Glass & Dew

The short version

Glass & Dew is an independent guide to Korean and Japanese skincare for Australians. It explains what ingredients actually do and how strong the evidence is. Then it shows where to buy each product from Australian shops, in Australian dollars.

I'm Kenneth Au, a Shopify and AI developer in Brisbane with about eight years building online stores for brands in Australia, New Zealand and the US. My day job is building shops that sell. Glass & Dew pushed me into the other side: research, editorial standards, Australian regulation and growing a content site from zero.

Why I built it

Korean and Japanese skincare is everywhere on TikTok and Instagram, but most of what you read is written to sell. Claims get repeated without sources. Australian rules, like TGA listing for sunscreens, usually get skipped entirely.

I wanted one place that gives the plain answer first, shows the evidence behind it, and then helps you find the product here. It also needed to be honest about which shops actually sell to Australians and what that costs.

The primary audience is Australian women aged 18 to 35 who are curious about Korean and Japanese skincare. The secondary audience is anyone in Australia already buying these products who wants to check a claim, an ingredient or a sunscreen before they spend.

What it deliberately does not do: it doesn't sell anything, and there's no checkout. It never says a product treats, cures or heals anything. Brands can't pay to be included, and it isn't medical advice.

What the site does

Glass & Dew turns published research and Australian sources into short, plain English answers, then links you to Australian shops.

• Ingredient guides: 20 ingredients so far, from centella and heartleaf to retinol and tranexamic acid. Each opens with the short answer, then an evidence rating, what it pairs well with and what to keep apart.
• Skin concern pages: nine concerns, including acne prone skin, a damaged barrier, dark spots and fungal acne. Each gives a simple morning and evening routine and clear signs it's time to see a GP.
• Australian sunscreen guide: the page most valuable to the main audience. It explains why most cult Korean and Japanese sunscreens aren't listed on the ARTG, and what an AUST L number does and doesn't prove. It also covers personal import limits, PA++++ versus broad spectrum, and a two minute check anyone can do before buying.
• Brand profiles: 25 Korean and Japanese brands, each showing who owns it and where it's actually sold in Australia. Every profile carries a last checked date, and it says plainly when there's no official Australian channel.
• Australian shops and prices: products link out to Australian stockists, with the price range across shops. Results are sorted by price, never by commission.
• Search and filters: readers can search products and filter ingredients by goal, such as soothing, hydrating, brightening or exfoliating.
• A design built for phones: rounded cards, quick filters and a layout that feels like an app, because that's where this audience reads.

The methodology

The full approach is on the About page. These are the rules every page follows.

1. The answer comes first. Every page opens with a plain English summary before any detail.
2. Every health or safety claim links to a source. Each citation shows the date it was accessed, so readers can check it themselves.
3. Evidence strength is stated honestly. Ingredients are rated, and I say when studies are small, lab based or funded by the company that sells the product.
4. No medical claims. Skincare isn't medicine, and Australian rules agree. The site describes how skin looks and feels, not what a product cures.
5. AI drafts, human checks. Research and first drafts are prepared with AI tools, then checked line by line against the original sources before publishing.
6. Clear authorship. Every page shows who wrote and edited it and when it was last checked. I'm upfront that I'm not a dermatologist or pharmacist.
7. Independence. Brands can't pay for inclusion, and shop listings are sorted by price.
8. Corrections welcome. If a reader spots a mistake, I check it against the sources and update the page, noting the change.

Where the data comes from

Glass & Dew doesn't rely on one data feed. It draws on regulators, health bodies, dermatology references and published studies, and every page lists its own sources.

The site covers skincare only for now, and the list of sunscreens confirmed on the ARTG is still being built by hand.

The hard problems

A few things were harder than the build itself.

Writing about skin without being a skin expert. I'm a developer, not a dermatologist. So I made sourcing the product: every claim is linked, every page is dated, and my author page says exactly what I'm not.

Sunscreen law is a genuine grey zone. Most popular Korean sunscreens aren't on the ARTG, and the rules for personal imports don't name sunscreens directly. I wrote down what the sources say, flagged what I couldn't confirm, and made no claims about whether any shop acts lawfully.

A lot of skincare evidence is thin. Many studies are tiny, lab based or run by the brand's owner. Rather than hide that, the ratings say so, and pages name who funded the research when it matters.

Linking to shops without becoming an ad. A guide that links to retailers can easily drift into selling. Sorting by price rather than commission, and refusing paid inclusion, keeps the recommendations useful.

Where to buy changes constantly. Brands move between chains, distributors and specialist importers. Each brand page states what I found as at a specific date, and says when I couldn't confirm an official channel.

Staying inside Australian advertising rules. Skincare copy loves words like heals and repairs. I rewrote everything around how skin looks and feels, which is more honest and keeps the site on the right side of the rules.

Technical SEO and organic traffic

A content site lives or dies on search, so I treated visibility as part of the product from day one.

Matching pages to real searches. Page titles mirror the questions people actually type, such as whether Korean sunscreens are legal in Australia, or where to buy Anua here. Each page answers that question in its first few lines.

Content clusters and internal linking. Ingredients, concerns, brands and guides all link to each other. A concern page links to its key ingredients, and each ingredient links to what it pairs well with, so readers and crawlers move naturally through the topic.

Technical foundations. Pages are fast and mobile friendly, with clean URLs, canonical tags, Australian locale settings and proper social sharing cards. Every page has a clear title and description written for the searcher.

Fast indexing. I verify the site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, submit sitemaps, and use IndexNow so new and updated pages get picked up quickly. Clear, cited answers also make pages easier for AI search tools to surface and quote.

Trust signals. Bylines, an author page, last checked dates, linked sources, a disclaimer and a corrections process all show readers and search engines who stands behind the content.

Building things worth linking to. The Australian sunscreen guide, with its two minute ARTG check, is the kind of page other people reference. Useful, specific resources earn links in a way generic articles never will.

What's next

• A growing list of ARTG checked sunscreens, each with its AUST L number, listed name and the date I checked it.
• More guides, building on the beginner routine and the sunscreen guide.
• Professional review on more pages, so readers can see where a qualified professional has also checked the content.
• More ingredients, concerns and brands, expanding the clusters that already exist.

What I've learned

1. Trust is the product. In a market full of hype, citing sources and admitting gaps is what makes a reader come back.
2. Lead with the answer. People skim on phones. Putting the plain answer first serves readers and search engines at the same time.
3. AI is a fast first draft, not a fact checker. It speeds up research enormously, but every line still needs a person checking it against the original source.
4. Say what you're not. Being upfront that I'm not a dermatologist made the site more credible, not less.
5. Regulation is a feature. Explaining the ARTG properly turned a dry topic into the most useful page on the site.
6. Weak evidence is still worth reporting. Telling readers a study is small or brand funded is more useful than leaving the ingredient out.
7. Information architecture drives SEO. A clear model of ingredients, concerns and brands did more for internal linking than any keyword list.
8. Independence needs rules, not intentions. Writing down how shops are sorted, and that brands can't pay, removes the temptation later.
9. Dates matter. Stockists and rules change fast, so every claim about where to buy carries the date I checked it.

My skill set

My day job is e commerce: building and improving Shopify stores that convert. Glass & Dew stretched me into editorial research, regulatory detail and growing organic traffic for a site that sells nothing itself.

• E commerce and Shopify: about eight years building stores for brands across Australia, New Zealand and the US, so I know how shoppers compare and buy.
• Front end development: fast, mobile first interfaces with an app like feel, built for how people actually browse.
• Technical SEO: search led page planning, internal linking, indexing and the technical foundations that help content rank.
• AI assisted delivery: using AI tools to research and draft at speed, with a human review process that keeps the output accurate.
• Research and fact checking: turning studies, regulators and health bodies into plain English, with every claim traceable.
• Regulatory awareness: working through TGA sunscreen rules and Australian advertising limits on skincare claims.
• Information architecture: structuring ingredients, concerns, brands and guides so readers find answers in a few taps.
• Content strategy: choosing topics people actually search for and building resources worth linking to.

If you're working on something where e commerce, trustworthy content and search meet, I'd love to chat. Get in touch through my contact form, or explore the site at glassanddew.com.