How Shark Tank winners took inspiration from K-beauty to break US skincare market
- Glow Recipe founders Sarah Lee and Christine Chang introduced Korean skincare and cosmetics brands to American customers eager to experiment
- Business reality-TV show appearance gave them exposure and the confidence to launch their own line of vegan, cruelty-free skincare. It’s getting a lot of buzz
On a busy morning at Soho House in West Hollywood, Sarah Lee and Christine Chang were perched on a couch with jars of creams and tubes of serum arrayed on a table in front of them.
The powerhouse duo – friends, long-time colleagues and business partners – were in Los Angeles to show editors and influencers some of their skincare brand Glow Recipe’s newer products, such as serums loaded with beet, kale, ginger and various vitamins from Glow Recipe’s sister brand Sweet Chef. As always with their offerings, the buzz factor was high.
“When we launched our first product in 2017, a watermelon mask, we were amazed to see the response,” says co-founder Lee. “It sold out eight times. There was a waiting list of several thousand people. It was hugely gratifying. It showed that our take on this way of retailing Korean inspired beauty products was approachable for everyone. It was paying off.”
Lee and Chang had not set out to build their own beauty empire. They had met at L’Oreal in Korea, where between them they worked in product development, business strategy and global marketing for brands including Giorgio Armani, Lancôme and Kiehl’s. In 2014, while living in New York, they decided to take everything they’d learned about beauty and use it to introduce Korean products to an American marketplace. The US did not know South Korea was a force in the beauty universe, but they soon found out.