash busy. Yeah. So, you know, for me to slow down. So this to me is quick. It's like the equivalent of using a face wipe, but more environmental. That's what I tend to use. But I have, of course, tried a lot of cleansing balms and oils.

21:53The one I like is the Then I Met You living cleansing balm. Oh, that's a great one. It's really good. Now, one thing I will say is it is pricier than a lot of K-Beauty because the prices are just so fantastic for K-Beauty generally across the board. This one is in a tub and it's$54. Yeah. For me, when it's a cleanser, I can't pay over 50 bucks for a cleanser. Sorry. So that one's a little bit pricey, but I love the smell and the experience of it. It has a little bit of that kind of citrusy, fresh spa smell. It's oilier than the Vanillica one. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It does have, it has olive oil as part of the base, vitamin E.

22:32So I just find my skin doesn't feel, there's no residue, but it doesn't feel like strippy either. So that's, that's a favorite for me. Now let's talk about the second step cleanser. What do you use for that? Second step always varies for me. Foaming cleansers is something that I use the most growing up. Like I use Etude House foaming cleanser to death. Oh my God. I don't use it anymore. I don't use that much foaming cleansers. My mom still uses foaming cleansers. My mom is actually not a double cleanser. Yeah. Just like you. She uses her foaming cleanser like through and through. I just, that's like one skincare tip that I'm like, mom, you got to stop doing that.

23:07It's like really harsh on your skin. Does she wear makeup? Not much. Okay. Yeah. Barely. But still, it's just like she's like scrubbing her skin away with a foaming cleanser. Right. Something's working. She has zero pores though. Yeah. Another one. Oh, actually, Tokobo has a really good cleansing foam, I guess, but it's really not stripping. I'm surprised. I think the one thing that Korean formulas have improved a lot over the last five years is non-stripping cleansers. That's something that I love. Estra also has a phenomenal foaming cleanser. That's my favorite. Yeah. Took the words right out of my mouth.

23:40The Estra Auto Barrier. That one. 365 bubble cleanser. Bubble cleanser. My mom introduced me to that one as well because when I first stopped using the stripping foaming ones, this one is like, I wish there was a good way to show it. It's like bubbles coming out. So it really won't strip your skin barrier at all. So I really like that one too. It reminds me of the Caudalie foaming cleanser, but like half the price. It's so funny because we're so on the same wavelength with the stuff. So the Astura, I used to love the Caudalie. I mean, I still really like them. Yeah, it's great. In K-Beauty, I love the Estora because this is like a dermatological brand.

24:18So there's no scent. It's like, it's very good because I've gone through some bouts of rosacea in the last few years, which is for me, it's perimenopausal because I didn't really, you know, they would tell me it was pre-rosacea, but I, you know, it's only now that I actually will have flare up. So, you know, if I want to keep it clean and for the price point, and I, I agree like the second ingredients glycerin so i think it's really a great humectant so love that one guys love it it's great but we can't end the cleansers yet because actually this is another form of second cleanser enzyme cleansers i live and breathe this i don't i think it's still a very underrated product yeah probably category but it's great like i first fell in love with a more pacific enzyme powder and it's and it's an expensive product okay okay but that changed my skin that truly changed my skin.

25:09I always bought it in Korea or Sephora if I ran out. And it's like an enzyme where you just like pour it out, mix some water and it's like so good at exfoliating your pores and stuff. I wouldn't use it every day, but it's amazing for cleansing your makeup. Some recent ones that are amazing for much cheaper. Titter has a really good one. Tocopo has a really good one as well. Okay. And Tony Moly has like a cheaper version, but it's not like my favorite. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I do really like those as well. Let's talk about exfoliators. I'm not a big exfoliator person because I'm lazy slash busy. What about you?

25:45I do. I get my exfoliators from both physical and chemical. You know, sometimes I just do like a physical mask. That's how I get my exfoliation done, right? I don't really have that much like K-Beauty exfoliating mask that I use that much. but like what would be an example of one just so people can picture it like a totally detox mask would be one of them like a true mask from cora organic something that's like scrubby a little bit yeah i love the cora one yeah cora is really the true mark one yeah so those are like some examples besides that i'll use like an exfoliating physical toner and some by me has a really good one as well okay somebody me aquel had a really good one ac well these are brands like they're very Korean, but they're very gentle.

26:33I think that what I really like about Korean exfoliants is that even though they use AHA, BHA, they have it in like a very gentle amount. Another one that I used to use, I don't think they carry it anymore, but Wishtrend had a mandelic acid. That one was so gentle on the skin. And I really, really liked when it was like 15 bucks. I don't even know. Yeah. The one that I love in this category is the Good Light Milky Toning Lotion. Oh, yeah. That's an exfoliator though. It does have natural alpha hydroxy acids, but it's extremely gentle. I thought it was like a hydrating one. It is hydrating. Yeah.