Minji Hong, HANYUL Team I focused on determining how to present the HANYUL brand and handled marketing communications to connect with customers based on that vision. My work encompassed developing and executing comprehensive communication strategies, from campaign planning to content creation, channel partnerships, and influencer collaborations.

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team I oversaw global product development and launch strategy. We reinterpreted HANYUL’s proven efficacy and emotional appeal—already validated in the domestic market—for the U.S. market, ensuring our products would serve as both a first impression for new customers and a natural connection to the brand’s core identity.

Jihyun Kwon, Brand Creative 2 Team I was responsible for HANYUL’s product and packaging design, signature color systems, and online product detail pages (PDPs). My efforts focused on effectively communicating HANYUL’s Korean aesthetic to global customers.

Minji Hong, HANYUL Team Sephora is a global retail partner with exceptional strength in premium beauty curation. With their sophisticated brand selection and customer-optimized shopping environment, we saw it as a place where we could create positive touchpoints with customers, both in terms of symbolism and scale. We persistently pursued this partnership, and it finally came to fruition.

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team Global interest in K-Beauty continues to grow. Beyond the fast-changing trends, Korean brands have the advantage of proven brand philosophy and product efficacy. In that regard, I wondered if there could be a more authentic ‘Korean Beauty’ than HANYUL. We’ve captured the balance of nature, emotion, and efficacy through ingredient formulations that modernly reinterpret traditional Korean materials, product types that easily integrate into daily routines with quick and straightforward application, and visuals that are sophisticated yet understated. Therefore, entering Sephora wasn’t simply about geographic or channel expansion—it marked the first time we established the brand’s global positioning.

Jihyun Kwon, Brand Creative 2 Team Since Sephora is the premier platform where customers worldwide can experience Korean brands, this entry presented an opportunity to showcase ‘HANYUL’s essence’ to global customers. Under the keywords ‘Korean linear beauty and nature’s inherent colors,’ we captured HANYUL’s refined aesthetic and Korean sensibility throughout the packaging and design with a consistent tone and manner.

Minji Hong, HANYUL Team The rich storytelling behind natural ingredients that are born and raised in Korea. In the U.S., Korean culture and cuisine are receiving as much attention as Korean beauty trends. The ingredient stories—based on the history of what Koreans have consumed and applied for generations, carefully cultivated, harvested, and processed to benefit the skin—represent HANYUL’s incredible strength. When introducing the brand to international audiences, they’re genuinely attracted to the fact that real farms and farmers exist in specific cultivation regions, such as Ganghwa, Yeoju, and Goheung, each matched with ingredients that reflect their natural environments.

Jihyun Kwon, Brand Creative 2 Team From a designer’s perspective, HANYUL’s most significant appeal is that it’s a brand where ‘Korean aesthetic’ is implemented with remarkable sophistication. While today’s global beauty market is filled with bold graphics and vibrant colors, HANYUL is a brand that expresses the beauty of negative space, nature-inspired colors, and tactile elements in a refined and sophisticated way. I believe this sensibility can approach global customers as a ‘refreshing differentiator.’

Minji Hong, HANYUL Team In our marketing approach, when showcasing products and formulations, we continuously communicated HANYUL’s differentiated ingredient story by weaving in the vitality of raw materials or using 3D content to connect well-grown ingredients from fertile farms to our products. Beauty influencer Ava Lee, who we felt aligned well with HANYUL, visited Korea for brand exploration and meetings. She was genuinely attracted to HANYUL’s approach to ingredients like yuja and artemisia. She created short-form content featuring HANYUL’s ingredient story and YUJA duo usage tips, which caught the algorithm’s favor and went viral on TikTok with nearly 5 million views.

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team HANYUL has built its identity around ingredients derived from Korean nature, modernly interpreted life wisdom, philosophy, and efficacy that fundamentally and comfortably restore the skin. I was proud that through Sephora, people from other countries also recognized the depth of Korean beauty that only HANYUL can offer.

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team Before HANYUL’s North American launch, we conducted online surveys, HUT¹⁾, and FGD²⁾. Based on these results, we determined the final launch products, package application details, and anchor items for launch communications. Through our research, we concluded that ‘yuja’ would be a more familiar ingredient to consumers when introducing the brand for the first time. We established our communication direction as the ‘Brightening Duo’ of Toner Pads and Sleeping Mask, highlighting the clear benefits of ‘brightening.’

Minji Hong, HANYUL Team Since toner pads aren’t as universally adopted in this market as they are in Korea, we had some concerns, but we gained confidence through customer research like FGDs and decided to launch. We had faith that there would be sufficient opportunity even for an unfamiliar brand and product type, based on testimonials of immediately brightened effects after pad use and customer reactions. We planned various content introducing yuja’s ingredient storytelling—rich in vitamin C—and brightening routines using the YUJA duo for the launch. Currently, the YUJA duo accounts for nearly 50% of total sales, and it’s fascinating and rewarding to see people curious about YUJA pads making actual purchases.

1) HUT (Home Use Test): A research method where consumers are provided with product samples to use in their actual living spaces for a specific period, after which feedback is collected
2) FGD (Focus Group Discussion): A qualitative research method where consumers with similar demographics or behaviors are gathered to conduct structured, moderated discussions

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team The ARTEMISIA line offers a comfortable, soothing effect for combination skin prone to frequent troubles, while the YUJA line helps evenly brighten the skin tone. The RED RICE line provides deep, long-lasting moisture for customers with relatively dry skin. As K-Beauty has become widely known and interest in ‘rice’ as an ingredient has grown, this RED RICE line is as beloved at Sephora as the YUJA line.

Minji Hong, HANYUL Team We aimed to offer a comprehensive experience of authentic Korean skincare. To showcase ingredients, products, and appealing formulations that might be somewhat unfamiliar to North American customers, we chose to differentiate ourselves by implementing visuals themed around ‘Korean table setting (Hansangcharim)’—Korea’s dining culture. I think it was an intuitive theme that showcased how beneficial Korean natural ingredients can be delivered to the skin in such an appetizing way. During actual shooting, we put tremendous effort into preparing pottery and dishes that could convey Korea’s rich and beautiful food culture. Even when using backdrop paper, we focused on textures and light expressions that would bring out Korean aesthetics.

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team While ingredients like yuja, artemisia, and rice are very familiar to Korean customers—who can even intuitively recognize which regions produce the finest quality of these ingredients—for American consumers, this information itself functions as an intriguing and trust-building brand story. We asked the design team to naturally convey the background and authentic stories behind where and how these ingredients are sourced. Elements such as Korean Peninsula map illustrations and concise origin descriptions are not currently available in HANYUL products operating domestically; however, we have specifically included them for global packaging.

Jihyun Kwon, Brand Creative 2 Team When conveying Korean beauty, rather than simply using traditional patterns, we aimed to deeply incorporate keywords such as the beauty of negative space, the flow of lines, and colors found in nature. We also utilized the Korean Peninsula map not as a mere decoration, but as a meaningful design element that clearly shows the origin of the ingredients. We strived to capture Korean sensibility from the moment of opening the product to the materials and tactile sensations felt at the fingertips. We drew particular inspiration from traditional Korean painting, the gradations of ink wash, and the latticework of hanok windows. Korean lines aren’t simple straight lines—they contain natural flow and rhythm, and we hoped this would naturally permeate our design. We modernly reinterpreted this Korean linear sensibility, expressing it through gradient colors, and captured product ingredients with sophisticated ink wash touches. We designed the visual experience of Korean nature through the subtle spreading of color density and texture. We also paid careful attention to the information hierarchy and visual flow to clearly convey not only HANYUL’s product sensibility but also its function and information. We put effort into the structural design so that core product efficacy, usage methods, and brand story are easily readable at a glance.

Minji Hong, HANYUL Team When seeding brand boxes to prominent influencers in the North American market to generate initial viral buzz, we also applied the ‘Korean table setting’ concept. We created boxes in the form of small dining tables and table covers, placing products inside and packaging them in window-shaped boxes. When opened, The box opens like the double doors of a traditional hanok window, revealing HANYUL’s skincare table setting and a scroll containing Sephora launch news inside. We obsessively focused on details to ensure the unboxing experience itself could capture the essence of Korean culture.

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team Perhaps because it was such a different experience from typical beauty seeding kits, many people shared their thoughts about it. Videos of the unboxing experience—opening table covers to discover beautiful packaging—were uploaded to social media, building anticipation for the HANYUL brand.

Minji Hong, HANYUL Team During a meeting with Sephora just before the actual launch, we presented this Korean table setting box to the representative, and they thoroughly enjoyed the unboxing experience itself. As someone responsible for the project, it was a proud moment because HANYUL’s brand box embodied Korean food culture and unique beauty.

Minji Hong, HANYUL Team HANYUL’s persona embodies a graceful and comfortable beauty, with an image of quiet strength and apparent inner depth—what we internally call the ‘HANYUL look.’ Implementing this most Korean brand persona for global launch across diverse ethnicities and skin tones was fascinating work. We focused on finding ways to express Korean beauty in a contemporary and sensitive manner from a North American customer’s perspective, utilizing traditional elements like knots, braiding, collars, and Korean material textures while reinterpreting them to reflect the image of ‘modern, cool Korean women.’

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team Since Sephora prefers unretouched skin and requires maintaining natural skin tones in almost unedited states, we both cast actual models and sought global talent who embodied the graceful, pure HANYUL image even if they weren’t professional models. We explicitly label our before-and-after images as ‘Unretouched’ to ensure transparency when showing model photos.

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team Since HANYUL’s Sephora launch began with a narrow new brand to world (NBTW) space, we had minimal space to introduce the brand. As customers encounter the brand online more often, the importance increases. Because it was completely different from the detail pages we deploy in Korea, it became necessary for HQ to set more straightforward guidelines, requiring greater cooperation from the design team than usual. As always, when the design team’s touch is added, the quality of the sensibility HANYUL wants to convey reaches another level.

Jihyun Kwon, Brand Creative 2 Team Typically, we don’t design frame templates for online detail pages, but for this Sephora entry, to appeal with a more HANYUL-like feeling, we designed even the frame templates incorporating Korean window imagery. Particularly, Sephora’s PDPs have a structure where each page swipes rather than the scroll-type detail pages we use in Korea. In this structure, it’s essential to effectively contain images and information within a single page, requiring independent frames for each page. We wanted to use these frames not as simple decorative elements but as devices that could intuitively convey the brand’s sensibility. So we drew motifs from hanok windows, traditional Korean architectural elements. We applied this to Sephora PDP frames to delicately convey HANYUL’s unique Korean sensibility. Since detail pages are the first point of contact with customers, being able to prepare this vital aspect more thoroughly was truly meaningful work.

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team This product launch was entirely a ‘pioneering project’ that started without established manuals. From product selection to brand positioning, naming, packaging, permits, certifications, and logistics—every step required for bringing products to market involved creating ‘things we’d never done before’ one by one. Throughout this process, we faced countless trials and unexpected variables. The collaboration process also required going beyond simple coordination to play a role in forming a consensus and moving forward together toward common goals. While it wasn’t always smooth, because all these gears meshed and turned at the right time, we were able to present HANYUL products in the U.S. on schedule.

Jihyun Kwon, Brand Creative 2 Team The challenge was Sephora’s policy requiring both English and French text, which doubled the amount of information. Unlike HANYUL’s previous pursuit of minimal, clean design, the increased text and information that needed to fit on containers and packaging led to significant design changes. Throughout this process, we constantly discussed and coordinated with team members about how to maintain HANYUL’s unique sensibility and sophisticated minimalism while clearly conveying necessary information. We repeatedly adjusted layouts down to 0.1mm increments, creating numerous layout variations, which we often referred to as ‘layout battles’ among team members. I’m genuinely grateful to Seongeun Kim and Suhyun Jung for joining this battle of changes. Because we struggled through it together, it became more meaningful, and though difficult, it remains a cherished memory.

Minji Hong, HANYUL Team Since we were launching HANYUL anew in the U.S. market, the volume of creative materials was enormous. The shooting season was in the middle of winter, but we set up yuja trees in season and picked yuja for each shot as needed—that scene remains memorable. Additionally, artemisia has the characteristic of wilting quickly once picked. With intense lighting and careful setup, the beautifully arranged artemisia continued to wilt, so we sprayed water intermittently as we worked to capture the optimal shots. I want to express my gratitude to Boram Pyeon, who played multiple roles, from content idea planning to incredible hand acting on the shooting sets. It was a project made possible because we always shared ideas joyfully and worked together, even during difficult and overwhelming moments.

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team Since all preparation stages for the product launch needed to proceed as quickly as possible, we had to accelerate the schedule with no time for trial and error. Perhaps because I led the project under such tension, I had many nights when I’d wake up suddenly. We successfully launched thanks to the efforts of many people, and I was especially reassured by Cecilia Park, who appeared as a relief pitcher at the U.S. branch where there was no HANYUL representative, and skillfully helped us. Additionally, during business trips, I managed U.S. schedules during the day and addressed real-time issues with the Korea headquarters at night, maintaining continuous wakefulness. On the fourth day, I was utterly drained, and Minji and I took a 10-minute power nap in a corner of the meeting room—looking back, it was tough but will remain a memorable scene. I felt like we became true comrades!

Minji Hong, HANYUL Team On July 19th, we’re hosting an intriguing pop-up in New York. Under the ‘HANYUL HARVEST’ concept, participants will engage in harvesting activities for HANYUL’s key ingredients—yuja, artemisia, and rice—and we’ll provide beverages and refreshments as snacks for the participating farmers. Please visit our HANYUL pop-up in New York’s SoHo! We’re also launching at Sephora Canada in August.

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team I want to share more about ‘artemisia,’ one of the brand’s significant assets. During the Sephora launch, while prioritizing product completeness, market fit, and efficacy-centered communication, we missed the opportunity to convey the artemisia ingredient with sufficient depth, which remains a regret. After proving HANYUL’s presence at Sephora and capturing opportunities to expand customer touchpoints, we plan to communicate more deeply about the ARTEMISIA line products.

Jihyun Kwon, Brand Creative 2 Team HANYUL is a brand that restores the skin’s inherent balance. I think it’s a brand that allows comfortable, gentle care at your own pace. I especially want to recommend it to those with sensitive skin who are seeking comfortable and soothing routines. Starting with YUJA, ARTEMISIA, and RED RICE lines, we plan to continuously present a range of products that embody HANYUL’s beauty philosophy through HANYUL’s distinctive, sophisticated design. Please stay tuned for future updates.

Minji Hong, HANYUL Team I believe beauty is a universal language that transcends skin color and cultural boundaries. HANYUL is a brand that proposes healthy routines anyone can easily follow, based on solid ingredient stories. I believe the Sephora launch represents not only business expansion into global markets, but also a journey of sharing the value of Korean beauty, rooted in wisdom and traditions passed down over time. I expect HANYUL’s identity—completing easy, intuitive, yet effective self-care routines tailored to individual skin conditions and needs—to establish itself as New Beauty for North American customers.

Jihyun Kwon, Brand Creative 2 Team I believe the essence of New Beauty is ‘helping everyone find their beauty.’ Therefore, I focused on designing so customers could intuitively select products based on their skin condition and needs. Our interpretation of New Beauty was ‘comfortable, intuitive design’ that showcases HANYUL’s identity through the colors and textures of Korean nature, while establishing an information structure that quickly communicates product functionality, ensuring the brand’s aesthetics don’t interfere with customer choice.

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team I was confident that Amorepacific’s accumulated skin science technology and HANYUL’s unique brand philosophy would resonate sufficiently in the North American market. Rather than simply placing products at Sephora, we sought to deliver new beauty experiences that global customers could empathize with, based on a philosophy containing Korean nature and life wisdom. To achieve this, we carefully prepared so that ‘HANYUL-like beauty’ would consistently emerge at every touchpoint—from product composition to brand story, marketing communications, and package design. I believe this Sephora entry marks the beginning of ‘New Beauty,’ where HANYUL’s identity and Amorepacific’s technology converge to permeate the daily lives of global customers.

Minji Hong, HANYUL Team I’m currently passionate about swimming. Moving vigorously in water relaxes my mind and is excellent for my health, but there’s one downside—my skin becomes rough and sensitive. I keep YUJA pads in my swimming bag. Right after showering, I apply plenty of pads to my face while drying my swimsuit and my hair and preparing for work, to provide immediate moisture and prevent my skin from drying out. The pad material is thin yet has excellent adhesion, staying perfectly attached to my face despite considerable movement. I recommend HANYUL pads to anyone who enjoys exercise.

Haesoo Kim, HANYUL Team We’re currently proposing “Next day glow,” completed with the YUJA Toner pads and Sleeping Mask duo in the U.S. Sleep tight with the sleeping mask, and add toner pads to your busy morning routine to brighten your day—you’ll have the brightest day possible.

Jihyun Kwon, Brand Creative 2 Team HANYUL YUJA Toner Pads, rich in vitamins that gently wipe away dull skin for instant clarity, are my favorite. Their unique shape allows use on various problem areas following facial contours, which is a particular strength. When soothing is needed, just placing them briefly provides comfort. Using them according to skin condition creates simple yet effective routines.