Colorgram

Colorgram is a South Korean color-cosmetics brand owned by CJ Olive Young, part of the CJ Group conglomerate [2]. It makes teen-oriented, easy-to-use makeup built around playful self-expression, and is best known for under-eye highlighting tools tied to the aegyo-sal look — the cushion of fat beneath the lower lash line that Korean makeup emphasises to make the eyes appear larger and more youthful. The brand remains active, sold through Olive Young's domestic and global storefronts as well as Amazon.

The name is a portmanteau of "color" and "gram," which the brand glosses as "one gram of colour, enough to change everything" [3]. That idea — small, deliberate additions rather than a full transformation — runs through its positioning.

Colorgram launched in 2018 as a teen-focused, easy-to-use color cosmetics line under CJ Olive Young, debuting as an Olive Young exclusive before expanding internationally. Sources differ on the start date: the CJ Olive Young corporate brand page records a 2018 launch [2], while a storefront marketing page states the brand "launched in 2016" [7]. This article follows the 2018 figure given by the brand's owner. No public source names the brand's founders or a specific headquarters city, consistent with its status as a house brand of a larger company.

After its 2018 debut, the brand's most consequential move came in 2021, when it rebranded around a partnership with the webtoon and television drama True Beauty and expanded into the United States and Japan [2]. Independent editorial coverage describes the True Beauty tie-in as a driver of mainstream attention, with the drama featuring prominent Colorgram product placement [3].

In 2022, the brand ranked first in both sales and units within Olive Young's aegyo-sal (under-eye highlight) eyeshadow category [2]. The following year it continued to widen its lineup, positioning itself as a go-to source for easy-to-use color cosmetics.

Colorgram is a private, in-house brand of CJ Olive Young Corporation, the Korean health-and-beauty retailer within CJ Group. There is no recorded history of acquisitions; the brand was created under that ownership rather than bought in.

The company positions makeup as approachable and personalised, summed up in its tagline, "Find your beauty, Play your color." According to the corporate brand page, the aim is to help users "easily create their own unique beauty," whether they want a natural look, a bolder style, or "playful pops of color" [2]. Retailer editorial frames the philosophy as centred on "the pleasure of small, deliberate additions" rather than reinventing the face, working within a current Korean aesthetic of blurred edges, gradient lips, and skin that reads as skin.

The brand's catalogue centres on color cosmetics: eyeshadow — particularly aegyo-sal and eye-bag products — along with lip products and face makeup. Several items use dual-ended or multipurpose formats aimed at simplifying application.

Its signature product is the All-in-One Aegyo-Sal Maker, a dual-ended stick that shades on one tip and highlights on the other to sculpt the under-eye area. The lip range includes the All-in-One Over Lip Maker, a dual-purpose lip product, alongside the Fruity Glass Tint and the shimmer-heavy Milk Bling Shadow [3]. Retail listings also cite the Shade Re-Forming Brush Liner among its bestsellers.

On formulation, Colorgram states that its products are 100% cruelty-free and vegan-friendly, made with what it calls skin-loving ingredients [1]. Editorial coverage notes the brand describes its products as "100% made in Korea" [3].

The All-in-One Aegyo-Sal Maker is the brand's most widely documented product. Third-party coverage describes it as a viral aegyo-sal pen — "something of a cult object" — with roughly 11.4 million TikTok posts referencing the aegyo-sal product and trend, and it independently corroborates the brand's claim to the top spot in Olive Young's aegyo-sal eyeshadow category [3][4]. Its audience skews toward Gen-Z K-beauty enthusiasts reached through TikTok tutorials and True Beauty fandom [4].

Colorgram is active. It maintains an official Instagram account, @colorgram.official, with continued creator content, and its products are sold through Olive Young's Global Mall and Amazon, alongside the Korean Olive Young channel [5]. The combination of ongoing distribution, an active social presence, and sustained product launches through 2023 places it among operating brands rather than dormant ones.

A note on sourcing: several storefronts present themselves as Colorgram's official site, including one that self-titles "Official Website" but routes its product links to third-party retail. The CJ Olive Young corporate brand page serves as the authoritative source for ownership and origin, with product and positioning details corroborated against independent editorial coverage. No English Wikipedia entry for the brand exists.