106 brands sourced directly from Seoul.

About

Some By Mi is a Korean skincare brand run from Gangnam, Seoul by Perenbell Co., Ltd. Its lines are named for what they're built on: AHA·BHA·PHA, Retinol, Bakuchiol, Galactomyces, Beta Panthenol, Yuzu Niacinamide and Cica Peptide, alongside a daily sheet-mask range and body care. It describes its own approach with a coined word — the phrase on its site is "New Cleanical Solution." Three things on that list are unusually specific. The AHA·BHA·PHA line carries "30 Days" in the product name, a timeframe printed on the bottle. It names three acid families in a single step, which most brands split across separate products. And it runs a Bakuchiol line alongside the Retinol line, so a retinoid and its gentler alternative sit on the same shelf. Three are worth unpacking: what "30 Days" asks of you, what three acid families in one step gives you, and what a bakuchiol line beside a retinol line offers.

About

AXIS-Y is a Korean skincare brand operated from Seoul by Asia Master Trade Co., Ltd. It calls itself climate inspired: skin shifts with environment and season rather than sitting in one fixed type. It publishes a formulation framework to match. AXIS-Y describes a 6+1+1 build: six base ingredients for general skin health, one core ingredient aimed at a concern, and one newer technology ingredient. Its individual products then carry their own numbers. The Dark Spot Correcting Glow Serum lists niacinamide at 5%, with squalane and sea buckthorn fruit extract. The Daily Purifying Treatment Toner lists AHA and PHA alongside salicylic acid at 0.5%, with Centella asiatica at 250,000 ppm and tea tree extract. The range runs wider than those two, with the Vegan Collagen Eye Serum, the Panthenol Cream and the Complete No-Stress Physical Sunscreen alongside them. Three are worth unpacking: what a 6+1+1 recipe buys you, what 5% niacinamide does, and what a 0.5% acid and a 250,000 ppm figure amount to.

About

Goodal is a Korean skincare brand owned by CLIO Corporation of Seoul. The name is a compound of good and all: "something that is good for all." It positions itself on natural ingredients grown in Korea, naming each line for the plant it is built on. Green Tangerine Vita C is the line it leads with, and it runs the length of a routine: cleansing foam, toner pad, serum, cream, eye cream, gel patch and a tone-up sun cream. The serum and the cream both state 4% niacinamide, doubled from the previous formulation, with ascorbyl glucoside as the vitamin C derivative and arbutin alongside. Its Clear Clean Guide is the brand's own list of eighteen excluded ingredients. Houttuynia cordata — heartleaf — is the calming line, and its Calming Moisture Sun Cream is SPF50+ PA++++ on organic filters, among them ethylhexyl triazone and diethylamino hydroxybenzoyl hexyl benzoate. Vegan Rice Milk, certified by EVE VEGAN, covers basic moisture, Black Carrot Vita-A the retinol side. Three repay a closer look: what the tangerine contributes, what 4% niacinamide adds, and what a filter choice changes.

About

Klairs — styled Dear, Klairs — is a Korean skincare brand that says it develops products for everyday use, always gentle, even for sensitive skin. Its lines are named for the job: Freshly Juiced Vitamin, Supple Preparation, Midnight Blue, Rich Moist Soothing, Gentle Black and Blue EGF. Rich Moist Soothing runs to both a cream and a serum, and the Freshly Juiced Vitamin E Mask sits in the vitamin line alongside the drop. Its vegan claim is registered: the Freshly Juiced Vitamin Drop with the Korea Agency of Vegan Certification and Services, four other products with The Vegan Society. That certification covers the ingredients: no animal-derived material, verified by an outside body. Klairs is unusually specific about its formulas. The Freshly Juiced Vitamin Drop is given as 5% pure vitamin C — ascorbic acid, not a derivative — at pH 3.8, and positioned as beginner-friendly. The Gentle Black Fresh Cleansing Oil is described as 85% plant oils — sunflower, grape seed, jojoba, black currant. The Supple Preparation Unscented Toner is called fragrance-free and essential-oil free, built on beta-glucan, centella and licorice root. And the Midnight Blue Calming Cream takes its colour from guaiazulene, not a dye. Three are worth unpacking: what 5% at pH 3.8 buys you, what 85% plant oils means, and why fragrance-free may matter most here.

About

COSRX is a Korean skincare brand founded in 2013. It explains its own name as cosmetics plus Rx, for prescription, and says its researchers work on formulations in the COSRX laboratory. The range is organised three ways at once — by product type, by concern, and by ingredient. Its claims are mostly numbers on the label. The Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence is 96.3% snail secretion filtrate with 1,000 ppm sodium hyaluronate; the Advanced Snail 92 All in One Cream is 92%, with 1,000 ppm hyaluronic acid. The Low pH Good Morning Gel Cleanser publishes a measured pH of 5.31 ± 1.00 and uses betaine salicylate as its BHA, alongside tea tree leaf oil. The AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner puts glycolic acid and betaine salicylate over willow bark and apple fruit water, and advises against pairing it with other acids, retinol or vitamin C. Three are worth unpacking: the 96.3% figure, the measured pH, and betaine salicylate.

About

rom&nd is a Korean colour cosmetics brand, operated from Gangnam-gu, Seoul by iFamilySC Co., Ltd. Its range covers face, eyes, cheeks and lips, and it names its lines rather than numbering them: Zero Velvet Tint, Zero Layer Lipstick and Foundation, Juicy Lasting Tint, See-Through Matte Tint, Glasting Melting Balm, Better Than Eyes. Three things the brand says about its own lip products are worth holding onto. The Zero Velvet Tint is sold as knit-like lips in a light 0g lipstick — a matte that claims to weigh nothing. The Color Lip Matte is described as filling vertical lip lines like a primer and adding only a blurred colour, applied with a flat lip spreader tip designed for even gradients. And Lip Matter is pitched as moist underneath and powder-dry on top, a layer that turns any lipstick you already own matte. Open any line and the numbers run 01, 02, 03 down that line's own list, each paired with a name — Joyful, Burnt Heart, Peach Puff. Weightless matte, a lip primer, and a shade code: each is worth unpacking.

About

TIRTIR is a Korean makeup-and-skincare brand that sells direct through its own site under the tagline "Be Bold. Redefine Your Radiance." Its range splits into named lines: Red for base makeup, Milk for toners, ampoules and creams, plus Matcha, Porexel and a Color line for lips and blush. Most of what it publishes arrives as numbers. The Mask Fit Red Cushion is listed in 40 shades, coded by undertone as cool, neutral or warm, from 10C Shell to 55N Espresso. Its serums are named for their concentrations, Niacinamide 20%, Azelaic Acid 12% and PHA 15%, while the Milk Skin Toner puts niacinamide at 2%, with rice bran extract, ceramide, panthenol, cica and witch hazel. The Ceramic Cream is described as natural ceramides, peptides and centella, and carries a free-from list: no parabens, sulfates, artificial fragrance, alcohol, mineral oil or silicone. Three are worth unpacking: what a 40-shade range does and doesn't solve, what the gap between 2% and 20% niacinamide means, and how much a free-from list tells you.

About

Torriden is a Korean skincare brand run from Daejeon by Torriden Co., Ltd. It organises its range by the ingredient each line is built on: DIVE IN for hyaluronic acid, BALANCEFUL for cica, SOLID IN for ceramide, and CELLMAZING for collagen and vitamin C. The brand counts in fives, and is specific about what it counts. DIVE IN runs on what Torriden calls 5D multi low-molecular hyaluronic acid, and the cream page spells that out: five sizes of molecule, from high molecular weight down to low, named one by one as sodium hyaluronate, hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid, sodium acetylated hyaluronate, sodium hyaluronate crosspolymer and hydrolyzed sodium hyaluronate. BALANCEFUL applies the same arithmetic to centella. Its toner pad carries a 5D Cica Complex — centella asiatica extract, madecassoside, asiatic acid, madecassic acid and asiaticoside — over capryloyl salicylic acid and gluconolactone, an LHA and a PHA. Three are worth unpacking: molecular weight, what naming the five gives you, and what two acids add to a pad built for calming.

About

Tocobo is a Korean skincare brand run by Picton Co., Ltd. out of Mapo-gu, Seoul, under the line follow your intuition. Its catalogue is wide — sun care, cleansers, toners, lip care, hair and makeup — and its product pages are specific. Sun care is the biggest part. The Bio Watery Sun Cream names its filters outright: ethylhexyl triazone, bis-ethylhexyloxyphenol methoxyphenyl triazine, diethylamino hydroxybenzoyl hexyl benzoate and terephthalylidene dicamphor sulfonic acid. Alongside the creams sit sun sticks — Cotton Soft, Cotton Airy, Cica Cooling, Vita Waterproof. The Multi Ceramide Cream is built on five named ceramide types — NP, NS, AP, AS and EOP — with cholesterol, beta-glucan and three forms of hyaluronic acid, and Tocobo calls it a high-density ten-layer moisture cream. The lip range splits in two: oils and balms for shine, and overnight lip masks for repair. Three are worth unpacking: what a named filter list tells you, what five ceramide types buy, and what each half of the lip range is for.

About

Etude House, which trades as ETUDE on its own site, is a Korean beauty brand based in Seoul, named for the musical étude — the practice piece that turns into a melody. Its collections carry the range. SoonJung is the soothing skincare line; Moistfull Collagen the hydrating one; AC Clean Up and Wonder Pore work on breakouts and pores; Sebum Soak on oil. On the colour side, Dear Darling holds the water tints, Play Color Eyes the shadow palettes, Double Lasting the base. Three claims from SoonJung's own product pages are specific enough to check. The pH 6.5 Whip Cleanser is sold on a pH-balanced formula and a lather said to minimise friction during cleansing, plus a 10 Free list naming exactly what is left out — animal-derived ingredients, mineral oil, synthetic pigment, fragrance, polyacrylamide, silicone oil, imidazolidinyl urea, triethanolamine, PEG surfactant and paraben. The 10-Panthensoside Cica Balm states 10% panthenol. And the 2x Barrier Intensive Cream is described as strengthening skin's resistance with a protein barrier. A pH figure, a free-from count and a stated percentage: three kinds of claim.