Beauty’s best innovations don’t always chase the next big thing. This issue celebrates enduring icons, thoughtful craftsmanship, and modern classics – from a fragrance created for a queen nearly five centuries ago to design-forward home scents, rose-powered skincare, and even a dog shampoo worthy of your vanity.
Online and in his new Soho flagship, K-beauty–loving dermatologist Dr. David Kim makes skincare pragmatic and fun.
“I want this office to be the ultimate K-beauty destination in New York City, opened by someone raised in Korea,” says dermatologist David Kim. We are sitting on a cream-colored couch in the reception area of his buzzy new practice, light streaming in from the vast windows of the 19th-century building. “I grew up doing sheet masks every weekend with my family,” says Kim. K-beauty has grown exponentially in the decades since Americans first started dabbling in snail mucin and BB creams, once-niche products you can now score at Walmart. Some of Kim’s favorites, by brands like Aestura, Celimax, and Rejuran, are available at his new practice, but they’re not for sale. Instead, he gives them to patients.
“The goal is to get people to play with different products and discover brands they might have seen online but haven’t tried,” he explains. Lightsaver, his own brand of refined sunscreen, is available too. Kim’s path to dermatology was not a linear one. He spent years working at Harvard as a research assistant in public health for Dr. Jim Yong Kim, who would later be appointed as head of the World Bank by President Obama. “I thought I was going to focus on infectious diseases,” he says. A mentor, Dr. Jean Tang, a Stanford dermatologist, nudged him towards dermatology. “She saw that I was really good at pattern recognition and very detail- oriented, and those are skills you need to be a good derm. She saw me before I saw myself.”
Kim also logged time in fashion before medical school, interning for Jason Wu, selling in the Paris showrooms of Celine, Jacquemus, and Rick Owens during fashion weeks, even taking draping classes at Central Saint Martins in London. “I loved fashion and working in the industry was a way for me to learn about form, shape, aesthetics, and develop an eye,” he says. Now it’s reflected in the approach he takes to treating skin: restrained, tasteful, timeless, like The Row of cosmetic dermatology. And bespoke. “I tailor everything to a patient’s specific needs, where they are in their lives and what their goals are,” says Kim. “Everyone wants to look well-rested and rejuvenated, but not everyone wants to look like they’re 25.
The chicest women definitely don’t.” Kim’s MO is always how he can make the most impact with a minimum number of procedures. And though he has access to the buzziest treatments, he doesn’t steer every patient towards them. “It’s not a good idea to simply follow trends when it comes to cosmetic treatments,” says Kim, who is frequently called upon to correct botched work. “The latest thing isn’t always the best thing.” Conversations with patients go deeper than aesthetics. “I always consider if each patient is a happy, confident, fulfilled individual who just wants to look their best, or if they feel like they need to fix something in their lives with procedures,” says Kim. It’s easy to fall for our algorithm’s promise that any anxiety about aging can be Sculptra-d or Xerf-ed away. “I don’t want anyone who comes to me to feel pushed or pressured to consider anything,” adds Kim.
What Kim does push to his patients (many of them editors and fashion insiders) and his million-plus followers on social media is the importance of daily skin maintenance, a hallmark of K-beauty culture. Though his online persona is far more exuberant than his IRL one, in a sea of doc-fluencers, Kim has earned legitimacy by doling out straightforward advice and only talking about products he actually believes in. “Taking an ethical approach is important to me, so there’s no discrepancy on social media in terms of what I actually do recommend,” he says. Expect Kim to keep his online presence educational, not personal: “At the end of the day, it’s not about me. It’s about the topic itself, whether that’s jowls or hair loss or anti-aging. I’m just a messenger.”
Taken from 10 Magazine USA Issue 7 – HERITAGE, LEGACY, FUTURE – out September 18! Order your copy here.
Photography courtesy of Soho Derm
Instagram: @dr.david.kim
