I had two thoughts when I stepped off a nondescript industrial elevator and into the pastel-wallpapered, candlelit showroom holding Amazon’s debut skin care line, Belei. One, this collection is a millennial Instagram fever dream. Two, Amazon knows its beauty customer well.

This may sound like a lot to deduce from a display of skin care products in minimal mint and forest green packaging, laid out for editors to snap, test, and take home (not necessarily in that order). With its clean serif font logo and muted colors, Belei immediately reminded me of the Glossiers and Summer Fridays of the online beauty world—before you’d want to slather a bottle’s contents on your face, you’d take a picture of the package. Dig inside the initial 12-product offering, and the focus of the collection is on-par with the most-shopped beauty brands of today. Belei’s first drop is entirely skin care essentials like face wipes, moisturizers, and serums; this being Amazon, the prices stick between $9 and $40.

Amazon already offers every beauty product under the sun from independent beauty brands, but its foray into a private skin care brand makes sense as a next step. eMarketer estimates that Amazon’s beauty and personal care products reached $16 billion in online sales in 2018; that’s also the third-fastest growing sales category on the platform. The numbers say it all: There’s money to be made in beauty, so Amazon is getting in the game.

It’s not all a money grab, though. According to Amazon, the collection is intended to offer a solutions-oriented approach to skin care, legible to any shopper. The ingredient lists on each product are short and natural: no parabens, phthalates, or sulfates are to be found. The line wasn’t tested on animals, and its carton packaging is 100% recyclable. Every product outlines which skin type should use it, and how to incorporate it into your existing skin care routine. I expected to get a whiff of a minty or generic clean scent when I opened the packages, but none of the products use fragrances. It’s clean beauty, plain and simple.

The transparency only goes so far. Amazon didn’t reveal how it landed on the 12-product edit that makes up Belei’s first collection. All I could get out of an Amazon representative at Belei’s preview event was that the line derived from “listening to the Amazon customer.” In an official release, the company states that Belei is meant “to help customers spend less time and money searching for the right skin care solutions.” A peek at its Beauty Best Sellers page shows several overlaps with the products found in Belei’s inaugural drop—like hyaluronic acid and vitamin C—so it’s safe to assume that users’ shopping data played some role in the collection’s development.

Trying a handful of the collection’s items myself convinced me that they’re worth adding to my stacked Amazon cart. My visit to the Belei showroom coincided with the conclusion of a long day at work, so I could immediately take a few of the products for a test-drive at home. When I made it back to my apartment, I didn’t think twice before ripping open the Micellar Facial Cleansing Wipes and scrubbing off my makeup. Scrubbing is the wrong word, though—a few quick wipes dissolved a face-full of heavy foundation, Boy Brow, and triple-layered mascara. Some facial wipes have given my skin an unpleasant burning sensation or dryness afterward. I experienced neither with these.

Then there were the topical treatments, like the Triple Peptide Eye Cream (whipped and creamy to the touch) and the Acne Spot Treatment. Most spot-treatments I’ve tried have a strong, chemical scent and they come in florescent or reflective packaging that’s even more embarrassing than the acne itself. The Belei spot treatment applied in a silky, thin layer; it reduced the swelling and redness at the worst part of my current breakout, but it didn’t dehydrate my skin.

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