Beauty Bits: BTS’s #EndViolence Friendship Day Tribute & Cleaner Skincare

We’ve got your update of the day on the latest news in beauty and K-pop.

At Beautytap, we’re committed to bringing you the latest in beauty news, along with a dash of K-pop and K-dramas — perfect to share in that group chat with all of your K-beauty loving friends. Here are some stories that caught our eye this week.

Now that's true beauty

We can all agree that the world can use a bit more kindness, right? BTS agrees. As a part of the UNICEF and BTS End Violence Campaign, the supergroup released a video today, on International Day of Friendship (aka World Friendship Day), encouraging their fans (aka ARMY) to take a moment today to offer a bit of kindness to friends and classmates. In the two-and-a-half minute video, they sing their single “Answer: Love Myself” as montages of youth who have been victims of bullying are befriended by their classmates. Of course, ARMY is fully on board, with the hashtags #EndViolence and #BTSLoveMyself trending on Twitter as fans retweeted the video.

Another thing we stan? Reducing plastics!

Did you know that 56% of plastic manufacturing is attributed to the beauty industry? Around here, we really hate not recycling all of the empties in our stash. In an effort to reduce this waste, Cosmax, a South Korean original design manufacturing (ODM) company, has partnered with Innerbottle, a start-up dedicated to reducing plastic use.

Innerbottle’s unique design is comprised of a BPA-free silicone pouch inside of a regular plastic bottle. This means that your liquids stay contained within that little bubble, while the outside of the bottle stays clean, allowing you to reuse it or recycle it easier. And even better? Since that pouch collapses as you use it, it means you can get every little last bit of product out, something that is hard to do in conventional bottles.

The shortest routine ever?

Maybe in the near future, those recyclable bottles will be used in the latest skip-care trend, a definite sign that the 10-step skincare routine is giving way to a more pared-back, minimalist approach (something we reported on last year when beauty experts on Korea’s premier beauty show, Get It Beauty, talked about the trend). COSRX recently launched a cream toner that is supposed to be a 2-in-1 toner/moisturizer combo, and today, Laneige announced their take on the trend with their Cream Skin and Toner, a unique product that combines the hydrating power of a toner with the moisturizing ability of a moisturizer. (If it looks familiar, that’s because it’s called the Cream Skin Refiner in Korea.) The star ingredient is white leaf tea water, which provides deep hydration and keeps your moisture barrier in tip-top shape. Will you be trying it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHO5ysRbDv4

Awards drama

While ARMY is loving BTS’s #EndViolence and “Love Yourself” messages, some are not happy about how the MTV Video Music Awards is treating the groundbreaking band (as well as the other K-pop nominees Blackpink, Monsta X, TXT, NCT 127, and EXO).

In case you haven’t been following, the VMAs recently announced that they were going to add a new category to their awards, Best K-Pop. Of course, BTS was nominated, but that’s not the point. Many are arguing that a band that has broken as many records with their latest album as they have should not be segregated into a separate section for K-pop. I mean, why can’t they be nominated in the Pop category with their peers? Why do they have to be marginalized in a category specifically made for non-white talent? We recognize that adding in a K-pop category does highlight the contributions these talented artists have made to the world, but in our opinion, stuffing a band with such global impact like BTS into a category completely because of their race is far from acceptable.

What do you think of the controversy? Do you like the new K-pop category or do you think Korean groups should be recognized in mainstream categories? And what will you be doing as a part of the UNICEF and BTS End Violence campaign? Let’s dish in the comments!