Why Director Pi May Be Worthy of All Your YouTube Binges

Why would you eschew all of those cute puppy, GRWM, and unboxing time-suck content on YouTube in favor of a middle-aged, Korean-speaking woman? Because she may be the key to your skin’s best life.

One night, during one of my K-beauty YouTube binges, I stumbled upon a new-to-me account. The thumbnail showed an older Korean woman, looking like an all-knowing beauty guru, her hands clasped in front of her, and she had a smug yet warm look on her face. I thought to myself, “This woman knows what she’s talking about.” And as I watched her videos, this hunch was proven correct.

Who is this mysterious woman you ask?

It’s none other than Director Pi. A quick snoop over on reddit showed me that I’m apparently late to the game. People have been singing her praises since 2016! Director Pi is a former beauty editor and was once a host on the Korean beauty shows After School Beauty Bible and Get It Beauty. The self-proclaimed "cosmetic ingredient analyst" focuses on ingredients and ingredient formulations in a variety of cosmetics — and not just Korean ones! She reviews and compares products from France, the U.S., and Germany as well.

Her YouTube channel contains a wealth of information. Like a literal treasure trove of beauty content, and it can get overwhelming to navigate the sheer amount of videos, so I thought I’d break it down and share my favorite videos from Director Pi. Oh, and don’t worry, most of her videos now contain English subtitles for your viewing pleasure.

All about cotton pads

Have you ever wanted to watch a video that compares 18 different types of cotton pads? Well, there’s a video for that. I’ve never been the biggest cotton pad person (I prefer my hands), but watching an in-depth video on the texture, materials, scent, and price of a bunch of different pads, how to use them, and their benefits made me realize that perhaps I should start.

A review of FORTY-EIGHT different cleansers

Listen. This is one of the videos where I decided to stan her for real for real. Like who really takes the time to review 48 different cleansers, and not only categorizes them into acidic and sub-acidic, and THEN breaks those categories down into different skin types. Director Pi, that’s who. I can’t deal.

56 items from Etude House

Ya girl went and bought 56 different types of products from Etude House and analyzed the ingredient list in all of them. She reviewed different BB cushions, eye products, the Soon Jung line, sunscreen, and a few items from the Wonder Pore line.

I really liked this video because while I used to be a huge fan of Etude House when I lived in Korea, I’ve fallen out of love with the brand, mostly because I thought some of their ingredients and formulations weren’t as sophisticated as other products I’ve fallen in love with. This video proved me wrong and made me add a bunch of Etude House to my shopping cart.

French pharmacy haul

We stan a woman who steps outside of the box. Like I said earlier, Director Pi is international, honey. This video is full of product recommendations from a recent trip she took to France, and I live. French pharmacies are such a mood, OK! In true Director Pi style, she breaks down each product by its ingredient list, with some fun texture shots thrown in for good measure.

DAISO!!!!!!!!

I love Daiso more than almost anything on this planet. Literally. But I never really tried any of the skincare and makeup products there, besides the beauty tools. She reviewed 61 different products from Daiso and now, I must travel all the way to NYC when the Daiso opens there and buy all her recommendations

She categorized the products into four different categories: Fail, Uncertain, Pass (makeup), and Pass (base products and skincare). If you don’t want to watch the full video, she provides timestamps for each section. A true legend.

Have you ever watched a Director Pi video? Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments!