Brief History of COSON (코스온)
COSON(company website)'s founder and CEO Lee Dong-Gun (profile) was born in 1968, studied Chemical engineering at Yeonsei University, and joined Amorepacific as a lab researcher.As he always dreamed to start his own business, he left Amorepacific and founded a new cosmetics manufacturing company 'Nabion' with some of his colleagues from Amorepacific Skin Care team.
COSON's manufacturing facilities in Osan, Gyeonggido, Korea
In the beginning stage of their business, they tried quite a lot of new business. They started producing products for various brands through a factory they rented in Seongnam-si. They also launched their own brands such as "MIZON 미즈온" and "ATO 1004" as well.In 2005, they launched a skin care spa "Mipl 미플" too, but they sold the business to Koreana Cosmetics in 2 years and tried to focus on manufacturing and retailing cosmetics as a professional cosmetics ODM company and a cosmetics retailer.In 2009, they established their own manufacturing facilities in Osan where Amorepacific's researching labs and factories were located.
Founder & CEO, Lee Dong-Gun
Finally, in 2012, they bought out a public company '3H' listed on KOSDAQ and changed the company name to COSON.COSON became a stock trade-able company and with its benefits they started growing a lot faster than they had grown.In 2013, COSON established a new CGMP certified manufacturing facility in Osan in order to expand its capacity.They also co-found a company 'Code Cosme' with a giant entertainment company YG and launched "MOONSHOT" in 2014. The brand then became fully owned by YG.They also established a factory in China to market the country too.
Moonshot's first flagship store in Seoul, Korea
As already mentioned above, not like other professional cosmetics manufacturers (ODMs), COSON both manufactures and run brands at the same time.COSON's sales volume was about US$9 million in 2013 but it grew to US$23 million in 2014.
COSON's business partners
As a ODM company, COSON produces cosmetics for various brands and quite a lot of portion of their business are generated by Amorepacific.
COSON announced that about 33% of their whole business is from Amorepacific: 18% from Etude House, 5% from Innisfree, and 2% from eSpoir.Of course they produce for other brands like TONY MOLY, Nature Republic, Clio, et cetera, however, the sum of other brands' business is only about 2-3%.For global brands, COSON produces products for Tarte and BECCA too. For Tarte, they produce about 15 items including foundation and concealer.They also produce for Miniso and Yujiahui (禦家匯) for their own private label products too.
ETUDE HOUSE Matte Chic Lip Lacquer, produced by COSON
As in the beauty industry for about 30 years, the founder and CEO Lee Dong-Gun has always addressed COSON's direction by reflecting general capacity of Korean cosmetics manufacturers and his own instinct.
"Korea has very clear 4 seasons, which means, we can test various colors and shades for each season very quickly. Currently many of manufacturers only focus on skin care, but make up category is also important and promising area we can discover further."
However, he also clearly understands that some of high-end technologies - basic raw ingredients, bio-technology, etc.) are not the area they can deliver the best.So he decided to focus on utilizing those raw ingredients and bio technology for new functional ingredients to create additional values.
Through their own brand MIZON or Dr.Myer's, they contain those new functional ingredients to provide such innovative products (like MIZON's famous snail cream).Recently they produced stem cell based items with Kangstem Biotech (강스템바이오텍) through a new brand 'GD11', which shows how hard COSON tries to create a new type of innovative products.
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Products manufactured by COSON
1. MIZON - All In One Snail Repair Cream (Amazon Link)
In 2010, MIZON's snail cream was such a big hit in Hong Kong and the UK.Most of snail creams from other brands are bit heavy to apply but this MIZON snail cream is relatively lightweight and it appeals to customers a lot.
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2. Dr.Myer's - Water Keep Jelly Skins (Amazon link)
COSON's another private label brand Dr.Myer's launched this water type sunscreen that moisturizes too.
The watery texture gets absorbed onto skin smoothly and quickly while giving a cooling sensation.
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3. MOONSHOT - Cream Paint Light Fit (Official page link)
This Moonshot's best selling tint delivers relatively brighter shade than other makeup brands products as they target Asian women.
Well pigmented colors with smooth texture make this tint popular in Korea and other countries mainly in South-East Asia. COSON was in charge of producing, research & development of MOONSHOT in its earlier stage in 2014.
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4. Innisfree - Super Food Line (Blueberry Rebalancing Skin link at Amazon)
Innisfree's famous Super Food skin care line is also produced by COSON.The Bluberry line products care skin with its antioxidant in blueberry for anti aging effects.
The super food line has several food-based ingredients: Fig, Artichoke, Oat, Broccoli, etc.
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5. 3CE - Back To Baby Makeup Base (Official link)
The makeup base of Stylenanda's beauty brand 3CE (purchased by L'Oreal) delivers thin yet boosting effect for following makeup steps.
4 shades help match with various skin tone and it also delivers a part of skin care function with its creamy texture.
Lee Dong-Gun, CEO of COSON does not think that this K-beauty trend is not a short term vogue but he thinks this trend can go further later on for mid-long term.
"Among fine chemistry applied consumer goods industry, cosmetics is the area Korean companies have the major competitiveness. This K-beauty trend is not only in China, but it is available many other countries now. This trend can last few years more and we need to co-grow with it."