A Scottish Baker, a Korean Lab and the Story Behind belif

In May 1860, in Edinburgh, a former baker's apprentice named Duncan Napier opened an herbal apothecary. He had developed a chronic cough from flour dust, found his way into herbs, joined the Edinburgh Botanical Society and made a cough syrup that people kept asking for. That shop still exists, and it is the inspiration behind belif, a skincare brand that LG Household & Health Care launched in South Korea in 2010. I find that a lovely bit of cross-pollination, Scottish herbalism with a Korean lab behind it. The name sounds like believe, and the brand says a proprietary six-herb blend grown on a farm near Edinburgh sits at the base of every formula. It also says its Bomb Creams became a number one bestselling moisturizer across leading retailers, and one look at the jar explains why: a cooling gel cream that softens on contact. Grid one is the Bomb family, with the True Cream Aqua Bomb, the richer Moisturizing Bomb, a vitamin C cream and a sleeping mask.

Grid two covers the places people forget. The Aqua Bomb Depuffing Eye Gel is a cooling gel with caffeine, hyaluronic acid and niacinamide, and the Moisturizing Eye Bomb is a lightweight cream with peptide, ceramide and squalane, a sensible pair for morning and night. Then the sun. The True Cream Aqua Bomb SPF 45 is a moisturizer and sunscreen in one, and the brand says it goes on without a white cast or greasiness. The Aqua Bomb Korean Glow Sunstick SPF 50+ is a gel stick that looks tinted but goes on clear, made for touch-ups on the go. The brand frames a hydrating sunscreen as a K-beauty secret, and it is the part of Korean skincare I have adopted most happily. Keep the stick in a bag and swipe it over the cheekbones at lunch, which is a better habit than skipping the touch-up altogether.

Grid three is the cleanse-and-prep shelf, with some neighbors from the same country. The Aqua Bomb Jelly Cleanser from belif is a jelly-to-foam wash with Lady's Mantle, and the Aqua Bomb Hydrating Toner is water-based with honeysuckle, baobab and sodium hyaluronate. Beauty of Joseon comes from Sumin Lee, who says she built it on Joseon-era hanbang traditions and the Gyuhap Chongseo, an encyclopedia written by a woman scholar. She remembers her mother saving rice-rinse water as a face wash, and the Glow Replenishing Rice Milk Toner is the modern version, with a moisture layer and a sebum-balancing powder layer. Torriden takes its name from Torridon in the Scottish Highlands, so the edit has a second Scottish thread, and its serum uses five sizes of hyaluronic acid with panthenol and allantoin. What I would skip is dragging a cotton pad hard across the face with the toners. Press a few drops in with clean hands, or wipe gently outward.

I like a brand that tells you where its ideas came from. Here that is a Scottish apothecary, a Korean lab, a rice-water memory and a Highland loch, all ending up on one bathroom shelf. Start with the jar, add an eye product and a sunscreen you will actually wear, and let the toner and serum be the experiments. Hydration is quiet, patient work, and belif built a whole catalog on it.