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One of Porchlights Business Books of the Year One of Voxs Best Books of 2023 An NPR Book of the Day Required Reading from New York Post One of Nylons 13 May Books to Add to Your Reading List One of PureWows 14 Books to Read for AAPI Heritage Month One of W Magazines 14 Books to Dive Into This Summer One of Betches Best Summer Reads of 2023

An audacious journalistic exploration of the present and future of beauty through the lens of South Koreas booming Kbeauty industry and the culture it promotes by Elise Hu NPR hostatlarge and the host of TED Talks Daily

Kbeauty has captured imaginations worldwide by promising a kind of mesmerizing perfection Its skincare and makeup productscreams packaged to look like milkshakes or pandas and snail mucus face masks to name a fewwork together to fascinate us champion consumerism and invite us to indulge In the four years Elise spent in Seoul as NPRs bureau chief the global Kbeauty industry quadrupled Today its worth 10 billion and is only getting bigger as it rides the Hallyu wave around the globe

And fun as selfcare consumerism may be Elise turns her veteran eye to the darker questions lurking beneath the surface of this story When technology makes it easy to quantify and optimize ourselvesfrom banishing blemishes to whittling our waistlines even to shaving down our jawswhere do we draw the line What are the dangers for a society where a flawless face and body are promoted and possible What are the real financial physical and emotional costs of beauty work in a culture that valorizes endless selfimprovement and codes it as empowerment

With rich historical context and deep reporting including hours of interviews with South Korean women this is a complex provocative look at the ways hustle culture has reached into the sinews of our bodies It raises complicated questions about gender disparity consumerism the beauty imperative of an appearance obsessed society and the undeniable political economic and social capital of good looks worldwideAnd it points the way toward an alternative vision one thats more affirming and inclusive than a beauty culture led by industry