Korean Inspired Shark Sauce Made with Love

Taking over social media with her cult must-have K-inspired beauty product—Shark Sauce— Chel Cortes, founder of her holysnailsblog.com @holysnailsblog chronicles her journey to create that one epic skincare product based on the K-beauty approach.

Her Interest in K-Beauty

“What interested me in K-beauty at first was that it was so drastically different from the typical ‘American’ approach to skincare, which was basically if you were under 40, you should wash your face, ‘tone’ with an astringent solution, and then slap on a moisturizer. If you’re older, add an anti-aging serum. With K-beauty, irrespective of age, you’re already concerned with stacking layers of hydration, to preserve youthful skin, to prevent further damage, as early and regularly as possible. The focus is on babying your skin. There were even special techniques that got pretty popular, in how to apply your toner versus your moisturizer, or even how long to have the cleansers on your face, to maximize the benefits. It was such a refreshing approach to skincare, and I saw from just the first few days what a gentle, layered approach could do for my skin.”

The Shark Sauce Journey

“Shark Sauce literally unfolded on social media in the most organic way. I had bought some ingredients to attempt to DIY some skincare that weren’t accessible to me/in existence at the time, and my friend (Jude Chao/Fifty Shades of Snail) was musing on Instagram that she wished there could be a serum those certain ingredients. I replied that if she was willing to test it, I actually have those ingredients, and can make her something the next day. To me, its success is shocking, but at the same time, it makes sense. It was something created to fill a need—everything that’s in it is there to help your skin.”

Future Products

“I’m constantly testing out new recipes, and we are always releasing new Sauce du Mois flavors, but I think we’re getting really close to ready to release our moisturizer, the Tres Leches cream, which has been in development for ages. It will have, as the name states, three milks: donkey, goat, and camel, to just name a few great ingredients. It’s super moisturizing while being light and sinks in like a dream instead of being sticky.”

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