Charlotte Cho on slow care that builds over time

Ten products in six years says almost everything about Then I Met You. Each formula is touched, rested and kept only when the feel earns a place in the morning.

A message about a gel cream started this lesson. Readers liked the habit but not the touch, and asked for something lighter and juicier with plants still present. Cho withdrew the earlier cream and worked with chemists in South Korea until Bong² Bounce Cream arrived, now second among best sellers in the range.

Charlotte Cho has spent over 15 years finding, trialing and bringing Korean skincare to millions. As an esthetician, Soko Glam founder and author, she shaped how many people scan an ingredient panel. She launched Soko Glam with her husband Dave Cho, then started Then I Met You in 2018 to create the formulas she had always wanted.

The label is headquartered in the United States and each recipe is built in South Korea alongside leading cosmetic chemists. Its core is jeong, a Korean idea of deep care and connection that accumulates with time. The pledge is skilled formulas that join Korean invention, considered textures and clinically tested outcomes.

What stands out is the holding back. For the entire first year Then I Met You traded only through its own website and took no Soko Glam traffic. It avoids chasing each fad. It favors one or two releases per year, and conversation among users over paid reach. Felt slowly, this is plant centered skincare that treats cleansing as soil and hydration as the daily pick.

Your Living Cleansing Balm at 39 dollars for 90 grams stays the hero from 2018, rubbed over dry skin as the opening cleanse. What did you want that opening touch to feel like on skin.

Thanks for noticing the detail. I wanted cleansing to feel like caring for soil, not scouring it. Our well known cleansing balm dissolves sunscreen, makeup, excess sebum and other oil based buildup without leaving skin tight or stinging eyes. You work it over dry skin as an initial cleanse and it loosens all the day leaves.

That stage counts because glass skin begins with a settled barrier. A balm that respects skin helps later layers settle in. It debuted in 2018 as our hero and stays a best seller, named as the ideal cleansing duo beginning with our Soothing Tea Cleansing Gel. When someone is fresh to us, I suggest they begin at the basin, with warm hands, dry skin and unhurried time. Press, knead, rinse. That touch showed people who we are.

You describe jeong as deep care and connection that builds over time, and you return to glass skin and skin first philosophy. How does jeong shift a formula choice in the lab.

Jeong sits beneath all we make. It is a Korean term that names a deep emotional tie, and for me it calls for formulating with sustained attention rather than brief curiosity. Korean beauty was never centered on a single product, a single category or even a single label. It has held a skin first philosophy.

In practice that leads me to favor one or two introductions a year over following each skincare wave. Though we are six years in, we hold only 10 products. That reflects the deliberation inside the label. We exist to craft steady favorites and keep community confidence, so I aim only to shape distinctive formulas that show results. A plant extract must justify its spot by what it brings to skin, in feel and through regular use, not merely because it reads botanical.

You retired a gel cream after community notes on texture, then created Bong² Bounce Cream with Hallabong extract and ceramides. What did the visit teach you in that moment.

People taught me to hear and respond. I carried this feedback closely and chose to withdraw a product and attempt a different style of gel cream. Now, among the 10 products we carry, the Bong Bounce Cream ranks as our number two seller.

Shoppers asked for a featherweight gel barrier cream that still felt supportive. We looked to Hallabong, a citrus cultivated on Jeju island and full of vitamin C, for that vivid rush of hydration and juicy finish. We matched it with ceramides to support the look of an even barrier. You press the gel cream on as the moisturizer stage to lock in hydration. It looks dewy without weight. That orchard note, citrus above a soft ceramide cushion, is what gives the bounce. When a formula breaks the ritual, I would rather pull it back and replant than argue for it.

We exist to craft steady favorites and keep community confidence.

Charlotte Cho

The Giving Essence centers on 78 percent naturally fermented ingredients with 5 percent niacinamide, layered after toner as fluid hydration. Why ferment, and why choose that exact pairing.

Fermentation lets us draw more from plants. As ingredients steep and ferment, dense botanical matter divides into smaller, more even portions that rest comfortably in a light liquid. The Giving Essence holds a proprietary mix of 78 percent naturally fermented ingredients and a balanced 5 percent level of niacinamide.

I value that match because it unites garden and laboratory without friction. The fermented foundation supplies the fluid glide and stacked hydration linked to essences, usually smoothed on after toner. Niacinamide supports the look of more even tone and a stronger appearing barrier. We held the level at 5 percent because it performs in everyday use and feels comfortable across many skin types. Press with palms, allow it to settle, then close. One ritual at a time.

You work with leading chemists in South Korea while keeping a skin first philosophy rooted in Korean practice. What does that teamwork feel like across a harvest year.

It feels deliberately unhurried. Each formula is made in South Korea with leading cosmetic chemists, uniting Korean invention with proven actives. I contribute what I gathered from assessing thousands of products and collaborating with Korea’s leading beauty creators. They contribute method knowledge, stability trials and entry to newer botanical fractions.

We review the plant origin, the season, the extraction and its conduct in texture. A Hallabong extract that smells bright in glassware can turn sharp inside a jar. A fermented fluid can thin a cream. We revise, let the batch sit, assess again. I prefer months spent on steeping ratios and pH to hurrying toward a calendar opening. That is how we sustain pleasing textures and steady outcomes. Fresh invention matters little when the daily ritual fails to feel good enough to repeat.

Your Snail Mucin Eye Cream pairs 30 percent Snail Mucin Complex with 5 percent Volufiline to visibly plump, firm and soften fine lines. How should someone press such a rich treatment around the eyes.

With gentle hands and regularity. Smooth a small amount around the eye zone to plump and soften, morning and night. Soften between ring fingers, then tap lightly along the orbital bone. Avoid dragging.

Snail mucin appeals because it offers hydrating polysaccharides and proteins that help skin appear sleek and supple. In our clinically tested eye cream, the 30 percent Snail Mucin Complex joins 5 percent Volufiline to support the look of firmness and ease the appearance of fine lines. It is a prize winning best seller, regularly shown in limited edition pairs, because users notice the shift in texture through continued use. Maintain a slim layer. Allow it to sink in before sunscreen or makeup. Ritual counts as much as formula in this spot.

If you do not have a community, then you do not have a brand, and word of mouth stays your most powerful form of awareness. How do you earn trust without leaning on paid media.

Through nearness and candor. Without a community holding it, there is no brand at all. A label cannot expand in this very crowded beauty space without word of mouth, and that remains the strongest kind of marketing or brand awareness.

So we decline to scale through advertising spend alone. We explain application, we respond to questions, we acknowledge when a texture falls short. It requires years and years to earn confidence, yet you can lose it overnight too. So we print routines, we demonstrate the double cleanse, the essence press, the gel cream close. We hold the collection narrow so every product can turn into a regular favorite for someone. Confidence forms at the basin and at the vanity, not in promises.

You began in 2018 with just Living Cleansing Balm and Soothing Tea Cleansing Gel, and you kept the young brand off the Soko Glam platform for a full year. What did that separation protect.

Appreciate you tracing us that carefully. I wanted Then I Met You to carry its own distinct brand story. The reason we avoided beginning under a Soko Glam brand name is that I wanted Soko Glam to stand on its own two feet. I will never leave the Soko Glam curation. We enjoy collaborating with our partners, our labels. We share a truly warm relationship with them.

So we opened with only two cleansers, a Living Cleansing Balm and a Soothing Tea Cleansing Gel, together forming the ideal cleansing pair. For the initial full year we traded solely through our own site. I have evaluated hundreds and thousands of products across the years, seeing steady invention plus talking with manufacturers and chemists ready to share and create with me. I wished this range to validate itself one ritual at a time, without borrowed visits. That calm beginning allowed jeong to form organically between us and the community.

From Cult Beauty in 2021 to Space NK online and 33 stores in 2024, including Manchester Trafford Centre, you grew with care. What guides where you settle and root next.

Attention guides us. I have not measured it yet, truthfully. I simply wish to ensure we truly, carefully direct expansion. Every retail partner has to love the ritual and promise to show it by hand.

Entry at Cult Beauty introduced us to a crowd already fluent in ingredient lists. Our physical debut in the UK at Space NK, online and across 33 shops, with a gondola at the newest Space NK shop in Manchester Trafford Centre through December, allowed people to test texture before purchase. That touch counts for balms and gel creams on real fingertips and cheeks. Going forward, we will retain a compact shelf and straightforward teaching. One or two arrivals yearly, only when standouts. Roots grip stronger when you avoid overplanting.

Closing note from the desk

What lingers is the editing by touch. Cho withdrew a formula that failed the fingertip test, held the shelf at ten, and let a citrus gel show that attention can shape chemistry. The work feels tended rather than tight, soil turned gently before fresh growth appears.

Then I Met You sought to blend Korean beauty practice with an American esthetician lens, and to shape glass skin outcomes through sensory ritual. Cleanse first, press essence next, close with moisture. Felt slowly, that sequence still stands.

Product spotlight

Living Cleansing Balm feels soft at 90 grams for 39 dollars with a 15 dollar travel size at 20 grams. An opening cleanse that loosens sunscreen, makeup and excess sebum without tightness or eye sting. Knead over dry skin with warm hands, add water to turn milky, rinse, then continue with a water based second cleanse.

Bong² Bounce Cream feels bouncy at 50 mL for 46 dollars with a 17 dollar travel size at 15 mL. A featherweight gel barrier cream holding Vitamin C rich Hallabong extract plus ceramides for juicy, springy hydration. Press on as the moisturizer stage to hold essence and support the look of dewy, even skin.