One of K-beauty’s buzziest brands is going big Stateside.
Beauty of Joseon, the perennially viral sunscreen brand from Korea, has inked a retail deal with Sephora, where it will launch on July 17 online before rolling out to 600 doors. The initial assortment will include a range of cleansers, toners, creams, serums and masks as well as sunscreens.
For Sumin Lee, the brand’s cofounder, it was a natural next move given its traction in the U.S.
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“We’ve mostly been working as an internet brand, with social media and two years of virality for our SPF,” Lee said. “We’ve been focused on social media, our d-to-c [direct-to-consumer] and Amazon, and now, we’re just around the corner to getting into Sephora.”
In the sunscreen category — among skin care’s fastest-growing in the U.S. prestige market — Beauty of Joseon has already sold 25 million units of its hero Relief Sun. Sun care sales across the brand’s offering are north of $34 million. Relief Sun, due to MoCRA regulations, will be phased out and replaced by Day Dew SPF 50, a new product developed specifically for the market.
“Our sales goal this year is around $120 million in the U.S. market,” Lee said, noting that Sephora was a key part of reaching that volume. “We finally get a chance to meet people in the real world and are able to deliver our message. It’s important that everyone gets to experience every detail of our product, and we’re already sourcing new product lines to be launched at Sephora for next year.”
Lee has been busy drumming up excitement prior to revealing the launch, such as a recent campaign featuring Sandy Liang and an ensuing one with Peggy Gou.
“We’re taking an original approach for the U.S. market as opposed to Europe and Australia,” Lee said. “We want to give Sephora customers the specific details in depth and are developing sophisticated messaging.”
Lee added that Sephora shoppers are “smart, clever and they’re skin care enthusiasts. That perfectly matches our brand.”
The company recently hosted pop-up coffee carts with Leon’s Bagels in New York, for example, with total estimated reach around 4,000 consumers. And though the brand is taking Relief Sun out of the U.S. market, Lee is bullish on its replacement.
“We know what people in the market expect from our new sunscreen, and so we recreated it with FDA-approved UV filters while delivering the same benefits of the original. It’s blendable and lightweight,” Lee said. She expects the partnership to bolster awareness around the rest of the brand’s assortment, too.
“SPF is our top seller, but we have a community that loves our other products like serums and toners,” Lee said. “Toners, also, are very specific to K-beauty and we’re bringing in two. Virality was a huge gift and our ticket into the market. But our brand is not a one-hit wonder, and we want to create a full ecosystem with our products in the near future.”