GLOW RECIPE CO-FOUNDER SARAH LEE SETTLES INTO HER NEW MIAMI DIGS WHILE SPEAKING ON HER VIRAL SENSATIONAL BEAUTY BRAND.

Glow Recipe’s Watermelon Glow AHA night treatment PHOTO COURTESY OF GLOW RECIPE

Co-CEOs Sarah Lee and Christine Chang decided to risk it all when leaving their cushy gigs at beauty powerhouse L’Oréal to launch their own beauty brand, the now-viral Glow Recipe (@glowrecipe). Noticing a gap in the beauty industry and realizing that many of the technologies and formulas they were using in products were stemming from Korea, the two female entrepreneurs put their savings together investing $50,000 to launch their K-beauty curation site glowrecipe.com in 2014. In 2017, Glow Recipe Skincare—their namesake skincare line—was born and the K-beauty curation vertical was terminated. While they truly believed in the product they were putting out, little did they know this would become one of the most recognized brands in the beauty space in a short amount of time.

Glow Recipe’s fruit-forward beauty line PHOTO COURTESY OF GLOW RECIPE

“We are currently a top-five skincare brand at Sephora right now globally, which is so crazy to think about,” shares Lee.

Her love of beauty goes back as long as she can remember, first manifesting when she was in school and invited her friends to come over to “Sarah’s Place,” where she would provide at-home beauty treatments. Growing up in South Korea, she shares that her grandma would often use watermelon to rub on her skin when it was irritated to soothe it.

Guava Vitamin C Bright-Eye gel cream PHOTO COURTESY OF GLOW RECIPE

“Watermelon has such great healing properties, so I knew when combined with complementary clean beauty technology, we had something special,” says Lee.

She originally pitched her watermelon-based skincare line to the top executives at Sephora in 2016 with a small lab sample and an iPad presentation, by which they knew she had something special—granting Glow Recipe the exclusive launch through the beauty powerhouse retailer.

Upon launch, Glow Recipe’s first product, Watermelon Glow sleeping mask, sold out almost instantly with a waitlist of over 8,000 people. As an entrepreneur undergoing her first solo adventure, the experience was something out of Lee’s wildest dreams. Since then, the brand has continued to soar, going viral on Instagram and TikTok, and praised for its silky consistency that leaves users with a gorgeous glow. Most recently, Glow Recipe just relaunched with AHA technology (Watermelon Glow AHA night treatment), which works to gently exfoliate, hydrate and visibly brighten the skin.

In March 2022, Lee and her husband left New York to claim their new home in Miami. Currently residing in Brickell, Lee is soaking up the sunshine and the inimitable Miami lifestyle.

Glow Recipe co-CEO Sarah Lee PHOTO COURTESY OF GLOW RECIPE

“Everyone here is so welcoming and the lifestyle cannot be beat,” shares Lee. “I’m so excited to finally plant my roots here and bring Glow Recipe in person to the city.”

With categories ranging from serum to moisturizer, eyes, toner and mists, cleanser, sunscreen and masks, Glow Recipe continues to explode in the beauty industry, bringing the luxury of fruit-forward, clinically effective products to the U.S. With the goal of offering a product that serves as an indulgence and also a beauty tool, Glow Recipe delivers on that promise with each colorful package.

“Oftentimes beauty brands focus on one goal—either efficacy or sensorial experience. Who says they are mutually exclusive of one another?” Lee notes. “When it comes to our skincare, we should be able to have it all.”