Stress Less, Breathe More
How ATEM Skincare came about
My journey in skincare started in 2017, when while working at an international e-commerce retailer as the head of Brand partnerships and business development I was approached by Asia based companies to consult them with their branding and marketing so they could successfully enter the US market. As someone who was bilingual, well versed in branding from my work with top fashion brands from around the world, and thrived in a growth environment, this was a perfect opportunity to grow and take responsibilities outside of my job description. All the companies happened to be in skincare. These projects opened up a whole new world for me, and soon after I’ve found myself having cultivated a strong network and friendships with Korean marketers, formulators, developers, entrepreneurs, and manufacturers. I soon began to ask a lot of questions, some of which ultimately led to the creation of ATEM’s skincare line. Some of these questions, drawn from my experience were these: Why are new technologies in Korean and Asian cosmetics entering the Western market years, years late? Why is there such a high ratio of Western companies capitalizing off the K-beauty wave compared to Korea-bred companies? What factors prevent high-quality, and often affordable and innovative products of the world from reaching the everyday consumer in real-time, while comparable luxury products with the contrasting trait of sky-rocket prices of other companies thrive? Why are there so few brands that embody and offer values and narratives that are contextually progressive and global?


Instead of mulling over those questions on my own, I started collaborating with other innovators, and we soon found ourselves formulating all kinds of cosmetic products, everything we wished we could develop and invent for ourselves and even successfully patented and licensed one cosmetic delivery mechanism too. But I wanted to do more than that. I knew building a brand meant I would have direct access to consumers and community, something that I desperately desired in my new work in personal care. And so ATEM was born, created to bridge together the hardware of the East and the software of the West and guide the next generation of conscious, discerning, global consumers.
– Susan Yoomin Im, founder of ATEM