u/deadmangos

This post is about a korean-claimed (=products are made in Korea, brand lists under "korean skincare" on yesstyle) sun-focused skincare brand called TAGE. The products seem interesting, but as the great James Welsh has coined some brands (not yet this one as far as I'm aware of) as "cosplaying kbeauty", that is something I prefer avoiding just out of personal preference, hence the discussion;

While this brand seems to be more "kbeauty" than Epii, I still find myself being a little confused about how it came to be so out of nowhere into everybody's SPF favorites this summer, considering that the brand opened its tiktok account in march 2026.

https://preview.redd.it/1f1l1mw7zxjh1.png?width=508&format=png&auto=webp&s=ed2e6ce620fc384aaa410440297e829a9dd13054

I tend feel a little suspicious when a new "Kbeauty" brand highlights its origins. "Korea's sun specialist", they claim, but we all know that title would more likely belong to Round Lab... Of course you can self-title yourself in a flattering manner, but to me this seems more like a deliberate "we are THE kbeauty made in korea, korean sun care SPF brand (did you notice we said 'korean' yet?)" -campaign followed by continuous yesstyle discounts, plenty of sponsored/gifted posts on tiktok and so on. Nothing new, but also, not how you build an unbiased and trusted reviewing base on your brand (imo).

So, let's look further into the brand. It was hard to find anything about when the brand was launched, but there are some silver linings, so to say.

This is on yesstyle. As you can see, a lot of talk about why they are great, not really about where they came from. They make making an SPF sound like rocket science while all brands have at least one...

So here, on skin-seoul, you can actually see the establishing date, which however is interesting because either this brand has flown a mile past my head, or they haven't really done much in 10 years. 2015? Let me know in the comments when is the first time you saw them anywhere.

And lastly, their own about -page. Plenty of wordplay and buzzwords, and I highly recommend you to look up what \"clinically tested\" really means (spoiler alert: not much.)

However, there is something that I found to bring me some hope into this research, if you can call it that. They do seem to also have the web-page of their own in Korean, as well as a korean instagram account:

https://preview.redd.it/g7smtm8nzxjh1.png?width=446&format=png&auto=webp&s=90f3c465aeb4425827dd3a6d61721435e8a13093

Is it popular? Not really. But if they are a korean brand trying to also make a name in korea, it definitely adds positively to how I would view them as a brand. That is, since I have grown really tired of these brands that just produce their products in korea and market it loudly as K-beauty towards the western folks that will run after every trend that gets pushed enough (by the brand itself) on tiktok.

First I looked at their global links and it's looking more like one of those brands that I just spoke of. Platforms where their products are available; yesstyle, k-secret, Jolse, stylekorean and their official website. Their korean linktree however, does bring some interesting points; they are sold on Olive young, which is expensive and difficult to get into but can be also played for inauthentic popularity (referencing this post here, no personal experience. And of course, it's been since deleted, but comments do give some context...)

Also, when I went to read the shop guide on their own website, you can see that their returns go to Korea.

So, I have to admit, I have a hard time understanding their brand identity. They clearly push the "korean" in their marketing which locals obviously don't need to be hearing, so the marketing is towards a western audience. But they also seem to have korean roots, at least to some extend...

Which is why, if you have read this far, I would love to hear your thoughts. Have you seen this brand around, and have you found it odd in one way or another? Has it struck you as a "western-targeting brand cosplaying as k-beauty" such as certain brands, or is it more like skin1004 and BoJ for example which are simply targeted to the west but more so genuinely korean in their roots? Let me know!

I only have space for a calming or hydrating serum realistically in the evening, so I wanted to ask fellow active-enjoyers; do you use any other serums or essences than your vitamin c and azelaic acid?

Background on the subject:

Since I’m on Taz for acne and I use the mentioned serums for dealing with spots, brightening and prevention, there isn’t much space to experiment with other serums, but despite that, I find myself shopping different pdrn and centella serums at times. I rarely buy hydrating serums anymore because my cream and toner keep my skin hydrated enough already.

🌞 In the morning it’s like this (on clean skin):

Vitamin C serum (Mixsoon vitamin C 20 serum, 20%), wait for absorption
Toner or some times Aestura atobarrier 365 essence
Azelaic acid (Tirtir - Azelaic Acid 12% Serum)
Eye cream (s.nature aqua soy yogurt eye cream)
Cream (going through different ones but torriden dive in hyaluronic acid soothing cream atm)

So there is clearly very little space for a serum, and neither am I too keen on adding anything extra here. It works under my makeup as it is too.

🌙 In the evening it’s like this (on clean skin):

Tazarotene 0.05% cream, wait for absorption
(Edit: not every night at least yet! 2-3 times a week at best. Dries my skin a lot but works.)
Toner or some times Aestura atobarrier 365 essence
(This is the part where I use a serum that can be calming or hydrating or so)
Eye cream (s.nature aqua soy yogurt eye cream)
Cream (usually something heavier like aestura atobarrier 365 cream or s.nature aqua squalane cream)

Not really any issues in my routine what comes to my skin’s needs.

I’m just interested in hearing what people with similar routines have found to be working for them, if there are any holy grails that you have found to add to the mix or so.

Just to be clear - this discussion involves a new brand that is BEING MARKETED as a K-beauty brand despite their lack of sale presence in South Korea. The discussion involves other k-beauty brands, k-beauty influencers and questionable marketing ethics possibly stemming from a need to fit into the center of the k-beauty scene as soon as possible.

I am not stating anything here as a fact, all material found in this post has been public and I am simply sharing conclusions from them and what could be alleged reasons behind these findings.

This post is about the brand Epii, which claims to be Korean anywhere except their own website. It can be found on Yesstyle, where it claims as follows; ***"***The Korean brand doesn’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach, as it designs skin solutions that respond to your skin’s evolving needs."

So.
I was happy to find out that this brand has not yet been discussed here, possibly due to its lack of presence in current Korean market. However, the brand is being pushed as Korean, in fact, in ways that can be interpreted as belittling towards other brands as a marketing tactic.
Here is proof of such tactics brought up by sunnyfromsunnybread on tiktok.
(This video is made with the brand and is marked as a sponsored ad, but I am not here to forward advertisements but to show this as an example of questionable marketing.)

What makes your factory cleaner than the rest? This claim belittles other brands to put your own brand on a pedestal with questionable methods.

Now you are probably wondering, what else is there, since I decided to make this post. And yes, there is more.

The brand has decided to step on other popular brands' toes by CLEARLY having guidelines for creators to have their promoting videos begin with talking about how "other (popular) barrier creams don't work for you". This is visible in the multiple videos comparing the product (and claiming it to be superior to) dr.Althea 345 cream, LRP cicaplast and others. So not only do they claim superiority over other korean brands for having a "cleaner factory", but they also attempt to promote the products working better than what is currently popular.

Here is many examples which I found on Tiktok.

So that, is part 1. What else have I found?
I believe that there can definitely be big and vocal fans of korean skincare, product loyalists, brand loyalists and such. But what I don't believe, is someone claiming to be purchasing the product for the first time under a video's comments, and then suddenly responding to someone else that they are on their sixth bottle (mind you, this product/brand showed up somewhere in January this year. You are telling me you've used up 5 50ml moisturizers? Okay...). Sarcasm aside; this account was aggressively telling people to buy the product in the comments. And that was not the end of it...

Also claiming that someone could not have gotten closed comadones from it? That's something.

So to my last point where I want to point out that these kind of comments don't end there. On other asianbeauty/kbeauty related reddit subs I found this one account doing practically the same thing as the tiktok account above.

\"You want your skincare product to be made out of a dirty factory?\" right.

As this subreddit has been very good about brands doing astroturfing/questionable marketing, I want to raise awareness of how allegedly such methods could be conducted in broad daylight for people to be influenced to buy things - even under popular asianbeauty/kbeauty -influencers' personal posts, where you maybe wouldn't expect it.

I hope that if there is anything to change from a moderation perspective, give me a chance to change it rather than deleting this post altogether, if that is possible.

This is, in my honest opinion, an important learning experience from the aggressive and volatile marketing behind a lot of new brands trying to establish themselves. Things like these should be a handbook of red flags to look out for when looking up a product, to see if they are all marketing, (undisclosed) ads and buzzwords, or something "worth the hype".