So, it’s the height of the COVID pandemic. You’re under strict lockdown and living in close quarters with two young children. The only privacy you have—the only time you can be alone—is when you go to the bathroom. So you start to savor those moments. Even doing something as simple as your everyday skincare routine becomes a defiant but blissful moment of self-care.

And that’s what happened to Kiyoung Sung, founder of ReMI Beauty. “Those moments when I could lock the door, I could really recenter myself. As pathetic as that sounds, it was important to me to be able to do that,” says Sung. But then, in those clandestine quiet seconds, Sung looked around her bathroom, and something stuck out that hadn’t really stuck out before.