Founded on the belief that beauty should be painless convenient and easy, Romi Beauty co-founders Yoyo Cao, Arissa Cheo and Lin Ting tell Christian Wan about their mission to balance active lifestyles with glowing skin

Born from a shared vision between Yoyo Cao, Arissa Cheo and Lin Ting, Romi Beauty is making waves with its highly anticipated Hong Kong debut, building on its tremendous success in Singapore since its 2022 launch. Rooted in a “skin-first” philosophy, each founder held a personal stake in its advancement. Having sensitive skin, Cheo sought soothing, gentle, high-quality products. Always on the move, Cao needed a set of travel-friendly but deeply hydrating essentials. While Lin, a mother of two, needed high-performing cosmetics that wouldn’t bite into her time.  

Even with their different daily routines, the three worked together to find the perfect balance. Originating from Singapore but developed in South Korea, Romi formulas are necessities that are both intuitive and effective – a seamless fit into any schedule. No matter how busy, lazy or troubled wearers may be, they’re designed for confidence, composure and comfort.

Could you give us a short introduction to Romi Beauty?

Cheo: Romi is a Singaporean brand, but we’re made in Korea. It was born from a desire to simplify beauty – there’s a lot of complicated routines and products that promise a lot but don’t really deliver out there, so we wanted to focus on products that actually have results in skin-first benefits and enhancing our features. We wanted to create essentials that people would instinctively reach out for. Sephora’s saturated with beauty products and there’s so many things available, but we wanted to create the things that you will always have in your beauty routine – the go-tos, basically. 

Cao: Building on what Arissa said, our brand philosophy is built around intention. Every decision we make from the product formulation all the way to the packaging design is always guided by real life function and feeling. We’re aiming to create an overall experience for customers that feels elevated at the least, reassuring rather than overwhelming. Our formulations are created with very high quality ingredients that meet exacting standards, and they also try to fulfil a genuine consumer need. They’re meant to make the customers feel confident and comfortable even on the most minimal of days. So they’re both skin-loving but also intuitive –enhancing and empowering. We’re reaching this problem we saw of a gap between makeup and skincare – products that both feel and look good on your skin. And that’s why we created multitasking formulas that are able to simplify routines so that our customers are able to spend more time doing other things that matter for them. It makes the products work for them so it frees up their time, and makes everyday beauty feel very effortless but also attainable. So that’s how we created our brand philosophy and our intention behind every product.

Lin: As for why we choose Hong Kong as our first stop outside Singapore, I think we see a lot of similarities between the two cities – lifestyle, pace and what locals are looking for. People are generally gravitating towards something that is lively, something that performs well throughout the day and is comfortable to wear on your skin, which is exactly what Romi is designed for. Also, Hong Kong is an important gateway where we can communicate with a group of beauty-savvy and sophisticated customers. So it’s naturally a thoughtful and organic step for Romi.

You’ve mentioned a lot about hydration, but Hong Kong has a very different climate to Singapore. Hong Kong has periods of humidity but also dryness – have you prepared anything special for this market?

Cheo: Well, in Singapore it’s humid all year around, so our products are generally quite lightweight. For humid environments, it won’t feel heavy on the skin – you can wear it throughout the day and still feel comfortable. On the other hand, colder and dryer countries – we travel a lot for skiing and our products focus heavily on hydration, so we have that down to the T. Because this range is for makeup products, it still fits into skincare routines regardless of how heavy they may be. It’s more of a supplement – our products have hydrating benefits on top of a general coverage. This means they’re light enough for humid climates, but also moisturising enough for arid ones. 

I like how the packaging takes into consideration just being out and about.

Cao: When it comes to packaging, we actively talk to our customers to make the best user experience. We’re actually on the third version of our Dream Skin Tint packaging. Before, we used a pump and we tried out glass bottles as well, but a lot of our customers like travelling a lot. Glass bottles might be too heavy to bring on a flight and a pump can waste a lot of product. So we came up with the current iteration as a squeezable tube. We’re constantly listening to our customers and what they really need. We really try to involve them in our design process, sometimes before the product even launches. For example, we’ll ask what they want us to release or what kind of packaging they prefer on Instagram Stories – communicating and listening to them. We are also trying to be as environmentally friendly as possible. For example, we use recycled plastic and paper, even for the individual packaging for masks. At the same time, we know that people like to carry small bags, so all the products are compact, letting people take them out and use them whenever needed.

Cheo: Our customers really love the third iteration. When you travel with normal products, different air pressures on the plane can cause it to spill out – ours uses a bulb system, completely avoiding that issue. For our lip oils, we realised that because it’s so small, a lot of our customers often lose it. They were always like “Oh, I can’t find my last lip oil”, so we actually created a charm that you can attach to a keychain. They really love it, because we find so many ways to simplify their routines. 

Romi Beauty has been around since 2022. What are some of the most important things and challenges you’ve learned from in these four years?

Cheo: Things don’t always go as planned – we have to keep improvising, problem-solving and putting out fires. Also, because we don’t compromise on the standard of the things that we put out – no matter how long it takes – we’ve learnt time management and having to organise the people who make the product.

Lin: Like Arissa mentioned, research and development has been one of our biggest challenges, but the longer we work with our partners and build up trust, the more we get a better understanding. There’s so many different elements and components that come together in this tiny package. We had to ensure that the timelines met up so we’re able to get each ingredient – they aren’t local, so we have to go to South Korea for them. Getting a better idea of our schedule and communication with our team helped a lot. Also, it took a while to understand our runway. Understanding how long each product took to sell out helped us with demand. When we first launched the Dream Skin Tint, we didn’t anticipate the popularity. It sold out fast, which is a good problem, but at the same time you’re disappointing customers who missed out and losing traction. Now we make sure our agenda is planned out very tight to stop things like that happening. 

Lots of other brands have found success by catering to pretty much every shade. With the Dream Skin Tint, what’s the plan on diversity?

Lin: You need a wide range of shades for foundation. For tinted moisturisers though, the spectrum isn’t as wide. The intent is more to even out, brighten and smoothen the skin, letting it glow. For me, I can use both light and light medium shades – both work for me. On the other hand, Arissa can use up to three shades. If you put a light layer, it still has pretty good coverage. Applying a darker shade, it still brightens your skin and evens it out. Because it’s just a tint, it isn’t full coverage, but it still matches a lot of different colours. 

Arissa: The foundations don’t have to match the shade exactly, because they’re actually very blendable. 

Could you tell me a little about the name of the brand, Romi?

Cheo: It means “dew of the sea”. For us, it ties into our core belief. The sea is boundless, so it’s a symbol of how there’s no limit to our abilities, and how we don’t want to limit our customers in what they can achieve. It’s a message of self-love and self-empowerment.

Lin: It’s from Latin. And dew of the sea actually means rosemary – Romi is an abbreviation of rosemary.

Congratulations on your launch in Sephora In Hong Kong. But globally, how can people access your product?

Lin: Online. We were actually mainly available online, for the first good two or three years. Because Yoyo has a very strong social media presence, people already knew about and were interested in our products – so we could sell purely through e-commerce.

Cao: But for makeup, a lot of the people can hear of the name, but still want to try the product in person. So starting out, it was important for us to do pop-ups around Singapore to give them that chance, but also a precious opportunity for us to see our customers, talk to them and listen to their feedback in-person. When it comes to beauty, people really need to try it in-person.

When it comes to Hong Kong, we want to have a similar physical space for the customer to test it out as well. That’s why we chose Sephora – they’re a strong platform both online and offline, people go there to discover new labels, and they also launch high quality brands. The branding is aligned for both of us. 

So you started with the skin tint, and then how did you move on to expand?

Lin: The first product was the skin tint, and the next one was the sheet masks. The reason we went into sheet masks was although we have our colour products, we’re not a trend-driven makeup brand. We are not going churn out things that fast. So we wanted to create skin prep products that were complementary to our colour products. The sheet masks are there to prep the skin for makeup – brightening and moisturising the skin. They’re really one of the best ones, almost always sold out. Our next was the serum mist. It’s also for prep, and spraying it on will add hydration and add glow to your skin. It won’t feel sticky and there’s no fragrance either. The serum mist can be used before makeup – Yoyo uses it as a toner – or you can use it after makeup to give a glow. We also use it throughout the day when our skin feels dry because we’re older, or if we’re on the plane and we need to hydrate. After that, we came out with the lip oil. It adds a little tint, but the amazing thing about it is if you can just apply more to double up as a lip colour without it feeling sticky. The final one was the lip mask, which you can use whenever your lips are dry, before your other lip products, or as a 10 minute lip mask. If your lips are severely dehydrated, you can just put on a thick layer for 10 minutes then wipe it off. Alternatively, it’s also an overnight lip mask which I use every night. 

Cheo: Guys use the lip oil too, because it’s quite sheer. It’s not too pigmented so it just makes your lips look juicy. It evens out your lines and it can look intense in one spot, but when you spread it out it naturally adheres to your lip.

That’d certainly be helpful – Hong Kong can get really dry in the winter.

Ting: Yeah, it’s really good for dry lips. Our latest product is a tone-up sunscreen which hasn’t been launched yet. Unlike the Dream Skin Tint which is more like a coloured base, this is a sunscreen that gives your skin a brightened and radiant glow. So if you are just going to run down to the supermarket and want to look presentable, this one’s for you.

Yeah, I like that it blends instantly.

Cao: Also, the sunblock is broad spectrum SPF50, blocks UVA and UVB – it’s one of the highest levels. 

Cheo: With the effectiveness of our product, we also want to make sure it feels good and lightweight, so we chose next-gen UV filters with titanium dioxide. It’s obviously free of the nastier chemicals like oxybenzones and those irritants, and because we chose titanium dioxide, it’s actually more lightweight and doesn’t leave a white cast as much as zinc oxide. These are things and deliberations that we consider during production. For more sallow skin, it actually would brighten it – less yellow. Asian skin tends to have a yellow base, so it helps even out that colour. All our products are sent for external testing, so even though our manufacturers tell us the UV level, we always make sure to send it to third-party testing in Europe to certify that it’s robust enough as a sunscreen. We infuse all of our products with active ingredients – there’s a long list so I don’t want to bore you with the details – and we always have anti-aging and hydrating effects. Our mask has quite a unique ingredient called kakadu plum, which is a rich Vitamin C that really brightens up your skin, so we go through our manufacturers to ensure everything inside the bottle will deliver results

So what’s the timeline for developing a product, from conception to seeing it on the shelves?

Yoyo: Minimum one year. 

Arissa: Ideally, but it’s become two years. We’re very thankful that our manufacturers have been so understanding, because they know that our standards are so high. Because it needs to be both effective and clean, the ingredients we remove can sometimes change the efficacy, forcing us to find substitutes to maintain that level. That means it takes a while for the manufacturer to go source for us and make sure we’re still satisfied with the results.

I’m happy to see that you guys don’t do animal testing. But does that also draw out the development process?

Arissa: It does prolong the process – our trusted manufacturers do a series of tests, compatibility, stability and the like. At each stage, they make sure they pass every standard before we can release the product. Which is another thing we learnt going into the beauty industry.

Now that you’re in Hong Kong, what’s the next step?

Arissa: For now, we’re focused on this launch. We can’t comment on any other plans at this moment because we’re really just putting all our energy into Hong Kong.

Yoyo: We’d like to communicate more with the local market here to find out their preferences, and their feedback on our brand.

Could you give me an idea maybe of what else might be in the pipeline for the future? You’ve just come out with sunscreen, anything else?

Arissa: So what is concrete is this sunscreen which will be launching in Sephora in March. We do have a series of products in the pipeline, but nothing is confirmed because we’re still in the process of testing. It’s really only until the very last minute, when they say we’re good to go that we can give definitive answers.

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