Silent co-opting within the beauty space was rampant.
Asian beauty influence is everywhere.
Shiseido released the first essence in1897.
SK-II was founded in1980, with its famous Facial Treatment Essence.
Still, these now-popular products flew under the US radar for quite some time.
Unless you had proximity to these Asian beauty niches, access to these products were limited.
Unsplash/Design by Cristina Cianci
My mother is a Chinese immigrant and a child of the cultural revolution.
As a result, she kept a very ascetic beauty routine.
She instructed me to cleanse with a washcloth and apply moisturizerthat’s it.
Unsplash/Design by Cristina Cianci
My parents disapproved of these cosmetics, but I was enchanted.
I still remember the sheet masks my sister bought in a Chinatown grocery store.
I refused to share my masks with my non-Asian friends.
Unsplash/Design by Cristina Cianci
Those masks were little treasures for me; made for people like me, by people like me.
It was a feeling I had never experienced before: the feeling of being seen.
By 2016, I started to curate my own routine of products.
Slowly but surely, Asian culture wasnt just some weird niche.
Those masks were little treasures for me; made for people like me, by people like me.
It was a feeling I had never experienced before: the feeling of being seen.
Everyone began preaching the virtues of extensive, multi-step skincare routines.
It was a shock and delight to start seeing Missha and makep:rem at Target.
I remember the first time I saw a cushion-compact foundation at CVS.
Asian beauty culture was changing the U.S. beauty landscape.
Sharing culture is beautiful, but it’s also a deeply unsettling task for Asian Americans.
“Can you even imagine eating that?”
they all seemed to say to each other, as though I was some kind of feral dog.
At the same time, their eyes lit up at the sight of chocolate Pocky and milk candies.
Same thing with Asian music, cartoons, and media.
My classmates saw me as a weirdo for listening to TVXQ and watchingNaruto.
Now, everyone listens to BTS and streamsDemon Slayeron Netflix.
Think about the history behind that culture and experiences people of that culture face today.
Whenever I wash my face and pat essence into my skin, I think about my culture.
I think about how we have been diminished and othered for so long, until we served a purpose.
We are people, we are alive, and we are finally taking up spaceright on peoples vanities.
