JUNGSAEMMOOL

JUNGSAEMMOOL is a South Korean makeup and skincare brand founded in 2015 by the Korean makeup artist Jung Saem Mool [1][2]. It is headquartered in the Gangnam-gu district of Seoul [3], and grew out of the founder's decades of professional artistry work rather than from a conventional cosmetics company. The brand is built around what it calls complexion artistry — base makeup and skin expression — and positions itself, in its own words, as "a professional makeup artist brand that brings out natural beauty."

The company remains active and in a phase of international expansion. In July 2025 it secured a 50 billion won (about US$36.6 million) investment from CLSA Capital Partners to fund growth, particularly in the United States, in a deal that valued it at roughly 300 billion won [4]. Reported sales for 2024 were around 110 billion won [4].

The brand carries the name of its founder, Jung Saem Mool, who began her makeup career in 1991 and went on to work with a range of Korean film and pop figures. The brand and trade press describe her as having created the natural "nude" skin look worn by actress Jeon Ji-hyun in the film My Sassy Girl, and as having worked with performers including Song Hye-kyo, Kim Tae-hee and BoA. Her professional infrastructure predated the cosmetics line: the Jung Saem Mool Inspiration makeup studio launched in 1997, and the JUNGSAEMMOOL Academy was founded in Seoul in 2005.

The consumer cosmetics brand itself launched in 2015 [2], applying that professional know-how to retail products. According to BeautyMatter, it was built on more than thirty years of the founder's expertise [1].

After the 2015 launch, the brand was recognised in 2017 at the Korea Brand Awards, where it received the Best Brand Leadership Award [3]. Its most significant recent milestone is the 2025 CLSA Capital Partners funding round noted above, which the company framed as capital for a stronger push into international markets and new product launches [4].

By the mid-2020s the company reported operating in more than 1,300 retail locations across roughly 200 countries, supported by over 250 points of sale in South Korea, with flagship spaces that combine retail, salons and beauty academies.

JUNGSAEMMOOL frames itself as an artistry-led brand rather than a skincare-first or trend-driven color house. Its central concept is "Youtiful," a blend of "you" and "beautiful," and its slogan is "FIND YOUTIFUL" [5]. The company says it aims to help customers "achieve the most authentic version of your beauty" by drawing out individual features rather than masking them; the founder has summarised the approach as the idea that "makeup should enhance, not mask."

The brand also describes its mission as communicating methods and skin-expression philosophy, not only products — what it calls being "a brand that communicates not just [with] products, but also makeup methodologies and skin expression philosophies." Trade coverage places it within the broader K-beauty movement and its emphasis on natural, glass-skin complexion.

The brand's catalogue spans skincare, base makeup, eye and lip makeup, and tools. Its products are organised around a framework the company calls the KEY7 Principle — seven techniques drawn from makeup-artistry practice, covering areas such as facial proportion, longevity and the balance of trend with individuality. The brand attributes specific formulation features to this approach, including a "Coating Powder" and a "Hue Balancing Powder" intended to even and brighten skin tone.

Its best-known product is the Essential Skin Nuder Cushion, a cushion foundation that Global Cosmetics News described as a "cult-favorite" that "reportedly sells every 20 seconds" [4]. Other signature items include the Masterclass Radiant Cushion, the Masterclass Powder Foundation and the Lip-Pression Glowy Tint.

Beyond the 2017 Korea Brand Awards leadership prize, the brand has drawn trade-press attention as a case study in building an artistry-based global business, including a feature in BeautyMatter and coverage of its 2025 funding round in Global Cosmetics News.

The official global brand styles its name as a single word, JUNGSAEMMOOL, reserving the spaced form "Jung Saem Mool" for the founder herself [5]. Some retailers and the brand's Thai operation use the spaced styling "JUNG SAEM MOOL." A related point of variation concerns headquarters: the official global site gives the company's base as Seoul [3], while the Thai storefront lists an address in Bangkok. That Bangkok address belongs to Central Trading Co., the brand's exclusive Thailand distributor, rather than to the brand itself, whose origin and headquarters are in South Korea.

JUNGSAEMMOOL is active. Its most recent publicly recorded activity is the July 2025 CLSA Capital Partners investment and its ongoing international expansion, alongside 2024 sales of about 110 billion won [4].