Liah Yoo
South Korean entrepreneur and YouTuber (born 1989)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Liah Yoo (born June 17, 1989) is a South Korean entrepreneur and YouTuber who founded KraveBeauty, a skincare company based in the United States.[1] She is one of the earliest English-language creators of K-beauty content on YouTube, where her channel has accumulated more than 1.2 million subscribers.[2] KraveBeauty, which she launched in 2017 with $50,000 in personal savings, promotes a minimalist approach to skincare and became a Certified B Corporation in 2024.[3][4]
Liah Yoo | |
|---|---|
Yoo in 2014 | |
| Born | June 17, 1989 |
| Education | Ewha Womans University (BA, Spatial Design) |
| Occupations | Entrepreneur, YouTuber |
| Known for | KraveBeauty |
| Website | kravebeauty |
Early life and education
Yoo was born on June 17, 1989, in Seoul, South Korea.[3] She attended Ewha Womans University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in spatial design in 2013.[3][5]
Career
YouTube
Yoo began posting skincare content to YouTube in 2011 under the channel name "Yellowy Cream," which she later rebranded under her own name.[2] Her videos focused on Korean beauty routines, product reviews, and skincare education presented in English, which attracted an international audience at a time when few English-language K-beauty channels existed.[2] By 2016, Teen Vogue named her one of "15 Beauty YouTubers to Watch," and she appeared as a panelist on the Korean beauty television program Get It Beauty.[1] As of 2026[update], her channel has more than 1.2 million subscribers and over 90 million cumulative views.[2]
AmorePacific and consulting
From 2013 to 2015, Yoo worked in e-commerce strategy at AmorePacific, South Korea's largest beauty conglomerate.[3] She also provided social media and content marketing consulting for clients including L'Oréal Asia Pacific, L'Occitane Korea, and Pinterest.[6] During this period, her YouTube channel grew to approximately 120,000 subscribers, and she left AmorePacific in 2015 to pursue content creation full-time.[2]
KraveBeauty
Yoo founded KraveBeauty in 2017, investing $50,000 of her own savings without outside funding.[1][3] The company remains entirely bootstrapped.[3] It launched in December 2017 with the Matcha Hemp Hydrating Cleanser as its first product.[1] KraveBeauty promotes what Yoo describes as "slow skincare," deliberately maintaining a capsule lineup of approximately nine products and releasing roughly one new product per year.[7] The company went two years between 2020 and 2022 without introducing any new products, yet sales grew 250 percent year-over-year in 2020.[8] Its best-known product, Great Barrier Relief, is a serum designed to support the skin barrier.[2]
The company is structured as a Public Benefit LLC.[3] In 2024, KraveBeauty received B Corporation certification with a score of 81.6.[4] The company expanded internationally in 2024, entering Sephora Southeast Asia across 39 stores in Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, as well as the UK retailer Cult Beauty.[9] In January 2025, KraveBeauty launched the Plumptuous Lip Jelly, which the company described as the world's first refillable lip oil, featuring a reusable metal applicator that eliminates 76 percent of plastic in future purchases.[10]
Press Reset Ventures
In February 2022, Yoo launched Press Reset Ventures, a $1 million venture fund financed from KraveBeauty's profits, dedicated to investing in sustainable beauty brands.[11]
Advocacy and sustainability
Yoo has been a prominent advocate for reducing overconsumption in the skincare industry. She has given a TEDx talk titled "The best way to solve the climate crisis—for brands and for consumers" at TEDxPCC.[6]
In 2020, KraveBeauty launched its "Slow Down Skincare" initiative, committing to not launching any new products for an entire year while reassessing its portfolio.[8] In 2022, the company launched the #PressReset campaign, encouraging consumers to simplify their skincare routines.[7] That same year, the Waste Me Not initiative repurposed approximately $1.5 million worth of unsaleable product waste by reformulating rejected product bulk into a limited-edition body wash sold at cost.[12] In 2023, KraveBeauty established the Anti-Consumer Consumer Grant, a $15,000 annual award for content creators focused on sustainability.[13]
KraveBeauty has partnered with Women's Earth Alliance to establish an ethical supply chain for tamanu oil sourced from Indonesia, helping women tamanu farmers achieve a more than 50 percent increase in income.[13][14] The company has donated more than $586,000 to causes supporting underrepresented communities over five years.[15] The company holds Climate Neutral certification, is Plastic Neutral certified, and is a member of 1% for the Planet and the Climate Pledge.[16][3]
Speaking engagements
Recognition
- Cosmopolitan, "10 Beauty Game Changers"[6]
- Worth Magazine Impact 150, recognizing companies addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (2024)[19]
- Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards, Honorable Mention in Sustainability (2023)[20]
- Beauty Independent Beacon Awards, Entrepreneur of the Year nominee (2023)[21]
- Very Good Light Lightning Awards, "Thought Starter Brand of 2020"[22]
- WGSN and Byrdie, "Brand to Watch" nominee[6]
- Teen Vogue, "15 Beauty YouTubers to Watch" (2016)[1]