Shangpree

Shangpree is a South Korean skincare brand founded in 1990 that grew out of a professional spa in Seoul. According to the company, it began with a single spa bed in a small room in the Nakseongdae district and expanded into a spa-based skincare line built on esthetician expertise [1]. It is owned by URG Inc. and headquartered in the Gangnam district of Seoul [2].

The brand sits at the high end of the Korean skincare market and is closely tied to the K-beauty movement. It is best known for its facial masks, particularly its gold-infused modeling mask and its hydrogel eye masks, and it remains commercially active, with current product lines sold through its own site and international retailers.

Shangpree traces its beginnings to 1990 and a question from a spa customer — "How do I get better skin?" — which the company presents as the starting point of its work [3]. From that single treatment bed, the spa built up what it describes as accumulated hands-on expertise, and that experience later became the basis for a home-use product range. The founders are not named in available sources; Hee-hyung Jun is listed as chief executive of the parent company, URG Inc.

The brand keeps the spa at the centre of its identity. Its estheticians complete a three-year training process, and the company frames its products as a way to bring professional treatment techniques into everyday routines — captured in its tagline, "Esthetician's touch, in your hands" [4].

Shangpree describes its approach as holistic rather than surface-level. "At Shangpree, skin is never treated as just a surface," the company states, arguing that skin is shaped by daily habits, emotional well-being, time and environmental factors [4]. The brand says it aims to read not only what is visible but the underlying causes of a skin concern, and it lists holistic care, root-cause solutions and real-world expertise among its stated values.

Editorial coverage places the brand at the premium end of the category. The retailer page Fab Beauty Bar calls it "one of the most high-end skincare brands in Korea" [5], and the K-beauty outlet Asian Beauty X characterises it as merging traditional Korean beauty rituals with modern technology [6]. Its products are organised into lettered programs — AA, CC, FF and LL — with the AA line positioned as a customisable "fundamental care" system inspired by spa treatment steps.

The brand's signature product is its gold-infused modeling mask, a rubber-type "modeling" mask that one review called "Shangpree Spa's iconic signature mask" [7]. Its modeling masks use ingredients such as gold, charcoal and red algae, while its hydrogel eye masks are among its most recognised items [6]. In 2023 the company launched three new hydrogel eye masks — Pool Dive, Re-Vibe and Relief Me — with the Re-Vibe mask built around marine collagen and gold. Other hero ingredients cited across its range include marine botanicals and pearl extract.

Beyond masks, Shangpree markets skincare built around named formulas. Its AA Water Cream uses macadamia seed oil and sodium PCA, a component of the skin's natural moisturising factor, to support the moisture barrier. The company also promotes a patented D-Panthenol Recovery Complex — a blend of vanilla planifolia, phyllanthus emblica, juniper fruit extracts and panthenol — in its AA Sebum Control Cream, and says its FF Skin Barrier Oil Ampoule contains plant-derived PDRN developed through its professional-care research.

The brand's spa work has been recognised in beauty-therapy competitions, and the company says its techniques have featured in more than 130 international contests and earned the CIDESCO President's Award [4]. In press coverage aggregated by retailers, Forbes is quoted describing the brand as "the pinnacle of Korean Skincare" and the spa as the top spa in South Korea [5]. Asian Beauty X has written that the brand has achieved cult status within K-beauty [6].

Shangpree is active. It operates an e-commerce site with current AA, CC, FF and LL product programs as of 2026, maintains an official Instagram account, and its most recent widely reported product launch was the 2023 hydrogel eye mask range [6]. Its products are distributed internationally through third-party retailers, while the company remains headquartered and rooted in Seoul.