Flawless

Underground, subway cars come with heated seats from which I could  stream my favorite shows on my phone, the Wi-Fi never interrupted. If I ever missed a bus, the next one reliably showed up two minutes later. And absolutely everything-everything-could be delivered straight to your door. Furniture, food, convenience items. Agencies even send actors to your doorstep if you need extra party guests-or a fake spouse-in a pinch. The futuristic place and its on-demand, always connected consumer culture was the opposite of a hardship post. It felt like a vortex and a privilege.

I settled in by the summer of 2015 and spent the early weeks of June waddling around the apartment heavily pregnant with my second daughter, unpacking our clothes and housewares after they finally came off a container ship. At night I'd go live from Korea for NPR's Morning Edition in America, which was thirteen hours behind. Reclining on the slipper chair in my windowless home office, I used my belly as a handy shelf to rest my Comrex audio transmitting device on. The baby used my insides as a speed bag, doing nightly workouts on the lower part of my belly. Just enduring this was enough to wear me out.

That summer was sticky and smelly, as hot as Seoul's winter is cold. The humidity hung so thick that the barbecue smoke, diesel fumes, and steam from the sidewalk grates packed a pungent punch. Women scurried down the street hovering battery-powered pastel fans in front of their faces, and my husband Matt would come in from his commutes joking that he lost six pounds from sweat alone.

I eventually dropped eight pounds-and four ounces-when Baby Isabel Rock made her entrance in early July, officially kicking off my maternity leave. We gave her the middle name Rock partly as a play on the Republic of Korea (ROK) acronym that U.S. soldiers throw around. My parental leave allowed for eight weeks of nursing, sleeping in three-hour stretches to match the newborn's schedule,

you share the same fascination and ambivalence around beauty culture and serum culture in particular you will too." Anne Helen Peterson, author of Out of Office

"My favorite non-fiction book I've read so far this year." Virginia Sole-Smith, New York Times bestselling author of Fat Talk

"This book is full of interesting dives into fixations on legs, government-driven beauty and the technological gaze. I was regularly pausing to absorb what I had just read." NPR's Brittany Luse

"If you think that only women are trapped by a society that demands physical perfection, think again. Korean men now consume roughly 13% of the world's skincare products--even camouflage lip-balm for men doing their mandatory military service. One can't help but wonder if K-beauty standards are causing the human soul to rot away. A fascinating look at the ugliness of Korea's cosmetic underworld, sometimes shocking and often darkly funny as Elise riffs on the more ridiculous aspects of the pursuit of "ideal" beauty.  Let me tell you dudes, the book gets under your skin--in all the right ways." Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan
 
Superbly researched and deeply insightful, Flawless is a timely, provocative, and fascinating must-read. Elise Hu masterfully blends an engrossing memoir about her experience as a foreigner, woman, and mother of girls in Seoul with a journalistic exploration of the disturbing forces behind K-beauty s global rise [and the increasingly algorithm-driven perceptions and unforgiving standards of beauty. ] I loved it. Angie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls
 
"If you're looking for a deeply engaging book about the past, present and future of Korean beauty's global impact on culture, and the relationship between beauty culture and tech, this book is for you! I appreciate how Hu covers everything from political economic history to theories around media and beauty in a really accessible read." Xiaowei Wang, author of Blockchain Chicken Farm

In Flawless, Elise Hu explores not just why South Koreans are so obsessed with skincare, but also how the beauty standards of Korean culture have created a seemingly endless feedback loop of beauty problems to be solved by an ever-increasing number of products. A fascinating, meticulously reported deep dive into Korean beauty culture. Doree Shafrir, co-host of Forever35 and author of Thanks For Waiting: The Joy & Weirdness Of Being A Late Bloomer

  Richly researched Given Hu s uncompromising critique of Korean beauty culture, we might expect her to conclude by rejecting appearance work completely. But she does no such thing. Instead, she takes a fresher and more interesting tack, reminding us that self-stylization has often served as a form of revolt. The Washington Post

A fascinating and thoughtful deep-dive into the Korean culture of lookism For readers who have had little to no exposure to Korean culture, it will feel like having your own knowledgeable tour guide leading you through a complex world. Asia Pacific Arts

"One of 14 new books to dive into this sumer!...[An] incisive investigation...a truly eye-opening summer read. W Magazine

Nuanced, wide-ranging, and fluidly written, this peels back the layers of a powerful cultural trend. Publishers Weekly

Hu interrogates what it means to live in a world obsessed with beauty and youth, the injustices this obsession helps perpetrate, and what we can do about it. It s a thoughtful, fascinating, and rigorously researched book. BookRiot

"Rais[es] surprisingly profound questions. People

"Binge this on your way to botox or as you slather on retinol. This non-fiction book will make you rethink what you know about beauty standards via the lens of the K-beauty industry." Betches

"Hu has written a brilliant, deeply researched book that reads like a conversation with your smartest friend ...  Refreshingly, the author s lack of Western judgment makes way for curiosity and respect." The Globe and Mail

It provides riveting insight into the Korean beauty industry, the culture at large and Hu's individual experiences that anyone can enjoy. It s an absolute must-read for beauty lovers. Lourdes Avila Uribe, HuffPost Books

"People can't get enough of K-beauty...Now, journalist Elise Hu has written the definitive exploration of K-beauty in her sweeping new book, which includes interviews with South Korean women as Hu asks the tough questions about our quests for perfection, as well as looks at the industry from a larger lens of gender disparities, consumerism, and beauty obsession." Nylon