Bioré

Bioré is a Japanese skincare brand owned by Kao Corporation, the Tokyo-based chemical and cosmetics group. It is a function-first, drugstore-priced line built around facial cleansing and pore care, and is best known internationally for its pore strips. The brand remains active, with current product lines and a recent redesign carried under the tagline "Works. Wonders." [1]

Kao introduced Bioré daily skincare and the companion Bioré U body-care range during the 1980s, alongside other household and personal-care products in the group's portfolio [4]. The brand later expanded into Western markets, debuting in the United Kingdom in 1998 [2].

Bioré is a brand of Kao Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo [2][5]. Kao is a Japanese chemical and cosmetics company whose name is pronounced the same as the Japanese word for "face," reflecting its origins in facial soap. According to the company, Kao was founded in 1887 by Tomiro Nagase as a small face-care business with the aim of making high-quality facial soap that was also affordable [2]. Kao's own Wikipedia entry instead dates the company's founding to 1882; the difference is generally attributed to whether the date marks Nagase's Western-goods store (1882) or the later soap business (1887) [5]. This discrepancy concerns the parent company rather than the Bioré brand, which was launched in the 1980s.

Within Kao's group of beauty and personal-care brands, Bioré sits alongside names including John Frieda, Molton Brown, Oribe, Bondi Sands, KMS, GUHL, Elumen, KERASILK and VARIS.

Bioré describes its approach as unconventional, summarised in prose on its site as "fighting smarter, not harder." The company presents itself as the first skincare brand to focus on pores as the root of problem skin, and frames a "Do Different" attitude as part of its identity since inception [2]. Its products are developed following what it calls a Japanese beauty philosophy emphasising functionality and simplicity with long-term results, while keeping the range, in the company's words, "fun, affordable and truly achievable" [2].

The brand positions itself in the affordable, drugstore tier and draws on its connection to Kao's Japanese skincare heritage, associating itself with the broader J-beauty trend.

Bioré's catalogue centres on cleansing, pore care and sun protection, organised on its site into categories such as pore strips, cleansers, moisturisers, patches and sunscreen. Its signature product is the pore strip; the brand markets its Ultra Strength Pore Strips as the United Kingdom's "#1 trusted blackhead remover" [2]. Other products it highlights include the UV Aqua Rich sunscreen line — among them the Watery Essence SPF 50 and a weightless moisturiser SPF 30 — along with Spot Control patches and a foaming nose mask.

For exfoliation, the company says it uses natural alternatives such as jojoba beads rather than plastic microbeads, and lists ingredients including salicylic acid and witch hazel across its range [3]. Bioré attributes its formulations to its parent's Japanese technology and research, and describes results such as visibly cleaner, smoother and smaller-looking pores.

Bioré states that all of its products sold in Western markets are cruelty-free and vegan-friendly, saying it does not test on animals and uses no animal-derived ingredients [3]. The company describes most of its range — cleansers, masks, toners and scrubs — as paraben-free, while noting that its pore strips contain a minimal amount of methylparaben as a preservative [3]. It also says its products contain no plastic microbeads, relying instead on natural exfoliants such as jojoba beads [3]. The brand summarises this disclosure under the line "Your skin should have nothing to hide–and neither do we."

Bioré is an active, globally distributed skincare brand. Its Western storefronts show current bestsellers, recent launches such as the Spot Control patches and UV Aqua Rich line, and a brand refresh promoted as "New look. Same great results" [1].