A small beauty shop, on purpose

A confession first: we like beauty products. Probably a bit too much, which is awkward when you run an Asian beauty shop in Singapore.

Once you start looking at Asian beauty, there's always something else. A new serum, a cute little jar promising to fix a problem you didn't know you had. We've been there plenty of times. At some point we had to ask ourselves something slightly uncomfortable.

Do we really need all of this?

We went looking. We found these.

Beaubit didn't start with a plan to keep the catalogue small. We just started looking for Asian beauty brands we found interesting, the kind we hadn't seen everywhere else. Things that made us stop scrolling.

Then we tried them. We wore them in Singapore, where the weather is very quick to tell you whether something is actually comfortable on skin.

Some were lovely. Others were fine. A few looked a lot better on Instagram than they did on a face. And every now and then, one made us think: oh, this is actually good.

Those stayed. The list got shorter as we went, and we decided that was probably a good thing.

When there's too much to choose from

You know the feeling. You go looking for a moisturiser, and an hour later you're comparing two centella serums that look so alike.

We like having options too. But more choice can also mean more homework. More reviews to read, or a higher chance of buying things we never end up using. It's kind of overwhelming?

So we'd rather do some of that homework for you.

How we choose what we stock

We try things properly. We notice the texture and how it feels an hour later. We check how it holds up in the humidity, whether sunscreen sits nicely under makeup, whether a moisturiser is still comfortable at the end of a long day. Then comes the real test: do we want to use it again tomorrow?

A product can be clever and well reviewed and still not be something we'd reach for. That's fine. It just doesn't need to be in our shop.

Filling every category isn't the goal. The question we keep coming back to is simple. Would we recommend this to a friend?

The Asian beauty brands that stayed

Korean beauty makes up most of our edit. We love what Korean brands are doing, especially products that slot easily into an everyday routine. Being Korean doesn't get a product onto the shelf, though. It still has to prove itself.

Heveblue started with a founder who had sensitive skin and wanted things that wouldn't upset it. It's what we reach for when skin needs a little more care and a little less drama.

SALTRAIN is named after salt and rain: the Korean grey salt it's built around is said to come up best after rain rinses the mudflats. It's also the kind of everyday thing you barely think about until you find one you like. And yes, our edit was never going to stop neatly at the neck. Toothpaste counts.

Shaishaishai calls itself a brand for people who like summer. In Singapore, that's all of us. The one our customers love most is the BANANA PDRN Conceal Eye Cream.

glow is a Seoul brand that does both skincare and makeup. We liked enough of it to carry most of the range, which doesn't happen often around here.

And then Japan happened: our one Japanese pick

We're not a Japanese beauty store and weren't planning to become one. Then Mizu no Irodori Nature Aqua Cream Rose de Argan came along.

We liked it. What actually convinced us, though, was two customers.

They walked in asking us to recommend a cream. We only had samples of this one at the time, so we gave them some to try. Both came back for the full-sized jar.

And both said the same thing: it smells so good. The third person who bought it said it too.

That scent comes from damask rose. There's no added fragrance in it.

It's our one Japanese pick. We didn't need more brands, and we certainly weren't trying to make the catalogue look complete. Our customers made that call for us, really. So it stayed.

What "curated" actually means to us

"Curated" can sound like a fancy word for a nicely arranged shelf. For us it's less glamorous. Mostly it means saying no.

We don't stock something just because everyone's talking about it, or add a serum because there's a gap under "Serums" on the website. We'd rather carry one really good product than ten versions of the same idea.

Sometimes it means telling you plainly: we tried it, we didn't love it, so it's not here. 

Maybe you don't need more

You might need something new, or something better. You might already have enough.

We won't try to convince you that every launch is essential. There will always be the next overnight mask promising to change your life by Tuesday. We'll keep trying things, and we'll still get carried away now and then. We just won't bring everything back with us.

What we'd like Beaubit to be is the place where you find a few good ones without searching so hard. And maybe scroll a little less.

FAQs

Is Beaubit a K-beauty-only store?
No. Korean beauty makes up most of our edit, but we also carry a small selection of Japanese and other Asian beauty. We choose by product, not by trying to complete a list of countries.

Why does Beaubit carry fewer brands than other beauty stores?
Because we try everything ourselves before bringing it in. We'd rather have a smaller selection we genuinely like than hundreds of products we've never used.

Where can I buy Korean skincare in Singapore?
Beaubit is a Singapore-based shop with a curated selection of Asian beauty, and Korean beauty makes up most of it.

Does Beaubit stock Japanese beauty?
Yes, selectively. Mizu no Irodori Nature Aqua Cream Rose de Argan is currently our one Japanese pick.

How does Beaubit choose its products?
We look at the formulation, how it performs, how it feels in real life, and whether we'd actually use it ourselves. Trends might catch our eye, but they don't decide what goes on the shelf.