u/Level-Huckleberry-72

Hello! I recently developed a Korean skincare coach AI app and tried using Reddit Ads to promote it.

It was an offer where spending $500 gets you $500, and I thought it was worthwhile, so I tried using about $80 — but there were zero app downloads.

I thought targeting the right channels would make it meaningful, but in the end, I spent about $10 per click across 9 clicks total and still got zero app downloads.

I'm sure some people use it effectively, but I've definitely done my testing. I don't think I'll ever advertise on Reddit again. It seems like advertising on the App Store directly is more effective.

Hi everyone!

I'm a solo developer from Korea, and I've been working on a skincare app as a side project. Before I go further, I really want a reality check from people who actually know K-beauty.

I keep seeing the same (fair) concern about AI skincare tools: they hallucinate. They act like a generic chatbot, confidently tell you to buy things, and they're often just wrong. "I'd rather learn the ingredients myself" is a completely reasonable reaction to that.

That exact problem is what I've spent most of my time on, so I wanted to share how I'm trying to tackle it and get your honest take.

The core idea is that the AI is not allowed to answer from its own "memory." It can only respond using sources I've fed it:

• Public ingredient and product data from Korea's MFDS (the food and drug safety ministry)
• Peer-reviewed research from PubMed

Concretely, when you ask something, it first retrieves the relevant entries from that curated data, and the answer has to be built from those retrieved facts. If there's no supporting data, it's designed to say so rather than invent an answer. So instead of "trust me, I'm an AI," the goal is "here's the specific source this is based on." That's the main thing I built this around: shrinking the room for it to make things up.

The part I care about most is allergy safety. If you tell it your allergies, it maps the specific ingredients and the products that contain them, so it can actively warn you away from something instead of cheerfully recommending it.

But I'd genuinely rather hear honest reactions than pitch it:

• Does "source-backed, and it admits when it doesn't know" actually change how you feel about AI skincare tools? Or is the whole category a no for you regardless?
• For those who'd say "just go to a derm," where would an app like this still fall short in real life?
• If it were useful to you at all, what would it have to do to earn your trust?

Totally fine if the answer is "I'd never use this." That's useful for me to hear too. Thanks for reading!