It was 2 AM. My one-year-old daughter had just woken up for the third time. I was exhausted. The dark circles under my eyes told the story of countless sleepless nights.

But when I walked into her room, she pointed at her pink balloon near her crib and smiled:

"Bandoun!"

It wasn't exactly "balloon." But to her, it was perfect.

And the way she said it — with such pure joy, such wonder — as if she'd discovered the most magical thing in the world...

The next morning, I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror.

Pregnancy had transformed my body. Sleepless nights had marked my face. And somewhere between diapers and bottles, I'd stopped taking care of myself.

It wasn't vanity. It was silent desperation.

I didn't recognize myself anymore. And this stranger in the mirror judged me every morning.

A Korean friend noticed my distress. She gave me a few K-beauty products from her personal collection.

"It's different," she told me. "It's not just about looking beautiful. It's about feeling beautiful. About caring for yourself the way you'd care for someone you love."

I was skeptical. I'd already tried everything, hadn't I?

But after two weeks of a Korean skincare routine, something changed.

It wasn't just my skin (though yes, it was visibly more radiant).

It was me.

I was hooked. I wanted to try more authentic Korean beauty products. Build my perfect routine.

But where could I find genuine K-beauty products?

Amazon? Counterfeits everywhere.
Local stores? Triple the price or limited selection.
Online sites? Impossible to know if they were legitimate.

I ordered a "Cosrx" serum for $15 from a sketchy website. When it arrived, the packaging looked suspicious. The texture was weird. No batch number.

I'd put a counterfeit product on my face.

That's when I realized: if I, with all my obsessive research, got fooled... how many other women were experiencing the same thing?

One evening, watching my daughter play with her "bandoun," it hit me.

What if I created a place where women could love their skin the same way?

No confusion. No fake products. No judgment.

A place where taking care of your skin isn't an inaccessible luxury, but an act of self-love accessible to all.

Bandoun Online isn't just an e-commerce site for Korean skincare products.

It's a place where:

✨ Asking questions about K-beauty routines is never stupid
✨ Every small victory is celebrated
✨ Your first "glass skin selfie" is shared with pride
✨ You're treated like a friend, not an order number

Because in the end, beauty isn't a destination. It's a journey.

And no one should walk it alone.

Today, when I do my evening Korean skincare routine, my daughter (now older) sometimes watches me.

She doesn't say "bandoun" for balloon anymore. She pronounces it correctly now.

But I've never forgotten that word.

Because it reminds me to see beauty the way she saw it: