Seattle Culture
New Skincare Company, 3B, Delivers Beauty by the Boxful
A Seattle-based skin care company brings beauty breakthroughs to your door
By Rebecca Ratterman January 17, 2017

This article originally appeared in the January 2017 issue of Seattle magazine.
Ke Chen, cofounder of 3B (Beauty Beyond Borders), says skin care in Asia is approached the same way the French think about food. “It’s an art form,” she says. Chen, whose Seattle-based subscription beauty box company launched last year, says this “art form” can include a 10-step cleansing ritual and feature innovative, exotic ingredients like bee venom and snail mucus to soothe and repair skin.
Chen has found that obtaining these elite Asian skin care products stateside takes time and research, which is why she’s offering them via a home subscription service ($15/month), which delivers a collection of Korean, Taiwanese and Japanese skin care samples, such as the Neogence Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Lotion from Taiwan and Leaders’ 7 Wonders Amazonian Acai Anti-Pollution Mask from South Korea. When subscribers find a product they can’t live without, they can shop for the full-size product on 3B’s website (the3bbox.com).
Local and national focus groups of bloggers, YouTubers and beauty influencers help Chen keep up on Asian skin care trends and determine what ends up in the boxes. You could say that 3B has skin in this game.