The Face Shop Brand Guidelines: A 2003 Road-Shop Brand, LG H&H Since 2010 and Rice Water

A road-shop brand that went abroad within a year.

The Face Shop was founded in 2003 by Jung Woon-ho, the Korea Herald reported in June 2016. It grew up as one of South Korea’s “bargain beauty” chains, a group of single-brand cosmetics shops that, in the words of The Korea Times in September 2010, filled the streets of Seoul alongside Missha, Etude House, Nature Republic, Skin Food and Innisfree, selling make-up and skincare at low and mid-range prices. Businesskorea described it in March 2016 as a mid-to-low-end skincare and cosmetics brand whose range runs from make-up to skin care, body and hair products.

The brand went abroad quickly, and the dates differ slightly between reports. The Korea Herald wrote in April 2014 that The Face Shop opened its first overseas shop in Taiwan in 2004; Businesskorea, in articles of March 2016 and April 2017, gives Singapore in 2004 as the start of its overseas business, and says the company used Singapore as a springboard for other Asian markets. Both reports agree on the year.

Further openings followed within a few years. According to Businesskorea, The Face Shop entered Vietnam in December 2005, opened a SoHo branch in the United States in 2005 and has been present in China since 2007. The Korea Herald dates its first Middle East outlet to 2006, in Amman, Jordan.

The ownership change came at the end of the decade. On 25 November 2009 FinanceAsia reported that LG Household & Health Care, part of the LG Group, had agreed to buy 90 percent of the company from the private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners and the company’s chairman. The Korea Herald later dated the acquisition to 2010, and by January 2019 The Investor, a Herald Corporation title, described The Face Shop as a wholly owned cosmetics unit of LG Household & Health Care.

Hallyu faces, shop labels and rice water.

Like its rivals, The Face Shop has long built its campaigns around stars of the Korean Wave. In 2010 The Korea Times noted that its advertising used the actor Bae Yong-joon, and that in Myeongdong, the shopping district most visited by tourists, some of its labels were written in Japanese because its customers there were mostly Japanese visitors. The same review found a narrower selection in its stores than at neighbouring brands, and few English instructions on packs.

In April 2014 the Korea Herald reported that The Face Shop had appointed K-pop and K-drama stars as brand ambassadors for global campaigns since 2011. At that point the singer Suzy of miss A fronted its chia seed skin care line, and the actor Kim Soo-hyun had signed to promote its products in China. A member of the company’s overseas marketing team told the paper that it now measured itself against international names such as The Body Shop and L’Occitane rather than local rivals.

The line at the centre of its recent North American push is Rice Water Bright, a cleansing range named after the Korean custom of washing the face with rice water. The Korea Herald reported in July 2026 that the line was marking its 20th anniversary, had recently received a packaging redesign and was sold in more than 30 countries. Its cleansing tissues drew attention on North American social media through a “1 Wipe Challenge,” and the brand has promoted the Korean double-cleansing routine with a cleansing oil and a foam cleanser, the paper said.

The North American push is recent. The Face Shop entered the region through Amazon in 2024, then moved into Walmart stores in Canada and into Target, CVS and Walgreens in the United States, according to the Korea Herald. From 26 July 2026, LG Household & Health Care said, five of its products, including items from the Rice Water Bright line, went on sale in more than 1,600 Walmart stores across the United States; Businesskorea reported the same rollout a day later.

Design and documentation.

Korean beauty brands tend to present themselves through the groups that own them as much as through their own names. Two companies own many of the labels in this guide. Amorepacific, whose history page dates its founding company, Pacific Chemical, to 1945, lists brands including Sulwhasoo, Laneige and Innisfree on its corporate website. LG H&H owns lines such as The History of Whoo, Sum 37 and O HUI, according to the Korea Times in 2023. Other names covered here are run by separate companies, and each guide states its owner as dated sources give it.

The companies publish a good deal about themselves. Corporate history pages give launch years, founders and owners, and brand pages set out philosophies in the companies’ own words; those claims are attributed in each guide rather than repeated as fact. Where a launch date differs between a company and the press, both versions are given.

Much of the visual identity is set out in shops. Korean trade and daily press have reported flagship stores in detail: a lantern-themed building in Gangnam, a hanok store in Bukchon, a glass-walled visitor house among Jeju’s tea fields. Logo changes are reported as news too, with new wordmarks, colours and packaging announced to the press and rolled out across products, advertising and store interiors.

Export markets shape the story. Brands covered here have opened stores in China, Hong Kong, Australia and North America, and some later closed them; the Korea Herald, Korea Times and Korea JoongAng Daily have covered each move. Campaigns often pair a named range with a celebrity ambassador or a cultural partner, and each guide names those only as dated reports do.

From a Korean high street to 33 overseas markets.

The Face Shop’s footprint is clearest in dated counts. The Korea Herald reported in April 2014 that, since its first overseas shop, the brand had opened 1,418 outlets in 27 countries. By March 2016, Businesskorea reported, it was operating 1,785 stores in 33 overseas markets, including 23 stores in Singapore around Orchard Road and the main shopping centres, 54 in Vietnam’s large cities and 39 on the east and west coasts of the United States.

China has been handled through a joint venture. The Korea Herald wrote in 2014 that The Face Shop had set up a joint venture with China’s Fo Shan in 2013 to manage the brand directly there; Businesskorea dates the venture to September 2013 and reported about 280 stores in China by 2015 and about 230 in April 2017, along with co-marketing with Alibaba’s Tmall from 2016. In Japan the brand partnered with the retail group Aeon, the Korea Herald said, while the Middle East grew to 18 shops in the United Arab Emirates and seven in Saudi Arabia by 2014. The same report noted that The Face Shop had bought the Canadian body care and fragrance retailer Fruits & Passion in 2013.

The parent company frames the brand inside a wider beauty portfolio. LG Household & Health Care lists The Face Shop on its corporate brand pages alongside The Whoo, CNP and other skincare and make-up names, and Businesskorea in April 2017 described the group as expanding overseas while developing its next generation of brands, with The Face Shop present in 33 countries at that time.

For a design guide, The Face Shop shows how a Korean road-shop brand can move from street fascias to supermarket shelves abroad while keeping one product story in front. Compare Nature Republic, created by the founding members of The Face Shop, and Amorepacific, the other large Korean beauty group. For this guide we use a leaf green, a deep forest green, sage and a rice cream with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep The Face Shop’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.