House of Dohwa

House of Dohwa (도화가인, Dohwa Gain) is a South Korean skincare brand built around rice and other traditional Korean botanicals. It is owned and distributed by Coréelle Inc., a Korean beauty company that established itself in 2020 [8], and it operates from Seoul, with a physical store in the Bukchon Hanok Village district [7]. The brand markets itself as vegan and "clean," and frames its products as a modern revival of skincare methods drawn from Korea's past, including the royal-court practice of cleansing the face with rice water.

The brand does not publicly state a founding year on its own site. Its parent company was registered in 2020, and by early 2021 House of Dohwa was already being reviewed by beauty media and sold through Coréelle's online channels, placing its launch around that time. Its Korean name refers to "a person as beautiful as a peach flower."

According to co-founder Abe Cho, the brand's wash-off masks "were inspired by the ingredients used by our Korean ancestors for centuries" [7]. The company traces its concept to historical Korean beauty practices, in particular the use of rice water for facial cleansing associated with the Korean royal court.

House of Dohwa was created under Coréelle Inc., which describes itself as a curated marketplace for Korean beauty and says its founding team brought roughly twenty years of combined industry experience. Coréelle frames the brand as part of an effort to bring Korean concepts and ingredients to international buyers rather than to repeat existing product formats.

The brand's early growth was tied closely to international retail. Korean trade publication Jangup reported in 2023 that within its first year House of Dohwa entered L'Étoile, a premium Russian beauty retailer the article likened to Sephora [9]. The following year it expanded into Europe through Douglas, a chain the same report described as operating roughly 1,900 stores across 19 countries.

In April 2023 the brand took part in Cosmoprof Bologna, an international beauty trade fair. Coréelle, characterised in the trade coverage as a "reverse K-beauty platform," was credited with driving much of this expansion through customer data, global marketing, and a launch campaign involving the beauty influencer Tina Yong [9].

House of Dohwa is owned by Coréelle Inc. (코리엘), which both produces and distributes the brand and lists Kim Jaemin as chief executive. Coréelle established itself in 2020 [8] and operates a wider portfolio of Korean beauty labels alongside House of Dohwa, including The Potions, Mellow Touch, Celimax, Swanicoco and Logically Skin, while also retailing dozens of other Korean brands through its platform.

The brand's own site gives its company location as Seoul (Gangnam-gu) [2]. One editorial profile instead describes the brand as "based in New York" [4]; the company's own materials point to Seoul, with the New York reference most plausibly reflecting a United States sales presence rather than a head office.

House of Dohwa positions itself as "the modern Korean skincare lifestyle," presenting traditional Korean methods reinterpreted for contemporary use. Its stated outlook centres on "humility toward nature" and "beauty completed through time," and the company says true results come from supporting the skin's own health rather than masking it.

The brand is presented as all-natural, vegan and cruelty-free. The brand is described as having "taken a stance to ensure that no animals suffer" in making its products, and the company says its rice is grown and harvested by traditional means that avoid pesticides, chemicals and plastic [10]. Coréelle summarises the line as an effort to reintroduce Korea's traditional skincare to a global audience.

Rice is the brand's defining ingredient. House of Dohwa's products are organised mainly into a Rice Bran line, a Rice Makgeolli line built on fermented rice, and a range of wash-off masks in rice, pumpkin and mungbean formulations. Recurring products include the Rice Makgeolli Toner, the Rice Bran Powder Wash, the Rice Bran Facial Moisturizer, the Peach Blossom Overnight Mask and the Rice Wash Off Facial Mask.

The number of rice varieties used is reported inconsistently. Several independent write-ups, including beauty blog reviews, state that the products are based on extracts from nine native Korean rice strains, and one review lists them by name [10]. The parent company's own copy instead refers to eight Korean rice strands [8]. Beyond rice bran and fermented rice, the brand also uses ingredients such as peach blossom extract and raw rice powder.

The rice itself is sourced from Icheon in Gyeonggi Province, which the brand's ingredient page describes as a historic rice-growing region whose grain was once presented to Joseon Dynasty kings as tribute [3]. The same materials note that more than 1,500 traditional rice varieties were cultivated in Korea before 1910, a heritage the brand connects to its sourcing.

House of Dohwa has been covered in beauty and lifestyle media rather than recognised through formal awards. The Zoe Report reviewed its Rice Wash Off Facial Mask and quoted co-founder Abe Cho on the brand's ancestral inspiration, while K-Beauty Insight profiled products including the Rice Bran Facial Moisturizer and Peach Blossom Overnight Mask. Korean trade outlet Jangup documented the brand's international retail expansion.

The brand remains active. It is distributed internationally through Coréelle and major retailers including Douglas in Europe, maintains an Instagram account and runs a physical store in the Bukchon Hanok Village area of Seoul. Its most visible recent activity has centred on continued retail availability and social-media promotion tied to its Bukchon presence.