Hyangii

Korean skincare traditions + Plant based ingredients

I grew up watching the Korean women of my family care for their skin with a series of perfumed products contained in fancy glass bottles prominently residing on their vanities. It wasn’t until I was nearly forty years old and noticed that my health had deteriorated under the pressures of work and family, that I too, started taking care of my skin.

Instead of using artificially coloured and fragranced cosmetics housed in excessive packaging, I started to experiment with the same herbs, extracts and oils that I was using to feed my family. I chose minimal, functional, recyclable packaging, choosing instead to invest time and money in acquiring the highest quality ingredients I could find —it was for my own personal use, after all.

My friends and family benefitted as well as I shared the bounty of the harvest. I shared my “skin food” with them the same way I share my chicken soup when I have made too much. In my mind, sharing with family and friends thereby reducing the cost per person, justified the expense of an all-consuming deep-dive into a luxurious new obsession. Sharing was caring, but never in my wildest imagination did I think there was a market for my “potions”.

My goal was to slow the signs of skin aging—a lofty enough goal— but with consistent use, these formulas slowly improved the skin’s health via improved skin barrier function and improved its quality, texture, elasticity and tone. The fact that it visibly improved the health of the skin over the long term was a benefit that had my family, friends, and friends-and-family-of-friends coming back for more. Thus, Hyangii skincare was born.

Just as eating clean, nourishing whole foods slowly improves health of the body, I believe that nourishing ingredients in skin care slowly improves the health of the skin as well. I hope you enjoy this plant-based, multi-step skin care tradition as much as I do, and make it part of your daily ritual to nourish your self, skin and soul.