image courtesy of @alphafoodie We live in an age where we are forced to absorb more information than we can handle. It’s so easy for us to get distracted by a trendy diet that’s supposed to make us look like the Kardashians or a new skincare product that promises baby soft skin, but the worst part is, WE WANT TO TRY THEM ALL.  I’ve tried and failed at dieting more times than I can count. I started researching the health benefits of all different kinds of diet, like ketogenic, paleo, atkins, raw food, celebrity diets etc. and became OBSESSED.Each diet makes their outcome sound amazing while simultaneously making you feel like you've been doing everything wrong your entire life. Before I knew it, I was counting every calorie, restricting myself, and stressing out every time I had to eat. I started this diet because I just want to feel good about myself. But it didn’t take long before I started losing that feel-good factor and was left with is overwhelming disappointment and self-hate. After failing so many times and returning to point zero, I knew something had to change.I dropped my obsession with calories and started to listen to my body instead. Eat when I'm hungry. Stop when I'm full. Stop labeling and categorizing foods as "good" or "bad". Eat what I want, when I want.In addition to a healthy dose of exercise, I dropped more than 22 pounds. This jumpstarted my much healthier relationship with food. I realized that food was not the enemy, but a friend that nourished my body. Paying attention to those little cravings completely changed my perspective of what I was putting in my body.   image courtesy of @beawuty So why am I talking to you about this on a skincare blog? Because that is the exact same thing that is happening with us and our skincare products. We put our skin through constant abuse with aggressive skincare habits while feeding it way more than it needs. The core mission of our brand is to teach you to pay attention and listen to your skin, the signs are there but we’ve learned to ignore them because we don’t know how to recognize them. We’ve been conditioned to listen to what skincare brands advise rather than the inflamed red spots that developed on our cheek this morning. Skincare should be done intuitively and whether you realize it or not, YOU are the expert of your own skin and body. Now you're probably wondering, HOW THE HELL DO I LISTEN TO MY SKIN WHEN IT DOESN’T TALK BACK TO ME?! If your current cleanser dries out your skin, switch. If your skin seems dull and congested, skip makeup and add a gentle exfoliant. If your skin is red and sensitive, stop everything and give it a break. If you're working long hours in a stressful environment, add some antioxidant oils to nourish it. If your acne constantly forms in the same spot, investigate internally...so on and so forth!So let's drop the obsession of settling into a perfect "routine". Instead, be flexible with the products you use according to your skin's needs each night. The resiliency of your skin fluctuates tremendously depending on your hormones, stress levels, and tons of other factors as well, so let's not ignore that. Add more when your skin is more receptive, subtract when it isn't.Feed what your skin craves. - Liah xx  

We've all been there. You just introduced a new product into your skincare routine and the next day you wake up to - what is that, a pimple?! Not fun. And now you're sitting there wondering, "Am I purging or breaking out?". What is purging? Purging is a stage in which pimples and blemishes hidden underneath the skin are brought up to the surface after using a skincare product, like an AHA exfoliator, that is meant to speed up the skin's cellular turnover rate. This is typically recognized as a step that's similar to muscle building as there wouldn't be any gain without any pain. The purging period varies by the individual but can last up to a month. After that, your skin should start clearing up and the active ingredient should help prevent your skin from forming new pimples.   What can cause purging?  Vitamin A (tretinoin, retin-a, retinol, retinoid...) Vitamin C AHA, like our Kale-Lalu-yAHA and BHA chemical exfoliants Benzoyl Peroxide Basically, any active ingredients that affect the skin's cellular turnover rate. Often times, your skin would purge after a facial. How can you determine if your skin is purging or breaking out? Does the new product contain an active ingredient that increases your skin's turnover rate? Pimples take about a week to form so you don't want to fully blame the product you just used last night, but if you're noticing other forms of irritation, we'd recommend putting it on the back burner for a bit. The causes of a breakout are VERY complex and it's hard to identify if it is due to the product, hormonal changes or your lifestyle choices. Michelle from LabMuffinBeautyScience is a friend of ours who explains the difference between purging and breaking out pretty well! For more information, check out the video below:

There is a heated debate going on about the usage of essential oils in skincare and whether or not it sensitizes skin.  Our founder, Liah Yoo, has released a video on her findings after thorough research and some help from our dearest chemist friends who are involved in formulating our products. Please watch the video for more information.   At KraveBeauty, we consciously decided to eliminate essential oils and fragrance specifically because of its controversial nature. As a product developer, it's hard to know the exact chemical composition of each essential oil we would want to use. In fact, it's even hard for an essential oil provider to know the full composition, as well! There are a few compounds in essential oils that can cause allergic reactions, but as every chemical compound of a natural ingredient varies from producer to producer, from year to year, from country to country, etc. it is nearly impossible to differentiate which may or may not cause irritation. To put it into perspective, just because two apples grow from the same tree it doesn't mean they are the same apple. We're not saying all essential oils will be sensitizing but some can be. And to minimize the risk of irritation from our products, you won't see essential oils in our formulations until we clearly know what we're playing with.  How do you feel about essential oils in your skincare?    

We’ve said it a million times and we’ll say it again - Your skin is a lot smarter than you think.  Q: What is the skin’s natural barrier and why do we need it? A: The outermost layer of your skin that has a natural, protective barrier that when healthy keeps it safe from trans-epidermal water loss and potential irritants and allergens from getting into your skin, which can cause a variety of dermatological issues, like acne, dryness, chronic inflammation and overall sensitivity. Q: What is a healthy skin barrier composed of? A: Mainly lipids. And the 3 crucial components are; ceramides, cholesterol, and free (or essential) fatty acids. Q: What can damage my skin barrier? A: Harsh or very-alkaline cleansers, strong acne-medication, over-washing, over-exfoliation, over-applying products, and over-using the amount of products in one routine (moderation is key!) Also, stress and hormonal changes weaken the skin barrier function. Q: How do I know my skin barrier has been compromised? Or is it just acne? A: Don't you find it weird when you're busy blotting away the shininess throughout the day, but also feel like your skin is really tight? Oily-dehydrated skin is the most common indicator that your skin barrier is damaged. People who secrete a lot of oil are more likely to demonstrate aggressive skincare habits that strip away the natural oil and all (even good) bacteria off their face, which further damages your barrier function. Once your skin barrier is damaged, your skin loses water quickly and you often experience a dehydrated sensation. This is called 'transepidermal water loss' (TEWL).  You can also tell your skin barrier is out of whack when your skincare products that you have may have been using for a long time irritate, sensitize or even cause redness. Q: Does alcohol in skincare affect your skin barrier? A: We couldn’t find any evidence of alcohol altering the skin barrier function; however since alcohol (ethanol, SD alcohol, alcohol denat) can sweep away oil that’s present on the surface of your skin, your skin can temporarily experience dryness. Q: Are there any specific products, ingredients, nutrients we can use to repair the skin barrier? A: Implementing a facial oil can help restore the barrier function tremendously! Also, look for products that use ceramides, cholesterol (or phytosterol for a vegan option), and free fatty acids in the right ratio. *Note that these are lipids, meaning that they can be quite greasy for oilier skin types. Also, replenishing the skin with natural moisturizing factors can help, as well. Panthenol (Vitamin B5) and Niacinamide (Vitamin B3) also help improve the barrier function. And by the way~ We are in the works of creating a product that directly targets this skin concern. Keep an eye out for it later this year! :)  Q: How do you repair or maintain your skin barrier? How long will it take? A: Seriously, LESS IS MORE. If your skin barrier is compromised, it also means that your skin's permeability has increased. In other words, irritants that your barrier would otherwise block out are coming in to the skin MUCH EASIER, which can eventually cause or worsen inflammation. So eliminate any potential irritants from your skincare products or lessen the chance of irritation by using fewer products during this period. NEVER use any products that dries your skin out. STOP using active ingredients during this period as they can either stress out or worsen your skin. And limiting your cleansing to once a day and switching to a moisturizing, barrier-friendly cleanser, such as our Matcha Hemp Hydrating Cleanser can help protect your skin from further damage. Q: How long does it take to repair the barrier function and after you’ve let your skin barrier heal, when you can you start incorporating new products in? A: This really depends on the severity of the damage and the individual's skin condition. Just like there are people whose wounds heal faster, skin is the same. For healthy skin, it can take 2 weeks and up to a month to repair the barrier function. Once your skin barrier is back on full force, you’ll notice a decrease in redness, skin-sensitivity, inflammation, and dehydration! You will definitely be able to tell when your skin can handle a new product. We know when your skin is freaking out, you just want to slather on anything and everything in hopes it will bring it back to normal. However, doing just that is probably making it worse. The best thing to do is letting it CHILL OUT and nourish it with gentle basics. #PressReset, babes. Q: Does product work better if your skin barrier is healthy? A: Once your skin is healthy, you’d be able to tolerate numerous products without an irritation. Your skin barrier functions to keep irritants out and let the nutrients in to your skin. But it depends on the individual when it comes to seeing a difference with the same product.

Q : Is KraveBeauty going to have more products? A : Of course! We're currently developing 3 different sunscreens—chemical, physical, hybrid— and 2 kinds of moisturizers—for winter, for summer—, one product that helps restore the moisture barrier, and another product that helps to rejuvenate the skin.  BUT, and this is a big buttt! We don't know 'when' we would be able to launch the next product. Formulating a product is a constant push and pull between us and the lab. Many formulators and chemists that work for a big cosmetics lab in Korea are often accustomed to working VERY mechanically, meaning that many of the chemists often seem like a salesperson trying to sell the existing formulations instead of starting another formulation from scratch. While this can be helpful to many brands in the market, as all they need to do is basically 'shop' for formulations and wrap it with their label, we are really not interested in doing something that every other brand can do. So, we do our best to make the formulators believe in ourselves first and guide them to outperform themselves with our formulation. And oddly, this is what takes most of the time. Funny, isn't it? But once they #pressreset (haha) on what they've been doing, and they finally get excited about taking on the new challenge, things sails pretty smoothly from then. We are coming to an end with a couple of formulations but we don't want to rush to release it for the sake of releasing.  Developing a product is costly and placing an order for individual SKUs is enormously expensive. At the moment, we can't afford to drop everything at once. We might only release the first sunscreen to the world and refine the other two while we generate more sales to place another order.  It really means a lot when you share and spread the word about us to your friends and family. And thank you so much for your patience :) - Liah xx