It'S SKIN

It'S SKIN is a South Korean skincare and cosmetics brand based in the Gangnam district of Seoul. It was launched in February 2006 by the Korean manufacturer Hanbul Cosmetics, whose chief executive at the time was Lim Byung-chul [3][9]. The brand presented itself from the outset as a cosmeceutical line, pairing dermatological research with accessibly priced products, and it summed up this idea with the formula "Clinical + Skin = Solution" [11].

The brand is best known internationally for its snail-based Prestige Creme d'Escargot and for the Power 10 Formula range of targeted essences. It remains active under its publicly listed parent, IT'S HANBUL, with new product lines released in 2024 and 2025.

According to the parent company's corporate history, the cosmeceutical brand IT'S SKIN was launched in Korea in February 2006 [3]. Korean-language records name Lim Byung-chul, then head of Hanbul Cosmetics, as the figure behind it and date the company's establishment to 7 February 2006 [9]. Hanbul itself was an established cosmetics manufacturer, founded in 1989, with several earlier brands and its own plants and research lab already in place before It'S SKIN appeared.

The brand was conceived as a "cosmeceutical" concept shop — a retail format built around skincare positioned at the intersection of clinical research and everyday use. The company has described the underlying approach as studying each person's skin type so that products can address specific concerns rather than offering a single formula for everyone.

It'S SKIN found early traction with the Power 10 Formula, which the parent's history records as a hit product by 2007. In December 2009 the brand released the Prestige Creme d'Escargot, a snail-mucus cream that would become its most recognisable product [3].

International expansion followed in 2011, when the brand entered roadside shops and department stores abroad. The snail cream's profile rose sharply mid-decade: Korean Wikipedia records that it gained viral popularity across Chinese social media around 2014 and became a fast-selling global bestseller, with the wider line reaching roughly 309.5 billion won in revenue and some 46 product variants by 2015 [9]. The same source describes a distribution footprint spanning 29 countries — among them China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines — and 303 domestic stores as of 2016 [9]. It'S SKIN was listed on the Korean securities market in late 2015.

It'S SKIN's parent is IT'S HANBUL Co., Ltd., the renamed successor to Hanbul Cosmetics. The parent company's records date the name change to May 2017, when It'S SKIN merged with Hanbul Cosmetics and the consolidated entity adopted the IT'S HANBUL name [3]. IT'S HANBUL operates a broader portfolio that includes brands such as ATOPALM, Real Barrier, Derma:B and Chasin' Rabbits.

The group expanded through several acquisitions over this period. In 2016 the parent acquired NeoPharm Co., Ltd., a maker of cosmetics for sensitive skin, and in 2018 it acquired ANNE Co., Ltd., a makeup-focused contract manufacturer [3].

It'S SKIN frames itself as a research-led brand offering targeted, concern-specific skincare at a reasonable price. The company's tagline invites customers to "come face to face with the most accurate 'you' through the combination of skin research technology and individuality," and it states that it studies the skin type of each individual "with respect for differences and diversity." Among the points the brand emphasises are in-house ingredient-stabilisation technology, a customer skin-concern database built up over more than a decade, and safety testing across its skincare and makeup ranges.

Editorial coverage has placed the brand in the mid-tier of K-beauty. StyleKorean describes it as a dermatologist-developed line organised around the "Clinical + Skin = Solution" philosophy and notes its strength as a duty-free bestseller with a substantial following in China.

The brand's signature product is the Prestige Creme d'Escargot, marketed as a brightening and anti-wrinkle cream built around snail secretion filtrate; one editorial profile cites a 21% snail-filtrate content [12]. Its other flagship is the Power 10 Formula Effector line, a set of essences — reported in editorial coverage as thirteen variants — each colour-coded to a particular skin concern. Other named products include the Power 10 Licorice Effector and the Secret Solution Wedding Dress Pure Cream.

It'S SKIN's manufacturing and research sit within the parent group, which reports a patent portfolio of 119 domestic and 9 international patents alongside published research papers. Named in-house technologies include an anti-wrinkle pectin oligomer derived from Jeju citrus peel and a multi-step stabilisation method for pure vitamin C. Production has been based at the group's plants in Gunpo and Eumseong in South Korea, with a later manufacturing facility in Huzhou, China, and a research lab on Jeju Island.

More recently the brand has aligned with the industry's shift toward PDRN, an ingredient that gained wide attention in K-beauty in 2024 [15]. It introduced a Dr.Savers serum range — including a Dr.Savers PDRN Revital Serum — along with an Active Snail Collagen line and a Secret Solution PDRN Capsule Ampoule in 2024 and 2025.

The Prestige Creme d'Escargot is It'S SKIN's most decorated product. The parent's history records that it won Grand Gold at the Monde Selection awards for six consecutive years, from 2014 through 2019 [3]. In 2017 It'S SKIN received a grand award at the Korean First Brand Awards, and in 2015 the company was recognised with a USD 20 million export tower.

Sources differ on the brand's recorded address. The current parent-company site gives the headquarters as 311 Hakdong-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul [2]. Korean Wikipedia, drawing on an older record, lists 634 Eonju-ro in the Nonhyeon-dong neighbourhood [9]. Both addresses fall within Seoul's Gangnam district, and the discrepancy appears to reflect records from before and after the 2017 merger.

It'S SKIN is an active brand. It operates under the publicly listed IT'S HANBUL and maintains its own e-commerce presence and an active Instagram account. New product lines released across 2024 and 2025 — built around PDRN and snail collagen — indicate continued development, and the brand reaches several international markets, including the Nordic countries.