Friends Don’t Let Friends Use Lousy Masks: Besties Kayla Bertagna And Lisa Ballstaedt Create Soon Skincare After A Mediocre Masking Experience

During a girls’ trip to Puerto Vallarta in March last year, friends Kayla Bertagna and Lisa Ballstaedt were playing around with Korean sheet masks when they realized the slippery, goopy, serum-soaked sheaths weren’t as easy or awesome as they expected.

“We all laughed at each other because we looked ridiculous, and we were asking, ‘How long do we use them? How do we put them on?’ After the trip, I was wondering, ‘Why, if Koreans have the best skincare, are these masks so bad? Did we just get the wrong ones?’ I bet we could make these better,” says Bertagna. Ballstaedt adds, “We thought we could find a way to improve on the products so there aren’t a ton of questions when you are doing them. We wanted to make them accessible and pretty so people would want to give them a try.”

The two women decided to tackle mask matters by turning their personal relationship professional to demystify and spiff up K-beauty for most Americans for whom snail slime is still icky stuff to be avoided. After five jaunts to Korea, a $50,000 investment, and experimentation with hundreds of Korean skincare products, Bertagna and Ballstaedt developed Soon Skincare to bring K-beauty to broad audiences.

“We spent so much time thinking about and perfecting every single detail,” says Bertagna. “While we were trying different samples for research, we really considered the user experience, what we would change to make them feel better to put on and get the serum into the face better.” Ballstaedt chimes in, “We have the same type of work ethic. We work hard, play hard and, overall, make everything a fun experience.”

The result of their work is Soon Skincare’s nine debut products, including face and lip masks, and eye patches, that tweak K-beauty merchandise for American consumer preferences. For instance, Bertagna mentions Korean skincare products tend to be scented heavily. For the U.S., Soon Skincare chose a scent that’s light and refreshing. Bertagna and Ballstaedt underscore they created a custom shape for the brand’s face masks that’s intended to suit all face sizes.

“We all laughed at each other because we looked ridiculous, and we were asking, ‘How long do we use them? How do we put them on?’ After the trip, I was wondering, ‘Why, if Koreans have the best skincare, are these masks so bad? Did we just get the wrong ones?’ I bet we could make these better.”

Soon Skincare incorporates tabs on its face masks to ensure customers can remove mesh backings without trouble and, rather than cotton, the brand depends upon biocellulose and hydrogel for the masks. The hydrogel hydrating and collagen options feature small holes to help the masks adhere to faces. Customers are instructed to keep the masks on for 15 to 20 minutes.

Soon Skincare spells out nearly 30 ingredients in a glossary on its website to break down the contents of its products for shoppers, and a few of the anti-inflammatory, anti-aging and moisturizing compounds are hyaluronic acid, adenosine, allantoin, gingko biloba, kiwi, niacinamide, purslane and watermelon. “Most people want to get glowing, youthful skin, so a big issue for us is hydration,” says Ballstaedt. “We made sure we had healthy, hydrating ingredients in our masks. There are a lot of fruit extracts that are natural, but powerful.”

To Bertagna and Ballstaedt, Korean skincare product packaging is largely boring or kitschy. They set out to make Soon Skincare’s packaging vibrant and sophisticated. It’s splashed with colors such as pink, red and blue, and brush-stroke patterns referencing Korean calligraphy. The brand name is half-Korean Ballstaedt’s middle name and, according to her grandfather’s translation, it means “smooth” and “pure” in Korean.

“It’s a Korean skincare line, and we wanted to make sure the products had Korean inspiration without being in your face about it,” says Ballstaedt. Bertagna emphasizes, “It’s important to us that our customer understand that we work with Korean chemists and all of our manufacturers are in Korea. It’s very authentic.”

“It’s important to us that our customer understand that we work with Korean chemists and all of our manufacturers are in Korea. It’s very authentic.”

For the moment, Soon Skincare is concentrating on e-commerce. Ballstaedt and Bertagna project it could generate $300,000 in sales digitally during its first year on the market with support from social media and influencer outreach. The pair envision a brick-and-mortar future for their brand, and aim to place it in beauty specialty retailers and department stores. Soon Skincare prices its eye patches at $6, face masks at $22 and lip masks at $4 for single items.

“With sheet masks, there’s a whole spectrum of prices. There are ones you can buy in a pack of three for 99 cents,” says Ballstaedt. “As soon as you put ours on, you notice a big difference because of what they are made out of and what’s in them.”

Soon Skincare’s pipeline is bursting with products. Ballstaedt estimates some 50 are in various stages of production. There are lip balms, 24-karat gold eye patches, volcanic facial masks, charcoal cleansers, powered sun protection and a collection based around camellia oil slated for upcoming releases. Soon Skincare’s goal is to provide the foundation for K-beauty multistep regimens with consumer-friendly products.

Ultimately, Ballstaedt and Bertagna hope girls’ trips will no longer be bedeviled by messy, subpar K-beauty products that leave besties begging for superior skincare. Bertagna says, “When we designed our masks and the packaging for them, we thought, ‘This would be great for bridesmaids or bachelorette parties.’ We just love the idea of people gifting our masks for fun girls’ events.”