Beauty of Joseon: The 500-Year-Old Encyclopedia That Built a Modern Skincare Brand
Beauty of Joseon is a Korean skincare brand celebrated for its focus on blending traditional Korean beauty ingredients and practices with modern skincare technology. Inspired by the elegance and...
The Joseon Dynasty ruled Korea for over five hundred years, from 1392 until Japan's annexation in 1910. It was a period that produced extraordinary achievements in science, philosophy, art, and medicine — and left behind a documented body of knowledge about natural skincare that turns out to be remarkably compatible with what modern dermatology is only now validating. Beauty of Joseon was founded in 2017 by Sumin Lee with a premise that sounds almost too simple: take that accumulated botanical wisdom seriously, run it through contemporary formulation science, and make the results available to anyone without a luxury price tag. The sunscreen that went viral on TikTok, the Dynasty Cream beloved by glass-skin devotees, and the Ginseng Snail Serum that sits on bathroom shelves across the US — all of it traces back to a single Joseon-era encyclopedia written by a woman two hundred years ago.
The Gyuhap Chongseo — a 200-year-old encyclopedia written for women, by a woman
The Gyuhap Chongseo is an encyclopedia compiled during the Joseon Dynasty by Yi Bingheogak, a female scholar writing in an era when women had almost no access to formal education or published resources. The book covers cooking, medicine, household management, and beauty — all through the lens of hanbang, the traditional Korean medicine system rooted in the therapeutic properties of plants, fermented ingredients, and holistic wellness. Sumin Lee has described her relationship to this text as something personal: her mother saved the water from rinsing rice to use as a toning facial rinse. Honey-and-rice-powder masks were a household remedy for breakouts. These weren't exotic practices — they were ordinary domestic knowledge passed through generations, the same knowledge Yi Bingheogak recorded two centuries earlier.
Eight core ingredients that Beauty of Joseon draws directly from that text: rice, ginseng, red bean, mugwort, green plum, honey and propolis, green tea, and centella asiatica. Each has a documented history of use in Korean medicine, and each has now been validated by modern cosmetic chemistry for the specific mechanisms that traditional practice identified through centuries of empirical observation. Rice bran water, used by Joseon-era women as a cleansing rinse, is rich in gamma-oryzanol, amino acids, and vitamin E — compounds with documented brightening and barrier-protective properties. Ginseng saponins, prescribed in the Donguibogam medical text for their tonic effects, demonstrate measurable activity in stimulating collagen synthesis and reducing UV-induced pigmentation in contemporary clinical studies. The tradition knew what it had. The science explains why it worked.
The sunscreen that changed how Americans think about SPF
If one product defines Beauty of Joseon's breakthrough in the US market, it's the Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics SPF50+. American sunscreen culture has historically been defined by thick, white-casting formulas that feel unpleasant on skin and slide under makeup — a sensory experience so consistently bad that many Americans simply skip daily SPF altogether. The Relief Sun demonstrated, with considerable viral momentum on TikTok, that SPF50+ protection could be delivered in a formula that absorbs within seconds, leaves no white cast, and sits completely undetectably under foundation or tinted moisturizer.
The 30% rice ferment extract base provides simultaneous hydration and a subtle brightening correction, while the probiotic complex supports the skin's microbiome — a protective effect that compounds over daily use rather than delivering only surface-level SPF. The formula is light enough for oily skin in humid summers and hydrating enough for dry skin in dry winters, which is why it became a universal recommendation in US skincare communities regardless of skin type. The Aqua Fresh version, which adds a more moisturizing base for drier conditions, and the Ginseng Moist Sun Serum extend the same logic with different textures. All of them make daily SPF feel like something you want to apply rather than something you're obligated to.
Ginseng — five thousand years of use, and what the research actually says
Ginseng has been a cornerstone of Korean medicine for over five thousand years. The Donguibogam — the comprehensive medical text of the Joseon era — describes its properties in detail and lists applications for dozens of conditions, including skin health and anti-aging. In skincare, the relevant compounds are the ginsenosides and saponins: research has linked these to improved microcirculation at the capillary level, antioxidant activity against free radical damage, and direct stimulation of fibroblasts — the cells responsible for collagen and elastin production. For anyone using retinoids or other anti-aging actives, ginseng offers mechanisms that complement rather than compete, which is why pairing the two makes formulation sense.
The Ginseng Snail Serum is the brand's take on this combination: 63% ginseng root water alongside snail mucin, delivering the regenerative and soothing properties of both in a lightweight essence texture. It's Beauty of Joseon's answer to the premium hanbang market — Sulwhasoo's concentrated ginseng serum sells for over a hundred dollars; this delivers comparable ingredient logic at a fraction of the price. The Ginseng Essence Water takes a different approach: a toner-weight formula with ginseng root water and rice bran as the primary ingredients, designed as a first hydration step that builds a base for the rest of the routine. Used daily, both products improve the skin's overall quality over time in the cumulative, preventive way that Hanbang philosophy describes — building resilience rather than just treating visible problems.
The Dynasty Cream and what it means to do rice-based moisturising properly
The Dynasty Cream is Beauty of Joseon's flagship moisturizer and the product that most clearly demonstrates what the brand means by Hanbang meets modern science. The formula uses 29% rice bran water as its base — one of the highest concentrations in the accessible moisturizer market — alongside 5% ginseng root water, 2% squalane, 2% niacinamide, and a supporting complex of safflower, orchid, cocoa, and ceramide. The texture is lighter than the active concentration would suggest, because modern emollient technology allows that level of ingredient density in a cream that absorbs within a minute rather than sitting on the surface.
For the glass skin aesthetic that has defined K-beauty's international appeal, the Dynasty Cream is the reference-point product: it delivers the translucency and luminosity that glass skin requires not through shimmer or cosmetic ingredients but through genuine improvement in skin quality — hydration that reaches the deeper layers of the epidermis, barrier function that reduces trans-epidermal water loss, and brightening from the niacinamide and rice-derived compounds working in combination. The results are visible at three to four weeks but continue improving over months, which is why the repurchase rate on the Dynasty Cream is unusually high even by K-beauty standards.
Why the price point is part of the philosophy, not a compromise
The comparison to Sulwhasoo — Amorepacific's luxury hanbang line — clarifies Beauty of Joseon's positioning precisely. Sulwhasoo occupies the premium end of the traditional Korean ingredient market with pricing that puts it out of reach for most consumers. Beauty of Joseon was explicitly designed as the accessible answer: the same ingredient philosophy, the same historical grounding, formulas that can sit on a Sephora shelf or ship from an online retailer at prices that don't require a financial commitment. Accessibility wasn't a concession to commercial reality — it was built into the brand's founding purpose from the start.
The Glow Propolis Serum makes this tangible: a 72% propolis extract alongside niacinamide in a formula that brightens, strengthens the barrier, and reduces congestion simultaneously. Propolis — the resinous compound bees use to seal hives — has been a Korean skincare staple for decades, used in hanbang contexts for its documented antimicrobial and wound-healing properties. At the price point Beauty of Joseon offers it, it's one of the best-value active formulas in the K-beauty market. The Green Plum Refreshing Toner brings natural AHAs from green plum extract alongside BHA for a gentle exfoliating step rooted in the same Joseon-era botanical tradition — green plum appears in the Donguibogam as an ingredient that 'activates keratinocytes and removes over-keratinized skin impurities,' which is a five-hundred-year-old description of chemical exfoliation.
New to Beauty of Joseon? The Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics is the right first purchase if you've been skipping SPF because nothing felt good on your skin — nothing at this price performs comparably. For the full skincare experience, the Dynasty Cream covers daily hydration and brightening in one step. Add the Glow Propolis Serum for barrier support and congestion, or the Ginseng Essence Water as a first-layer toner if you want the full hanbang routine. All authentic at Kool Seoul, sourced directly from Korea.
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Written by Nora — Team Koolseoul, Seoul.