What I’ve learned building Cheekbone Beauty is that beauty has never been one thing. It has always reflected culture, geography, history, survival, ritual, and identity. Yet for so long, the beauty industry tried to convince us there was one standard everyone should aspire to. One version of “beautiful.”
The deeper I’ve gone into this industry, traveling, meeting founders, learning from chemists, labs, creators, and communities around the world, the more I’ve realized that beauty is actually one of humanity’s oldest forms of storytelling.
Recently, I leaned into conversations with founders in my current beauty circle and asked them a simple question: what does your culture’s approach to beauty represent and why?
The answers were thoughtful, layered, and deeply human.
Laura, currently interning with us from Saint-Malo, France, described French beauty in a way that instantly made sense to me:
“French beauty is the perfect mix of natural elegance and personal style. It makes me think of simple but meaningful details like perfume, natural makeup, and effortless hair. It's about looking chic and put together without seeming like you tried too hard. For me, French beauty is also about being yourself, feeling confident and comfortable in your own skin, and finding the right balance between comfort and style. Overall, it feels authentic, timeless, and effortlessly chic.”
What struck me most about her perspective was the emphasis on restraint and confidence. French beauty doesn’t scream for attention. It whispers. It trusts that individuality is enough. There’s something timeless about that philosophy in a world constantly telling us to consume more, contour more, inject more, filter more.
Then I spoke with Andrea Mourad, founder of Orora Skin Science, about Korean beauty and skincare culture. Her explanation went far beyond products or trends.
She shared how Korean skincare is deeply rooted in discipline, consistency, refinement, and care. It’s not simply about looking good. It’s about respect for oneself and how one shows up in the world. What makes K-beauty so globally influential is the combination of cultural philosophy with one of the most advanced beauty innovation systems in the world.
Korean labs move incredibly fast, but with intention. There is a constant pursuit of improvement in textures, ingredients, delivery systems, and the sensory experience of skincare itself. What the world often sees as “glass skin” is actually the result of generations of ritual, prevention, hydration, and balance.
What resonates with so many people globally is that K-beauty often focuses on nurturing the skin rather than fighting it. It’s layered, gentle, preventative, and deeply ritualistic. In many ways, it rejects harshness and embraces consistency over perfection.
I also spoke with Lisa Mattam, founder of Sahajan, about Indian beauty rituals and Ayurveda. What stood out immediately is how modern beauty trends are often rediscovering wisdom that has existed for thousands of years.
Ayurveda, a 5,000-year-old system of holistic wellness, approaches beauty as a reflection of internal balance. Ingredients now praised across modern skincare like turmeric, saffron, and bakuchiol have been used intentionally in Ayurvedic traditions for centuries.
Hair oiling, facial massage, botanical masks, and barrier-supportive skincare are all practices rooted in these traditions long before they became trends on social media.
What I admire most about Ayurveda is the understanding that beauty cannot be separated from wellness. It acknowledges the connection between stress, sleep, nourishment, ritual, and skin health. In a world obsessed with instant transformation, there is something grounding about systems that prioritize long-term care and balance.
And then there is Indigenous beauty. The perspective closest to my own heart.
As I write more deeply about this in my upcoming book, Glossed Over, I’ve realized Indigenous beauty was never traditionally about chasing perfection or youth. It was rooted in relationship, to the land, to community.
For many Indigenous cultures, beauty was connected to ceremony, utility, respect, and identity. Ingredients came from the earth and were understood intimately through generations of observation and knowledge sharing. Plants, clays, berries, oils, and medicines were used not simply for appearance, but for protection, healing, adornment, storytelling, and connection.
Adornment itself often carried meaning. Hair, braids, beadwork, tattoos, face paint, and regalia reflected identity, nationhood, spirituality, milestones, and family lineage. Beauty was not separate from culture. It was culture.
Colonization disrupted much of that relationship. It imposed European standards of beauty while disconnecting many Indigenous people from language, ceremony, and traditional knowledge systems. The impact of that still exists today in how beauty standards are marketed globally.
That is partly why building Cheekbone Beauty has always felt bigger than makeup to me.
I’m not interested in recreating impossible standards. I’m interested in redefining beauty as something more human
The beauty industry often profits from making people feel inadequate first. But when I look at these different cultural approaches to beauty from France, Korea, India, and Indigenous communities, I see a common thread emerging underneath all of them.
Beauty, at its best, is ritual.
It is identity. And maybe the future of beauty is not about everyone looking the same.
Maybe the future is finally allowing people to look more like themselves.