S1: Welcome in San Diego , it’s Jade Hindman. On today’s show , there’s a lot of buzz around Korean skincare. We’ll learn about the techniques and products to keep our skin glowing. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. If you’re online at all , you might have seen the buzz over Korean beauty products , also known as K-beauty. It’s a booming industry. In fact , South Korea exported a record $11 billion in cosmetics in 2025. Well , now K-beauty has a hub right here in San Diego with the store Seoul Glow Lab. It’s like Seoul , the capital of South Korea. So this Wellness Wednesday , we’re talking about the boom in Korean skincare along with the community and education building around it locally. I’m here with the founder of Soul Glow Lab , Katie Hernandez. Katie , welcome to the show.
S2: Thank you.
S1: And also with us is Sabrina Kim. She’s an esthetician at Soul Glow Lab , and she also runs her own business , Soul Care Standards. So Sabrina , welcome to you too.
S3: Thank you for having us.
S1: So glad to have you both here in studio. Um , before we talk more about the store itself , I’d love to talk about your journeys in skincare.
S2: I started realizing no matter how well I did my makeup or other people’s makeup , that it it was all about the foundation that was underneath. So the older I got , the more I started dabbling into skincare and then when I was pregnant with my daughter. There were a lot of products that I wasn’t able to use anymore. So I started leaning more towards K-beauty because they have a lot more gentle ingredients. Um , and it was just love at first sight from there. Yeah.
S1: Well , Sabrina , how about you ? I hear it started with your family , actually.
S3: Yeah , just being Korean. I grew up around skincare and just overall holistic health in general. It was very much a part of my daily rituals at home. So my mom and my grandma , just watching them apply their skincare and their makeup just since I was a little girl , just really has inspired this career path and really helped shape the ethos behind my brand as well. Wow.
S1: Wow.
S2: If you wanted that type of experience to be able to touch and feel these products that are trending on TikTok shop or even Instagram. Um , there’s not really a lot of places to do that. And you have to travel , you know , two or maybe sometimes even three hours just to have some kind of experience. So I felt like the San Diego community deserved a central hub where they can go locally to and to learn about , uh , to learn about it. The education piece is kind of really important to me as well.
S1: Also , you know , I’m curious. Tell me , you know , for those who don’t know , what is , um , you know , K-beauty , what is , uh , what are the products ? How are they different from other products ? I know you mentioned that there are gentler Katy , but talk to me about that. What ? What encompasses Korean skincare ? Yeah.
S2: So , uh , Eastern and Western practices are very different. Western practices typically focus on actives and kind of fixing problems after they already arise. Whereas eastern Beauty more focuses more on barrier health and just making sure , you know , just starting at the barrier first. It’s a barrier first philosophy. So a lot gentler ingredients and just making sure that you’re taking care of your skin. It is the largest organ and people often forget that. So but I know Sabrina can shed a little bit more light on that as well. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. Just everything is essentially rooted in tradition. So traditional herbal ingredients , traditional rituals that is passed down or through traditional Chinese medicine , traditional Korean medicine as well. So like Katie was mentioning , with the eastern versus Western , you’ll see in facial treatments , the more Western oriented treatments and solutions are very aggressive treatments , just very quick fixes , kind of putting a Band-Aid on your skin concern or skin health in general versus the eastern approach , where you kind of look at the longevity and prevention of these skin concerns and just overall health in general. So very much how can you prevent and also how can you help support longevity versus treating the concern after it’s already happened ? Yeah.
S1: Well , my mother was also an esthetician. And oh yeah. So her her issue with Western skincare products was always that she felt they were too harsh for the skin and actually exacerbated skin issues or caused them in some cases. So the fact that these products that that you’re talking about are much more gentler and preventative is really great , and something that I know the market has needed for a while. You know , for many people , San Diego is seen as really the center for wellness. So how do you think skincare fits into that conversation ? Sabrina.
S3: Like you mentioned , San Diego was such a wellness Mecca. So you’ll see that kind of more through fitness in my experience , especially when it comes to community building as well. Just being in my 20s and on my own personal search for community. I’ve done so many fitness events while in this event’s more holistic health too. So like the Reiki , the sound baths , the sound healing , the community yoga and I’ve been seeing community acupuncture pop up a lot too. But I’m really happy to see you lately as well. Skincare. Kind of getting into that mix. Um , through vendor pop ups , through vendor activation. So a lot more portable treatments. And I’ve done those events as well. So , um , kind of doing express gouache on massages , just kind of sharing that intro to people who are interested but have no idea what they’re even interested in or learning about. So that’s been a really great way for me personally to share soul care standard. And so Glow Lab. Um , so I’ve been kind of seeing. Yeah , that increase in skincare and just skin health in general pop up through wellness events and the wellness community. And in those ways.
S1: You mentioned a type of massage.
S3: Gua sha.
S1:
S3: So it’s originates from traditional Chinese medicine. Um , gua sha kind of translates to scraping sand. So traditionally it was done on the body. It just really helps move , cheer , energy flow and stagnancy. And so it’s very diagnostic. If I’m familiar with cupping therapy and you do cupping on your body and you see the discoloration or the darker marks , lighter marks , and that’s diagnostic to maybe , um , stagnancy in your body , a blood flow that isn’t really flowing , energy that isn’t really flowing. So gua sha , the way that it’s adopted from kind of the harsher body scraping into the more gentler facial massage , it’s just another form of robotic drainage. So it helps deep off , increase circulation oxygen flow and just kind of remove the toxins from your body through lymphatic drainage , essentially. Wow.
S1: Wow. Sounds like a very necessary thing to do. Um , you know , Katie , besides just K-beauty , you’re also focused on building community and supporting other women owned businesses. Talk about how you do that and why that’s important. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So , um , my whole motto is that there’s really room for everybody at the top , and I just want to be a place for community , for education. Um , just an outlet for other women owned businesses locally in San Diego , to just uplift them and put them in front of other audiences. Um , and , you know , a lot of different types of people who maybe wouldn’t have discovered them , you know , organically. So with that , we also do a ton of workshops at Soul Glow Lab. Um , Sabrina hosts a ton of events as well , but we also do work with indie brand founders , and they actually come here straight from Korea. So the San Diego community can learn straight from the source. Um , through my experience , you know , I found that a lot of people are interested in K-beauty and they’re kind of just not sure where to start. The ingredients are so different compared to Western skincare. Um , so there’s just a lot of curiosity , but also , um , there’s really a lot of room for education. So being able to get brand founders in the same room as the community is something that is so rare and so special. Just to be able to be candid and to ask questions , to understand the ethos and origin story behind the brands and the products that you’re actually using.
S1: Well , I know Sabrina mentioned that there are a lot of herbs and things like that in the skincare products. Yes. Talk to me a bit more about what’s in these products that makes them so special. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So , um , there’s several different ingredients , like mugwort , for example. A lot of them are plant based. Sika scintilla is another one that is super popular , and in a an ingredient that’s in a ton of different skincare products just because of the calming ingredients. Um , how it helps inflammation. And it’s suited across many multiple skin types , so it’s really well tolerated. Also , green tea , um , is another popular one as well that you’ll see PDR on as well. Um , not as much of an herb , but just a very popular viral viral ingredient right now. Um , but yeah , so many of them are super gentle and derived from plants. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , Sabrina , you know , I mean , you know , when we’re talking about education , um , there’s a lot of social media buzz around Korean beauty products right now. And with social media comes , uh , misinformation sometimes.
S3: Um , like you mentioned , there’s just so much information overload , especially on TikTok , and also just the commodification of wellness and the marketing angle that a lot of skincare brands do kind of take , especially when it comes to women focused industries , I think. And so a lot of clients will come in and say , I’m using all these products or all these ingredients. And when I ask why , their answer tends to be like , well , I saw it on TikTok , or I saw that it’s trending , so it must be good. Or my friend or family member who has a totally different skin type , um , gave me this and they said it was great for them. And so I think , um , most of the education comes from helping clients understand their own skin. And then also I think the mix up or the disconnect sometimes that I kind of help bridge the gap between is the western versus eastern philosophies of eastern beauty , wellness and skincare , especially Korean skincare. Before you treat , you want to calm and you want to nourish , and sometimes that means less is more. And so just stripping down to the basics , to the foundations and then you get to really nourish your barrier , like Katie mentioned , is the , um , philosophy that K-beauty is rooted in. And so a lot of that misinformation , I feel like just is a conversation. It’s most of the times because clients don’t know their skin too well. And part of my job is helping them really just connect with themselves in that way. Really mind body , spirit energy. Wow.
S1: Wow. Well , and I imagine you have to factor in some extra time into those appointments. Yeah. So thanks for your time. Exactly.
S3: Exactly. I’ve added an extra 15 minutes to each. Yeah , to each treatment just because , um , I mean , I love to chat and my clients love to chat and to learn. And so it’s been really great being inside. So Soglo Cloud because after the treatment , I get to shop with them personally and just show what Soul Glo Lab has to offer , but then also help them write a very personalized skincare routine and just being really , um , accessible just beyond the treatment room as well.
S1: That’s great. And also , listeners might have heard of the popular ten step Korean skincare routine.
S3: Um , I know ten , 11 , 12 steps can sound very excessive , but I think that also kind of speaks to the difference between Western skincare routines versus K-beauty , where I feel like in the US everything is about steps , and so that can sound really excessive. I have a lot of clients saying like , well , that’s not really realistic for me , or like , I don’t have time for that. Whereas K-beauty , it’s more seen as a ritual , so it’s not really steps but function. And so for example , if your skin is really dry or dehydrated. It’s less about the steps and more so about what products can help your skin function better. Help bring back that barrier strength. And so if you kind of switch your mindset or your framework around your skincare routine into more of a skincare ritual , I find I found that that helps just resonates a little bit better with clients , that it’s not about the steps or the number of products , but what is actually effective and what is useful. So it doesn’t need to be ten steps. Sometimes people find that four products or four steps is perfect for them. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. You know , before we go in the you know , I’m curious to know , like , what role has skincare played in your own self-care journeys ? Yeah.
S2: So I mean , for me specifically , I know , um , especially when I was pregnant , it was the one thing that I could do for myself and even , you know , after , um , you know , having my daughter. Um , just making sure that I’m always carving out the time for myself was really important to me. It was also something that I wanted her to be able to witness. So she can grow up knowing that taking care of your skin isn’t selfish. It shouldn’t be a luxury or considered a luxury. It’s our our largest organ and we should really just nourish it like we nourish our bodies and our minds.
S1: And Sabrina , I’ll let you have the last word here.
S3: I think it’s become even more important to me now because I am so hands on with my clients. So , you know , touching people all day , every day kind of can feel depleting. And with that , I’ve noticed that my skin just really reflects on what’s happening internally. So when I’m feeling tired , when I’m feeling stressed , when I’m feeling burnt out or overworked or just maybe not eating the best foods , the best meals , it really shows up in my skin. So it’s kind of helped me get back to the foundations of , you know , holistic wellness overall and how what’s happening internally does reflect what’s happening externally as well.
S1: I’ve been speaking with Katy Hernandez , founder of Soul Glo Lab in Convoy , and Sabrina Kim , esthetician and founder of Soul Care Standard. Katie and Sabrina , thank you so much for joining us. Great conversation.
S4: Thank you for having us.
S1: That’s our show for today.
S5: I’m your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.