About The K-Beauty Review
The K-Beauty Review is an English-language magazine about what is new on Korean beauty shelves, written for readers outside Korea: the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Southeast Asia and the Gulf.
Most K-beauty coverage in English arrives months after a product launches in Korea, and most of it is either a paid placement or a personal diary. We do something narrower. Every week we read the new listings at Olive Young, Korea’s largest beauty retailer, and explain them by ingredient list, price in Korean won, and the kind of skin and climate each one suits. We tell you when something is not yet sold outside Korea, and we tell you when a launch is a repackaging rather than a new formula.
Who runs it
Yiyoon Choi, Editor-in-Chief
Yiyoon Choi is the CEO of Likeway Co., Ltd., a Seoul company whose main business is exclusive brand distribution and influencer-led sales for Korean brands. Through Likeway she also developed, manufactured and sold the cashmere label Scrollday. She is the exclusive distributor of CELLVISION at-home beauty devices and is currently building distribution for Korean skincare in the Middle East.
Before that, she built a career in floral design and media. She trained as a florist in Paris (Catherine Muller diploma), London (Paula Pryke) and Tokyo (Hibiya-Kadan), and in 2013 founded the Seoul floral studio Fiore Yoon. From 2015 to 2021 she wrote a regular flower column for the Korean women’s magazine Women Chosun (여성조선). She was flower director for the films Veteran (2015) and Special Investigation: Letter from a Death Row Inmate (특별수사: 사형수의 편지), the 21st Chunsa Film Awards and the tvN drama Cinderella and the Four Knights, chaired the Seoul Florists’ Cooperative from 2016, and served as creative director of an exclusive pop-up at Lotte Department Store from 2019 to 2021.
Earlier in her career she was a body model for Korean film and advertising, appeared on tvN’s reality show Hwaseongin Virus in 2012 in an episode following her world spa tour, which included a spa session hosted by Philippe Hennessy, founder of the US spa skincare brand Pevonia (Hankyung coverage), and, under her Chinese name 崔理允, appeared on Shanghai Dragon TV’s fashion programme Shishang Hui (时尚汇) in 2013. She reads Korean product listings, trade pricing and ingredient disclosures as part of her work, and this magazine is where she explains them to a general reader.
She writes the Sunday Editor’s Desk column herself and approves the editorial rules that every other article follows. Every week she visits an Olive Young store in Seoul to photograph the new displays, and she buys products with her own money to try in person. Her notes and photos are labeled in each article.
Connect: Likeway Co., Ltd. · Blog · Instagram
What we cover
- New Arrivals — a weekly digest of what just landed at Olive Young and which launches are worth ordering internationally
- Product Briefs — one product, read ingredient by ingredient: what it does, who it suits, what it costs in Korea
- Ingredients — the actives showing up most in new Korean launches, explained in plain language
- Skin Type Guides — new launches ranked for oily, dry, sensitive, combination, acne-prone and mature skin
- Device Pairings — which hydrating products work with at-home ultrasound devices, and which to keep away from them
- Middle East — notes for readers in hot, dry climates, including alcohol-free formulas and where to buy locally
- Editor’s Desk — Yiyoon’s own column, the only place on this site written in the first person
How we work
We do not accept payment for coverage from the brands we write about. We do earn commissions from some retailer links, and our editor has a commercial interest in CELLVISION devices, which we disclose at the top of every article that mentions them. Full details are in our Editorial Policy and Disclosure.
Contact
Corrections, questions and sourcing inquiries: Contact.
The K-Beauty Review is published by Likeway Co., Ltd., Seoul, Republic of Korea. Business registration 799-88-02519.