#Brief History of Seoul Cosmetics

Han Kwang-Seog, the founder and president of Seoul Cosmetics (서울화장품), was a salesperson in the beauty distribution industry in 1980's when he was in his middle of 30's.

With his ambition and conviction that sales is the key point in terms of business, he decided to acquire a beauty manufacturer "Seoul Perfume & Cosmetics" in 1982 to start his own business.

"I closed saving accounts and sold the house to make the budget to acquire. Moreover, I borrowed money from private loans with high interest rate as well. Now I know that I was pretty reckless at the time."

Despite the unreasonable acquisition, he always tried to meet the deadline as it was related to the credit and trust of the company and he tried his best to build a good reputation in the market.

In the early days he focused on hair care products such as hair dyes as he thought that the category is what he could lead in the market.

As most of the big cosmetics companies were trying to get more market share in skin care and makeup, his strategy is to focus on the category with less competition with those big players.

He had concentrated on becoming a leading company within the hair care category until 1993 when he changed the company's name as it is now: Seoul Cosmetics.

Still now Seoul Cosmetics is well known for its high quality hair care products they produce.

# Growth by Innovative Products

As the business was started with many of difficulties, Seoul Cosmetics could not make any profits at the beginning as they needed to pay off interests and debts.

Despite those difficulties, Seoul Cosmetics tried to find a breakthrough with innovative items in the hair care category.

In 1983, Seoul Cosmetics developed a hair spray under their own brand "Mimona Rara" which was the first aerosol type hair spray in Korea.

The aerosol type hair spray had been one of the best sellers of Seoul Cosmetics and it became a mega-selling item in the market: sold 200K units monthly in 1990's.

After its launch, Seoul Cosmetics broadened its item range - hair perm, dyes, pomade, etc. - under its own brands and they became a leading hair care manufacturer in Korea market.

#Transformed into OEM/ODM

in 2000's, Seoul Cosmetics faced a different market situation.

The road-shop trend (generated by MISSHA) was dominating the Korean beauty industry and Seoul Cosmetics needed to change their old business model of making their own brand products and distribute it through small & medium sized beauty retailers.

As Seoul Cosmetics had the manufacturing ability, they decided to stop expanding their own lines but they started focusing on manufacturing for other brands, which is, ODM business.

Seoul Cosmetics expanded its research & development team with more researchers and tried to improve its product development capability.

Also they acquired various ISO certificates (Quality management system, Environmental management system, etc.) and CGMP certificate that were not easy for small/medium sized manufacturers at that time to prove themselves as a safe and talented manufacturer.

With all those efforts, Seoul Cosmetics got contracts with those new booming road shop brands such as The Face Shop, Skin Food, etc. to produce not only hair care lines but other various skin care and body care lines.

Also Han Jung-Soo, the oldest son of the founder Han Kwang-Seog, who used to work as a marketer at another company, joined Seoul Cosmetics to expand their business overseas (Now Han Jung-Soo is the CEO of Seoul Cosmetics).

#Products Manufactured by Seoul Cosmetics

1. NATURE REPUBLIC - Soothing & Moisture Aloe Vera 92% Soothing Gel

Nature Republic's most popular best seller, Aloe Vera 92% Soothing Gel is produced by Seoul Cosmetics.

Although Seoul Cosmetics was known for the hair care lines, this Aloe vera soothing gel proves that Seoul Cosmetics can make good skin and body care products as well.

As Seoul Cosmetics used to produce many products for The Face Shop in earily 2000's, the founder of The Face Shop Jung Woon-Ho, currently president of Nature Republic (who is in jail because of illegal gamble and bribery to politicians and prosecutors), may have a good impression of Seoul Cosmetics and tried to make a hit item with them.

2. CHAHONG Beauty - Hair Care line

One of the most famous hair designer, Chahong, chose Seoul cosmetics as their manufacturer when launching her own brand. CHAHONG's private premium hair line is manufactured by Seoul Cosmetics.

This line is mainly made of herb based ingredients like Angelica root extract to deliver safe anti oxide function.

3. SKINFOOD - Argan Oil Silk Plus Hair Essence

As a hair care expert, Seoul Cosmetics produces many of hair care products.

This Argan oil and Ceramide contained hair essence helps provide nutrients and moisture to hair and care permed and dyed hair.

The affordable price makes customers happy thanks to its high quality and it is known as a steadily re-purchasing item.

(FYI, SKIN FOOD is put under court receivership because of its short of cash generated by high deficit from its aggressive global expansion in 2018 Oct.)

4. Dr.Young - AC Out Cleansing Foam CreamThis tight texture cleansing cream for sensitive and acne-prone skin is launched by a dermatology brand Dr.Young.

The cleanser has been a best seller of the brand especially in Summer when sebum and oily agent are generated on skin easily.

5. SNP - W+ Bird's Nest Eye Cream

Another dermatology brand SNP's unique bird's nest eye cream is manufactured by Seoul Cosmetics.

This EGF ingredient contained eye cream helps caring eyes with brightening effect.

#Vision for Global Manufacturer

Not like other ODM companies, Seoul Cosmetics once ran their own brands and the experience helps them better understand the pain points of brand companies.

Seoul Cosmetics established its 2nd manufacturing facility in 2017 and announced its vision to become one of the global leading cosmetics manufacturers.

Its annual sales in 2017 was over US$57 million which is quite remarkable even among those big manufacturers.

They also try to help local students and refugees from North Korea to provide warm and positive influence to the society.

‍