Colombianos y emprendedores 11 - Kiyomi Beauty - KOR (Eng)

My name is Eliana Cardeno, and I am the founder of “Kiyomi Beauty” a Korean skincare and beauty subscription box.

Kiyomi Beauty’s story began when I found myself living in Seoul, South Korea and was introduced to the diverse and preventative world of k-beauty through my modeling career. After having personally benefited from it, I decided to launch Kiyomi Beauty Box in the hopes of sharing my love for these products and their result with other women (and men) across the world.

Our name “Kiyomi,” directly translates to “cute” or “cutie;” and our logo is a symbol often used in South Korea to express love as the fingers make the shape of a heart. I decided that this would be a very appropriate symbol to include in our brand as we want to spread lots of self-love and skincare awareness.

My life has taken me in many unexpected yet amazing routes. I was born in Antioquia, Colombia and moved with my parents to the United States when I was just 12 years old. Most of my transformative years were spent in the United States, where I went to high school and college to receive a degree in Microbiology.

After finishing my degree, I have worked in different local nonprofits and have volunteered with many different organizations before moving to Seoul to pursue some personal experiences and expand my modeling career.

In Seoul, I participated in an international pageant, in which I won second runner-up while representing Colombia and modeled for a number of Korean campaigns and brands.

Clearly, it wasn’t always my dream to be an entrepreneur, but my love for travel and my personal and professional experiences have instilled in me this passion for creating new things and for constantly changing the norm of how we view things. These varied experiences have certainly shaped who I am today and my company’s distinctive culture.