This K-Beauty Brand Is Closing—Here Are the Founder’s Must-Haves

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This Beloved K-Beauty Brand Is Closing, Here's What You Should Stock Up On Courtesy of Good Light

In the beauty world, nothing breaks our hearts quite like hearing that one of our favorite brands will be closing. On February 23, David Yi, founder of Good Light, announced the brand will be sunsetting in April.

In the personal essay, he states the reasons as an ultra-competitive and oversaturated market—especially with the recent popularity of K-Beauty—that an indie brand (even one as successful as Good Light) couldn't survive without multiple rounds of investment funding.

"Like many founders before me, the decision was agonizing. What’s ironic is that I started this business to promote Korean culture. But it was Korean culture’s fierce competition—and America’s insatiable hyper-consuming beauty economy—that pushed me to let it go," he wrote.

Good Light was founded in 2021 by Yi, a Korean-American journalist and entrepreneur, with products formulated in Korea. Back then, skincare and its function in people's lives were completely different. K-Beauty was either niche or entirely non-existent in the Western beauty market. Good Light used ingredients that were beloved in Korea, with products that focused on skin barrier repair and hydration.

Even though Good Light's products and formulations are excellent, the brand is so much more than the skincare products they sell. For many of us, it was the first queer brand we saw on store shelves with its slogan of "beauty beyond the binary." That means something to people, and it meant something to me, as a beauty editor. I started my career right when Good Light was founded. I remember being in awe of this new beauty brand that was brave and bold enough to say, "We're for everyone, but we're especially for those all other brands ignore."

For the past year, more and more beauty brands have announced their closure due to a lack of funding and an oversaturated market, like Ami Cole last year. Most of these brands have been indie ones that were beloved by beauty editors and a committed fanbase. In this market, though, it takes more than love for beauty brands to survive.

Good Light's story might have reached its conclusion, but its legacy will be remembered and cherished. "I’m endlessly grateful for everyone who supported our mission of beauty beyond the binary along the way!" Yi told E!.

We asked the founder himself an impossible task: Which five products does he recommend for people to stock up on? So, whether you're a devoted fan (like me) or you're just now bittersweetly discovering the brand, keep scrolling to shop the products he recommends before they leave the shelves in April.

Top Rated

good light Moon Glow Milky Moisturizing Toning Lotion

This milky toning lotion promises to hydrate and gently exfoliate with its formula filled with good-for-your-skin ingredients like meadowfoam seed oil, snow mushroom, niacinamide, and ceramides.

"Our very first launch in 2021. Our bestseller! It set the tone for everything we stood for: gentle, barrier-loving, joyful skincare for everyone, one of the first milky toners on the market!" David Yi, founder of Good Light, told E!.

good light Glazed Orbit Lip Oil

Good Light's last launch to hit shelves, this lip oil is unlike anything else on the market. It uses a peptide complex with jojoba seed oil and vitamin E to leave your lips glossy, hydrated, and plumped without any stickiness or weird taste.

"Our newest launch and a little love letter to the future—playful, glossy, and full of so much love.

Each of these products carries memories of late nights, tiny wins, and the incredible 'Moths' community who believed in us from the start," Yi told E!.

good light Order of the Eclipse Hyaluronic Cream

This cream promises to deeply moisturize, boost barrier function, soothe redness, restore dehydrated skin, and support skin rejuvenation with its powerhouse formula of squalane, meshima mushroom, hyaluronic acid, and glycerin.

"Deep hydration without heaviness. This one always reminded me how powerful simple, thoughtful formulas can be," Yi told E!. "It's a $65 cream in a $30 price point!"

good light Alphabet Oil

Perfect for dry, sensitive, oily, and acne-prone skin, this multi-tasking oil is a dream in a bottle. It's non-greasy and lightweight with its formula full of Vitamins A, B5, C, E, and ferulic acid to support cell renewal, restore the skin barrier, hydrate, and reduce redness.

"A non-greasy oil with Vitamins: A, B, C, E, Ferulic Acid?! This was a joy to create. Difficult, but so amazing! And it's very nourishing for the winter months/transitional periods," Yi said.

good light Cosmic Dew Gel To Foam Water Cleanser

"The everyday staple. I still use it every morning and night—it’s simple, effective, and feels like home," Yi told E!. "You can also use it as a 2-minute moisture mask!"

How We Choose

The E! Insider Shop editors and writers search the internet to find the best products out there. We interview expert sources, comb through customer reviews, and use our own personal experiences to make shopping easier for our readers.

As an editorial team, we independently create content and determine coverage based on research, reporting and what we think our readers would like to read about. The goal of our content is to provide a service and inform readers who are on the hunt for the latest products to help make their life better. Items are sold by retailer, not E!. Pricing and availability are accurate as of publish time.

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