Redefining Wellness, Young Lee @be_youngggg @aruen.us
Meet Young Lee, the Founder and Visionary Behind ARUEN
For the founder behind ARUEN, her path into skincare began when her health and sense of self fell out of balance—and her skin was the first place to reflect the strain. Turning away from quick fixes and harsh formulas, she found healing in the memory of her grandmother’s tofu and the deeply rooted Korean philosophy of jeong—care shown through consistency, loyalty, and showing up for someone again and again.
What began as a personal journey to restore her own skin barrier soon evolved into a skincare brand. Merging generations of family wisdom with proven science, she built ARUEN to create formulas that nourish, protect, and honor time-tested ingredients.
Whether she’s preparing for local pop-ups across the Bay Area or formulating new products, her mission remains clear: redefining wellness on your own terms and delivering quiet, reliable care to your daily skincare ritual. Dive into her story as we talk about her journey navigating the realities of entrepreneurship and bringing ancient wisdom into modern skincare.
What made you curious about the beauty skincare business?
It wasn't really curiosity, it was necessity. I went through a period where my hormones and my sense of self completely fell apart, and my skin was the first place it showed up: inflamed, exhausted, breaking out. What brought me back wasn't a product, it was my grandmother's homemade tofu, made fresh every morning on her stone mill. Years later, when I actually researched why it worked, I found real science behind it — isoflavones that support hormonal balance, skin renewal, and collagen. That's the moment "curiosity" turned into "conviction." I didn't get into skincare to sell something. I got into it because I'd lived the before and after, and I wanted to build the thing I wish I'd had.
What is something about the beauty skincare business that you think more people should know about?
That "natural" doesn't mean weak. A lot of people assume gentle ingredients can't also be powerful — that you need something heavily chemical to actually see results. I disagree. Ingredients that come straight from nature have been used for thousands of years, refined by generations of real people using them on real skin, long before a lab ever tested them. That kind of track record is its own kind of proof. I'd rather trust something time has already validated than reach for the strongest, harshest thing on the shelf — which is exactly the philosophy behind everything we make at ARUEN.
Can you tell us about key milestones and significant events that have shaped your business’s journey up to the present day? (i.e. Jan 2023 - Established LLC for business, Mar 2023 - Officially opened business, etc.)
Jan 2023 — Launched Korea's first fiber-focused inner beauty brand.
Early 2025 — Launched ARUEN as a skincare brand, with the goal of taking that same philosophy global.
Summer 2025 — Our Tofu Collagen™ Dual-Firming Jelly Cream was born — our first true product, and the one closest to my heart.
September 2026 — We're launching two new products: our Seaweed PDRN Gua Sha Balm and our Blue Peptide + Ginseng PDRN Eye Cream. These have gotten an incredible reaction since the very first samples, so I'm genuinely excited for people to try them!
Tell us about the product/service you are most proud of.
The Tofu Collagen™ Dual-Firming Jelly Cream, hands down. It was our first product, and it carries my grandmother's wisdom in it exactly as it was passed down to me — that's reason enough to be proud. But it's also been humbling to watch people actually respond to it: we've sold over 15,000 units in the U.S., it has 600+ reviews on TikTok Shop with a 4.8 out of 5 rating, and our repurchase rate is over 30%. Knowing that this many people love something that started as a memory of my grandmother — it means everything. She's incredibly proud of it too. Going forward, this is the direction I want to keep building in: expanding ARUEN through ingredients rooted in jeong (정) — that distinctly Korean idea of care shown through consistency, loyalty, and quietly showing up for someone, again and again.
What is an aspect of being an entrepreneur that forced you to learn something new?
Learning to be a professional, not just a person with a personal story. No matter how much heart or personal history went into a product, it's still something people put on their face — it has to be safe, it has to be effective, and I can't lean on emotion alone to make that case. I had to learn to run this like an actual business: rigorous, accountable, professional — not just meaningful.
As the founder, what does your personal ritual with the Tofu Collagen™ Dual-Firming Jelly Cream look like? How do you adapt its cushiony texture between your morning routine and evening wind-down?
In the morning, I use it as my makeup base — it gives my skin that smooth, hydrated canvas I want before anything else goes on. At night is when I really love it, though. It's rich and thick, so two or three times a week I use it like a mask: I pile on a generous amount instead of massaging it in right away, and just let it sit. It feels like it locks in a whole layer of moisture. I wake up the next morning and my skin is genuinely glowing — plump, dewy, like it's holding water. That's the moment I look forward to.
Between managing operations, marketing, and product development, what does a typical day look like for you as CEO of Aruen?
Honestly, it's just the two of us — me and my co-founder, who's also my husband. No big team, no departments — we hustle and do it all ourselves. Right now, a huge chunk of our days are going toward a 10-day pop-up we're running in September at Jagalchi Market in Daly City, right outside San Francisco. We're launching our new products at the same time, so between prepping the pop-up and getting the launch marketing ready, that's basically eating up all of our time these days.
Your grandmother passed down a daily ritual that eventually sparked a global brand. As a founder today, what kind of culture or wisdom are you actively trying to pass down to your employees and leadership team at Aruen?
We're still small, but if ARUEN grows into a bigger team someday, I want that same spirit — jeong(that distinctly Korean idea of care shown through consistency, loyalty, and quietly showing up for someone) — to be the foundation. Not a cold, transactional workplace, but one where people genuinely look out for each other: checking in, asking about each other's parents, treating the team like family instead of headcount. That's the culture I want to build, no matter how big we get.
Looking ahead 5 to 10 years, what impact do you hope your career and your brand leave on the beauty and wellness industry?
I hope ARUEN proves that wellness doesn't have to look one way. For years I thought healing meant becoming calm and quiet — but the most "myself" I've ever felt is with headphones on, bass dropping at 2am. I want the industry to stop selling one version of "well" and start making room for however people actually come alive. And on a bigger scale — I hope we build a real culture of jeong: people looking after each other the way my grandmother looked after me, passed on and multiplied, not just in Korea, but everywhere.
What is the last thing you were curious about?
Honestly, my DJ debut! What started as a hobby has turned into something I'm seriously preparing for. I've been deep diving into the perfect setlist, all to get ready to actually perform in front of people for the first time.
What can the community help you with?
I'd love for this community to help me connect with more Asian female entrepreneur to get to know their stories, their journeys, and build real relationships along the way. ARUEN was born out of a very personal, very Korean idea of care (jeong), and I'd love for that same spirit to grow through this community.
Share another Asian-women-owned small business or entrepreneur that inspires you!
TofuGo snacks(https://www.tofugosnacks.com/)
Caroline Dai, the founder of Tofu Go! She's making protein snacks out of tofu, and I love her for it, we're both certified tofu addicts, haha. What really inspires me is how she's taking something most people write off as 'boring' and making it feel fresh, fun, and genuinely cool. I've been cheering her on from a distance, and I'd love to collaborate with her someday; two tofu-obsessed founders joining forces feels like it's meant to be.
Young’s inspiring journey teaches us that meaningful creations can be born from our own moments of personal healing. ARUEN stands as a beautiful testament of jeong and a culture of taking care of one another. Thank you Young for sharing your story that inspires us all to care for ourselves and each other.
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