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Eight amazing Asian-founded beauty brands to shop and support

Beauty expert Renée Tse highlights her top picks, and the founders behind them.

The Social

May 4, 2021 12:39 p.m. EST

The North American beauty industry wouldn’t be what it is today without the influences of Asian beauty philosophies and formulations. Right now and always, it’s important support Asian communities - and that includes those in the beauty world.

From lip masks to bundles, beauty expert Renée Tse highlighted some of her favourite Asian-Canadian and Asian-American brands and products. Not only that, but she shared put a spotlight on the founders behind them, and the great world they're doing in the beauty world.

Find Renée's picks below, and be sure to watch the video above for more expert beauty advice!

Wyld The Babyface Bundle

Growing up never being good enough and dubbed “too wild,” Joy Yap launched her skincare brand Wyld (pronounced “wild” and an acronym for “What You Love Doing”) to fully embrace it. The brand’s hero product is a biodegradable konjac sponge infused with antibacterial bamboo charcoal that absorbs excess oil and zaps bacteria as you cleanse. Use with Wyld’s gentle gel cleanser which features nourishing plant oils and marine plant extracts to cleanse, hydrate and protect without stripping skin of healthy protective oils.

wyld | $65 USD

Then I Met You The Giving Essence

Then I Met You was founded by go-to K-beauty expert, Charlotte Cho. The Giving Essence is a bestselling treatment essence infused with a cocktail of powerful ingredients like naturally fermented yeast, antioxidant-rich red algae and berries to hydrate, brighten and revitalize your skin for a healthy glow.⁠ After cleansing your skin, apply toner and then essence.

Soko Glam | $50 USD

Glow Recipe Avocado Ceramide Redness Relief Serum

After years of curating the best of K-beauty and bringing over much-loved brands stateside, Korean-American founders Christine Chang and Sarah Lee decided to launch their own clean and unapologetically fun skincare brand, Glow Recipe. The new Avocado Ceramide Redness Relief Serum is a lightweight, milky serum that helps soothe stressed-out skin and protect the skin barrier using five different skin-soothing ceramides, along with ingredients like rice milk anti-inflammatory ginger and antioxidant-rich avocado.

Sephora | $56

Three Ships Buttercream Hydrating Lip Mask

Frustrated by the big price tag for high-quality natural skincare products, co-founders Connie Lo and Laura Burget, launched Three Ships in 2017 in Connie’s Toronto apartment kitchen. Made with 100 percent natural ingredients and certified cruelty-free, Three Ships is all about proven skincare results at an affordable price. This new hydrating lip mask contains natural sunflower, coconut, and avocado oils to deeply replenish moisture to dry lips. Keep it on your nightstand and use overnight for extra soft lips when you wake up.

Three Ships Beauty | $23

Naked Beauty Bar Body Balm

Naked Beauty Bar was founded by first gen Filipino-Canadians sisters Gabrielle and Julia Bautista. They collaborated with fellow Canadian natural skincare brand, F. Miller, to create genderless, multipurpose products that cater to their nail salon clientele, and now we can enjoy their in-shop products at home. This body balm is formulated with organic cacao butter, fair-trade shea butter, organic sunflower seed oil and organic Canadian hemp seed oil. It soothes dry skin, helps to repair the skin’s protective barrier and leaves a radiant glow without a greasy finish.

Naked Beauty Bar | $80 (8 oz)

Tatcha The Silk Powder Protective Setting Powder

Tatcha which was founded by Taiwanese-American Vicky Tsai after a trip to Kyoto. Tsai was suffering from acute dermatitis, and after a serendipitous meet-cute with a modern-day geisha who shared her beauty secrets, she worked with scientists in Japan and the United States to create Tatcha. This talc-free setting powder not only gives you a soft-radiant finish, but can help shield your skin from pollution and blue light thanks to the amino acid-rich silk extracts, Japanese pearl and Tatcha’s complex Hadasei-3.

Sephora | $63

Live Tinted Huestick in Balance

Deepica Mutyala launched Live Tinted, an inclusive digital community that explores diverse beauty for “every shade in between.” The Huestick is an ultra-creamy multi-stick made to balance out dark circles, dark spots and hyper-pigmentation. Packed with hyaluronic acid, squalane, vitamins C + E, this buildable, blendable, weightless semi-matte colour stick is easy to use, and good for your skin. Win-win.

Live Tinted | $30

Velour Pretty Big Deal Mascara

Velour founder Mabel Lee loved the look of false lashes, but was often disappointed by the quality of lashes on the market. So, she and her best friend decided they’d create their own fake lashes to mimic the look and feel of real ones, and Velour was born. Today, on top of cruelty-free and vegan lashes, the brand offers various other eye products, including the new Pretty Big Deal Mascara. It’s a 3-in-1 Lash Serum, Lash Shield and Mascara. Filled with a blend of nourishing peptides and high-performance ingredients like Shea Butter, Castor Oil and Sodium Hyaluronate, this mascara helps lengthen, strengthen and protect.

Sephora | $36