Cosmetics with conscience gain popularity In South Korea, here are super seven vegan cosmetics brands
Vegan cosmetics — cosmetics that refrain from using animal-derived components and that forgo animal testing — have in recent years been gaining popularity in Western markets. However, vegan cosmetics are also becoming a trend in South Korea, where there is increasing awareness on issues of health, safety, the environment, and sustainability. Here are seven up-and-coming South Korean vegan cosmetics brands to watch out for.
Bonajour, which launched in 2010, has received certification from institutions such as The Vegan Society (UK). CEO Kim Dahae, having suffered from eczema and skin allergies from a young age, created her own facial masks and cosmetics made from natural plants. She comes from a family that runs a cosmetics OEM/ODM business. When she was a 21-year-old engineering university student, she used her background as a launchpad for a vegan brand in South Korea at a time when it was still off the radar.
In 2021, Bonajour won acclaim at the Korea First Brand Awards — run by the Korea Economic Daily newspaper — in the Natural Cosmetics category. Being a beauty brand that advocates ethical and healthy practices through such initiatives as donating proceeds to just causes, Bonajour now has a strong following among South Korean consumers.
Dear Dahlia is the most famous vegan brand in South Korea. It’s run by a retail company Paran International that was founded in 2014 as a China sales agent for Stylenanda brand 3CE and Unilever. In 2017, they released Dear Dahlia as their own original brand. The brand focuses on makeup products with a luxury-style concept inspired by the dahlia flower — also known as the “Queen of the Autumn Garden”.
Dear Dahlia doesn’t position itself as a brand from South Korea. Their brand packaging features European-style designs, and global expansion has been their plan from the get-go. At the end of 2020, they made their products available on Germany’s largest cosmetics retailer — the online mall Douglas. Dear Dahlia products are currently sold at over 2,000 locations in Europe, including 435 brick-and-mortar stores in Germany.
Launched in 2018 by a former female co-founder of Memebox, Melixir is a vegan skincare brand certified by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) in the US and is verified for safety by EWG, a nonprofit organization focusing on health and the environment. They currently mostly sell in South Korea and the US.
The principal plant materials they use in their products are sugar cane and green tea. Melixir is also notable for its environmental consideration — using only the necessary amounts of sustainable natural materials, such as for the wood used in their packaging. In October 2020, they succeeded in attracting up to a million US dollars in a Series A round of funding.
A vegan makeup brand specializing in glitter and certified by PETA, Unleashia has a range of products featuring various kinds of biodegradable glitters that are made of regenerated pulp and that use environmentally friendly materials in their packaging. The company running the brand was established in 2018. They’ve successfully expanded into China, Japan, Taiwan, the US, and the United Arab Emirates, and in July 2020 their products also started to be handled in Chicor’s online and offline stores.
Unleashia’s glitter-inspired brand image that dispels preconceptions that veganism is plain and plant-fixated and their product development that has allowed consumers to enjoy a variety of vegan cosmetics have been points praised by Vogue Korea among others.
athe, a vegan brand released by major apparel maker LF in October 2019, is the first brand in South Korea to acquire the French vegan certification EVE (Expertise Végane Europe). Through joint research with major Swiss cosmetics laboratory Mibelle, the produces high-quality skincare and makeup products based on indigenous raw materials including the yeast of a flower native to Switzerland. Their sunscreen cream and lip balm, which have been vegan certified, are the first of their kind made in South Korea.
athe is the first cosmetics brand made by LF, and its distribution is mainly handled through domestic channels, including through an e-commerce mall also operated by LF and through Lotte Duty Free.
Klairs is a brand selling vegan skincare for sensitive skin. Their main products such as “Supple Preparation Facial Toner” and “Freshly Juiced Vitamin Drop” have each sold a million units as of October 2020. At the end of last year, they were voted number one in the toner cream category of Chicor’s Best Awards 2020. Their “Supple Preparation Facial Toner” is also gaining popularity in overseas countries and is currently being exported to 40 countries including the US and countries in Europe and Southeast Asia.
Launched in June 2020, Enough Project is a vegan brand by the South Korean conglomerate Amorepacific. The company is currently putting plans into action for better digital communication with consumers and the expansion of sales channels, and Enough Project is one of the brands that puts into practice their “digital-focused model”. In particular, Enough Project attracted attention when they first released by launching exclusively online through the South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang rather than in brick-and-mortar stores. In September of 2020, they also began selling officially on Amazon US.
The outlook for vegan cosmetics in South Korea
South Korea is home to many emerging cosmetics brands, and in the field of vegan cosmetics the competition is heating up. From here on it will be difficult for these brands to distinguish themselves just through policies of no animal testing or environmentally friendly plant usage. In order to gain a lead over others, they will likely need that little something extra on top of the vegan features.
Meanwhile, we’re seeing OEM businesses in South Korea starting to acquire vegan certification one after the other. In September 2020, Kolmar Korea acquired the French EVE certification for ten product categories of their main cosmetics offerings, including cushion foundations, UV creams, and mascaras. In the year before they also attained vegan certification for ten of their basic cosmetics items.
Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Jonggi HA
