Medicube

Medicube is a South Korean derma-cosmetic brand that pairs dermatologist-tested skincare with at-home beauty-tech devices. It is owned by APR Corporation, a Seoul company listed on the Korean stock exchange (KOSPI), and operates from headquarters in Seoul, with a US base in Irvine, California. The brand became widely visible during the 2020s K-beauty wave, helped by viral TikTok content and celebrity attention, and by 2025 was expanding aggressively into the United States retail market.

The brand sits within APR's wider portfolio of beauty and lifestyle labels. Its public identity rests on a stated combination of clinical formulation and proprietary device technology, summarised in the company's positioning line, "real skin needs real solutions".

Sources disagree on when Medicube began, largely because they conflate the brand with its parent company. APR's own corporate timeline records that the parent (then trading as Aprilskin) was founded in 2014, that the Medicube brand launched in 2016, and that the group rebranded as APR Corporation in 2017 [7]. Several editorial outlets give different dates: Marie Claire UK states the brand "launched in Korea in 2014" [4], Refinery29 reports a South Korean launch "in 2017" [3], and an industry newsletter dates the brand to 2009 [6]. The parent's official record is used here as the authoritative source, placing the brand launch in 2016.

Attribution of the founder follows a similar split. APR was founded by Byung Hoon Kim, who also leads it as chief executive [8]; some editorial coverage names him as the brand's sole founder [4]. Medicube's own brand story instead credits Dr. Shin, described as a biomedical expert and head of research and development, as the figure behind the line. Both are recorded in the brand's identity: Kim as the parent company's founder, Shin as Medicube's research lead.

Medicube is owned by APR Corporation, headquartered at 300 Olympic-ro in the Songpa-gu district of Seoul. APR operates several brands across beauty and lifestyle, including the skincare labels Aprilskin and Forment alongside fashion and other ventures. The parent describes itself in trade coverage as the number one beauty company in South Korea by 2025, with cumulative revenue of about 1.04 billion US dollars and roughly 80 percent of sales coming from overseas, chiefly Japan and the United States [8]. APR was approved for a KOSPI listing in 2023 and listed in 2024 [7].

The company positions Medicube as a derma-cosmetic brand built on clinical testing rather than passing trends, captured in its stated line, "At medicube, we build skincare on curiosity—not trends". Its products are presented as developed by dermatologists and put through clinical testing, and the skincare range is marketed as "100% dermatologist tested". According to the brand, its values centre on clinical-grade results, safety-focused engineering and a sustainability emphasis, and it describes itself as Korea's leading beauty-device brand.

Medicube's range is organised into skincare lines addressing concerns such as pores, fine lines, dullness and sensitivity, alongside a line of powered devices. Frequently cited hero ingredients include salmon-derived PDRN, niacinamide, turmeric root extract, hyaluronic acid, peptides and collagen [4].

Among its skincare, the Zero Pore Pad 2.0 is described by Marie Claire UK as a bestseller, with more than ten million units sold globally and around five units sold every minute [4]. Other products that drew attention include the PDRN Pink Peptide Serum and the Collagen Night Wrapping Mask, the latter reported to have gone viral on TikTok.

The brand's device platform, branded AGE-R, takes its name from "Age Reverse". It launched in 2021, and one of its devices, the Age-R Booster Pro, became a breakout hit in 2023. The flagship Booster Pro is a six-in-one device made entirely in-house, and APR reported that global sales of it exceeded two million units by September 2025 [8]. The devices use technologies the company labels radiofrequency, electrical muscle stimulation and electroporation, and the brand states it spent more than three years developing the combined functions.

On sustainability, the company says it uses natural sourcing without synthetic dyes, FSC-certified packaging printed with soy ink, and rechargeable devices that avoid disposable cartridges.

Medicube lists several South Korean awards, including a Korea Brand Preference top ranking for beauty devices in 2022, a Korea YouTuber's Awards top ranking in 2023, and a high placement in the Glowpick massager category in 2024. In English-language press the brand has been the subject of editorial reviews; Refinery29 described it as "one of the most talked-about and exciting names in the space" [3], and Marie Claire UK framed it as a K-beauty brand widely discussed at the time of writing.

The brand has also attracted attention from public figures. NewBeauty reported that the line gained organic support from celebrities despite having no celebrity-affiliated ownership, naming Kylie Jenner, Hailey Bieber, Kyle Richards, Alix Earle and Meghan Markle among those who featured its products [5]. Hailey Bieber included the Age-R Booster-H in a 2023 Vogue "Beauty Secrets" video.

A trade case study reported that Medicube reached 102.9 million US dollars in lifetime gross merchandise value on TikTok Shop, and that in March 2025 it became the first K-beauty brand to host a TikTok Shop Super Brand Day in the United States [6].

Medicube is active. As of 2026 the brand was expanding into US mass retail: reporting in May 2026 described plans to bring its products to Walmart and Costco, with a rollout to about 3,200 Walmart stores in preparation [10]. Its parent remains publicly listed on the KOSPI, and the brand maintains an ongoing editorial and social-media presence across 2025 and 2026.