First ginseng cosmetics

Suh Sung-whan, founder and former president of Amore Pacific, spent his childhood in the 1930s in North Korea’s border city of Gaeseong, a home of quality ginseng.

While helping his mother who sold camellia oil, which was used as hair essence by women, he learned about the effects of ginseng and other medicinal herbs grown here.

His trust and affection for traditional Korean medicine gained during the period continued after his establishment of Amore Pacific in 1945 and led him to open a research center in 1954 for the first time as a local beauty company.

Since then, investment in dermatological studies has been the company’s policy priority for sustainable growth, said the company, which spends more than 3 percent of its sales revenue on research every year.

In 1973, after years of experiments, the company succeeded in producing the world’s first cosmetic product using the active ingredients in ginseng, which was later developed to become Sulwhasoo in 1997 in cooperation with Kyung Hee University College of Oriental Medicine.

Success of Sulwhasoo

Until the company launched the herbal medicine cosmetics brand in the late 1990s, many consumers here had no idea about the concept, while the local beauty market was dominated by Western brands.

However, Suh, the founder, had strong belief in his products’ quality and ordered an aggressive marketing strategy, which included offering free samples to 300,000 consumers.

And all the company got were positive reviews because the strength of Sulwhasoo was its safety to all skin types, the company said.

Coupled with recent well-being lifestyle trend and new attention to oriental ideas, Sulwhasoo is now among Korea’s best-selling luxury skincare brands and unrivaled in the herbal-medicine-based cosmetics products.

Yoonjoe Essence known as First Care Serum is one of the brand’s best sellers. Last year, about 1.6 million bottles were sold, the company estimated.

During the G20 summit held in Seoul last year, a set of Sulwhasoo cosmetics was also given to the wives of the visiting government heads as a special souvenir.

“Sulwhasoo is based on traditional Korean medicine helping the balance of mind, body and skin. The main ingredients are from ginseng, pine, plum blossom and camellia, which represent Korea’s tradition and sentiment,” said Kim Young-joon, manager of Korean medicine cosmetic research team at Amore’s R&D center.

“Some 30 herbs are carefully selected out of 20,000 species to be used for Sulwhasoo. In case of ginseng, three active ingredients are extracted and boiled for 18 hours.”

Sulwhasoo is the most successful outcome of the company’s active research activities for decades. Over the years of study, Amore has earned 104 patents, including 54 international ones, and published 90 research papers, including 59 globally.

In the field of ginseng study alone, the company has acquired a total of 32 patents since 1972.

The company isolated specific ginsenosides that have antioxidant effects for the first time in the world. And the technology was selected among the nation’s 10 new technologies in 2009 and a driving force by the National Academy Engineering of Korea last year.

Currently, the company’s study on herbal medicine covers all range of its beauty and hygiene products such as the No. 1 premium hair care brand Ryoe, which was launched 2008.

Ongoing research efforts

The company has two research centers, the second of which opened in September last year as part of its efforts to boost creativity and diversity in its research activities.

In order to complete the five-story building called “Mizium” at its R&D complex in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, the company spent 50 billion won for five years.

Under the company’s long-term plan to be listed within the global top 10 cosmetics brands by 2015, the new facility will play a key role to study the ever-changing needs of global consumers, the company said.

Amore has also been active in collaborating with other research organizations to add expertise to their study of Asian people’s skin and how it ages.

For 10 years since 1999, the company, in cooperation with Seoul National University Medical School, has studied Korean skin and its aging process.

Considering the huge potential of the Chinese market, the company has also conducted a joint project along with university hospitals in China to develop products specialized for Chinese women and weather conditions there.

In April, the company also signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore’s Agency for Science Technology and Research to study a new generation of anti-aging products in the coming two years.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)