Seek for “sunscreen” on TikTok, and one title is sure to return up: Great thing about Joseon.
A seven-year-old skincare model primarily based in Seoul, the label is featured in 16 of the highest 20 movies about sunscreen on the platform; the hashtag for the model title has 1.7 billion views. Great thing about Joseon has been on an upward climb: It grew income from simply $83,000 in 2020 to $116.7 million in 2023 and estimates it is going to attain $250 million this yr, exceeding the forecasts of high M&A targets like Summer time Fridays, Benefit, and Kosas. That’s even though the UV filters in its hero product, the Aid Solar: Rice + Probiotics sunscreen, usually are not accepted by the US FDA and it’s not obtainable at any main US magnificence retailer.
“We thought, ‘Okay, this is perhaps the highest gross sales of our historical past, and sooner or later as properly,’” stated Great thing about Joseon co-founder Sumin Lee, reflecting on the model’s greatest viral moments by way of a Zoom name from Seoul. “But it surely grows each single yr greater than the final yr.”
This week, Great thing about Joseon is cementing its US presence with its first pop-up within the nation in Los Angeles, which is able to run Nov. 8 to 16. In 2025, it plans to enter a serious US retailer. Up till now, it’s solely been obtainable by means of on-line channels, small boutiques and low cost retailers, prompting a wave of counterfeits to flood Amazon and TikTok Store.
To formally enter the US market, Great thing about Joseon faces continued crimson tape in the case of its hottest product. Trump’s US election victory on Tuesday means an unsure future for each FDA laws and costs on imports. The model, nonetheless, understands convey Okay-beauty merchandise to a brand new market: its dad or mum firm is Goodai International, which Great thing about Joseon co-founder Juhyuck Cheun began in 2017 as an export distributor of Okay-beauty manufacturers like Cosrx. It now focuses completely by itself manufacturers, which embrace TirTir, Laka, iUnik and Home of Hur.
International From the Begin
The present iteration of Great thing about Joseon, which was first based in 2017, arrived after Goodai purchased the model in 2019. Lee and Cheun revamped each aspect of it besides the title and emblem, launching a brand new set of merchandise.
Because of help from high US magnificence influencers like Hyram Yarbro and James Welsh, Great thing about Joseon’s serums noticed early stateside traction. But it surely was the 2022 launch of its Aid Solar sunscreen that served as a turning level for the model. Right now, Aid Solar sunscreen contains 35 p.c of gross sales; its different sunscreens take up one other 20 p.c. It has the sixth-highest month-to-month Google search quantity in the US for sunscreen, in line with client tendencies analysis agency Spate.
“Sunscreen within the US doesn’t really feel good to use. It burns your eyes, provides you a white forged and might make your make-up slide off your face,” stated magnificence influencer Charlotte Palermino, including {that a} facial sunscreen with out these points at Great thing about Joseon’s value level is difficult to return by. Its unapproved UV filters are additionally attractive. “It’s skincare road cred to say that you just use worldwide sunscreens,” she added. “Once you say that, it’s like a wink to somebody that you just actually know your skincare.”
Influencers say the value level (a 50mL bottle of its Aid Solar prices $18), dewy texture, the truth that it doesn’t go away a white forged and transparency on medical trials are all a draw. Skincare-focused creators, together with Palermino, Sarah Palmrya and Ava Lee have been among the many numerous influencers that gave the product a rave assessment on social media. Lee stated that the model was capable of double down on that curiosity.
“We tried to achieve out to each single one who talked about our merchandise,” stated Lee, including that the model discovered methods to deepen these relationships with infatuated influencers, comparable to making a product collectively. It teamed up with Ava Lee, for example, to create a moisturiser and gua sha software beneath the banner “Jelloskin,” and with UK-based influencer Ramón Pagán, often called Glow by Ramón, for the Matte Solar Stick sunscreen, which comprises Korean UV filters accepted within the UK.
However even the influencers themselves are considerably perplexed at simply how huge it’s gotten and the way shortly, notably given the truth that energetic UV filters, which embrace ethylhexyl triazone and diethylamino hydroxybenzoyl hexyl benzoate, usually are not but accepted by the US FDA. To entry Korean filters not accepted by the FDA, prospects typically have to purchase from worldwide retailers and hope the field doesn’t get inspected by customs. TikTok has impressed customers to take the chance.
“It’s wild,” stated Palermino. “And likewise, simply actually circumventing laws. It’s loopy. But it surely’s the American dream. It’s type of poetic in a method.”
US Ambitions
For Great thing about Joseon, nonetheless, the sunscreen being exhausting to get has solely helped increase its attract. To purchase the remainder of its skincare merchandise, the listing of authorised retailers within the US contains small Okay-beauty boutiques like Senti Senti in Brooklyn in addition to low cost retailers Costco, TJ Maxx and Marshalls.
However because it prepares to maneuver into the US in an even bigger method, a unique technique is required.
The model would profit if Korean filters are accepted within the US, as they already are in different markets just like the UK. Lee stated she hasn’t undertaken any policy-related initiatives concerning sunscreen laws or spoken to lawmakers. However no less than one has taken an curiosity within the challenge. Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who referred to as Great thing about Joseon her “ride-or-die” sunscreen in an Instagram story, made a 2023 video with Palermino calling on folks to contact their representatives to hurry up new UV filter approval.
Till that occurs, Great thing about Joseon presents a US-formulated model of its sunscreen completely on Amazon, and plans to enter a serious US retailer in 2025. It stays to be seen if shoppers are as fervent in regards to the US-formulated model. Ava Lee stated that whereas the US-approved sunscreen is “actually good,” noting that it’s extra light-weight than the unique, she nonetheless likes the unique another.
Even with out FDA approval of its unique UV filters, the model sees a possibility to additional scale in its largest market. Its pink-walled LA pop-up is an enormous a part of that effort. Known as “Rice Wonderland,” the pop-up highlights rice as one among its key elements and promotes its second US-formulated sunscreen product, its new Every day Tinted Fluid Sunscreen made with zinc oxide.
“We’ve been a digital model for 5 years. We need to be a model in the true world that everybody can get from the sweetness shops of their neighbourhood,” she stated.
Touchdown in a US retailer, albeit with a brand new formulation, may additionally assist it fight the flood of counterfeit merchandise and unauthorised sellers on Amazon and TikTok Store, which Lee stated they’re reporting “each single day, each single hour.” With the product extra simply accessible, there might be much less demand for dupes. Great thing about Joseon has additionally arrange official retailers on each TikTok and Amazon, and not too long ago joined the Amazon Transparency Program. Nonetheless, it’s an uphill battle.
The aim going ahead is to take the model from favorite for in-the-know skincare fanatics to mainstream phenomenon, in addition to develop Goodai’s portfolio. Great thing about Joseon was its first acquisition, whereas TikTok-viral make-up model TirTir was acquired in June 2024. Its subsequent acquisition might be Skin1004.
“In the long run, I need to be a model like CeraVe or The Odd,” stated Lee. “We need to be a model that lasts a very long time, not a TikTok-viral model.”
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