I Built an API for 21,000+ Korean Cosmetic Ingredients — Here's Why

The Problem Nobody Talks About If you've ever tried to check whether a cosmetic ingredient is legal in South Korea, you know the pain: 🇰🇷 Government websites only in Korean 📄 Data buried in PDFs, not databases 🔍 No search functionality 🚫 No official API For cosmetic brands trying to enter the Korean market, this means hours of manual research, expensive consultants, or just... guessing. I decided to fix this. What I Built K-Beauty Cosmetic Ingredients API — A REST API with: ✅ 21,796 ingredients from official Korean sources ✅ INCI names, CAS numbers, Korean translations ✅ Regulatory status (Prohibited / Restricted / Not Listed) ✅ Concentration limits and conditions ✅ Fast JSON responses (<50ms) Data comes directly from: MFDS (Ministry of Food and Drug Safety) — Korea's FDA KCIA (Korea Cosmetic Industry Association) Quick Example Want to check if Retinol is restricted in Korea? import requests response = requests.get( "https://k-beauty-cosmetic-ingredients.p.rapidapi.com/v1/ingre