This is an episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the beauty and wellness industries. More from the series →
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If you’ve scrolled TikTok lately, perhaps you’ve come across a sunscreen from K-beauty brand Beauty of Joseon. On the app, it’s somewhat ubiquitous. Sumin Lee is part of a team that acquired the brand and totally reinvented it, introducing the version today’s U.S. consumers know in 2019. In the five years since, it’s become a hit, particularly for its sunscreens, including the Relief Sun Aqua-Fresh: Rice + B5 (SPF50+ PA++++). It not only uses advanced SPF filters that were previously unavailable in the U.S., but it’s also relatively affordable, at $18.
The brand has taken off not only on TikTok Shop but also on Amazon. Lee credits the sunscreen’s success to both its super-lightweight texture and TikTok itself. The brand is formulated around “hanbang” ingredients, meaning the formulas feature traditional Korean herbs as key ingredients.
On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, founder Sumin Lee discusses the brand’s exceptional popularity in the states, especially compared to Korea, its upcoming retail expansion in the U.S. and its strategy for combatting counterfeiters.
Below are highlights from the episode, which have been lightly edited for clarity.
On being more popular in the US than in Korea
“Our biggest market is the U.S. … We’re not really popular in Korea, I have to admit. “Beauty of Joseon” means ‘beautiful woman in Joseon.’ … People think the name is so tacky. When they first hear our brand name, they’re like, ‘What?’ We have to overcome [this], and we have to focus more on product benefits and our story in the U.S. and other global markets. [Then] people in Korea will also think our brand is cool and our products are good — we’re working on that. These days, people in Korea [are starting to] accept that, ‘OK, Beauty of Joseon is killing it in the global market.’ They are like, ‘I will accept your name, but let me think if I should try any of your products.’ So, we’re in that stage in Korea, and we’re bigger in the U.S.”
Combatting counterfeits
“We started our TikTok shop just to protect our brand from unauthorized resellers — so that consumers in the U.S. can make sure they are purchasing a product that is not fake. We didn’t really care much about the sales. All of these people talking about our sunscreen and selling our sunscreen on TikTok shop — most of them are resellers, so we cannot assume the volume of sales, actually.”
What’s next
“There will be some changes to our distribution strategy. We’re gonna slow down on Amazon starting in the second quarter of next year. And we’re gonna work with a major retailer in the U.S., starting in August. … It’s Sephora — we’re in the contract process now. … The U.S. market is my top priority because we’ve already seen the potential. There are so many more things I can do in the market.”
