Innisfree

K-beauty meets the spirit of our times in Innisfree. Endless variety, affordable prices, and excellent playful products are quickly making Innisfree every Beauty Editor’s beauty and wellness paradise. BWB spoke to Rosemary Gaudiuso, Senior Manager of Education for Innisfree, about the latest K-Beauty trends, the Innisfree secrets, and her own personal favorites.

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Innisfree has quickly become the go-to brand for fashion and beauty addicts thanks to its large selection, fun packaging and reasonably priced products.
Can you share with our readers how it all started?

The way Innisfree started is really linked to its unique relationship with Jeju Island, our brand’s place of origin. Located in the southern peninsula of Korea, Jeju Island hosts a remarkable variety of climates, allowing tropical, subtropical and even polar plants to all thrive here. Designated by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage, World Biosphere Reserve, and Global Geopark site, Jeju has a truly unique ecosystem.

The island’s volcanic soil also makes the land exceptionally fertile, which is further amplified by its natural elements—mineral-rich water, ideal precipitation levels and perfect temperatures—all of which work in harmony to yield superior ingredients.

While many thought Jeju Island’s black soil was void of nourishment, Innisfree saw its potential and spent years organically cultivating its own green tea field, now regarded among the best in the world, and USDA organic certified. Over the next decade, Innisfree researched every possible way green tea can benefit the skin, from seed to root to stem to leaf, and refined methods to capture each part’s potent essence. We have secured 178 patents.

Innisfree helps protect the locals and their land, ensuring that it gives back more than it takes from Jeju Island.

From there, Innisfree went on to hand-pick over 15 key natural ingredients from Jeju Island for their specific skin-loving properties and developed one of the most comprehensive range of skincare products.

Can you us more about your unique relationship with Jeju Island?

By responsibly sourcing these ingredients, Innisfree helps protect the locals and their land, ensuring that it gives back more than it takes from Jeju Island. Complementary to our naturally derived skincare is Innisfree’s unique sensorial and playful retail experience with beautiful stores that instantly transport you to Jeju Island. The combination of the two has been extremely successful with consumers looking for good quality, innovative beauty products that do not break the bank.

What are some of your proudest accomplishments thus far?

Over the last 17 years, Innisfree has been exponentially growing to become the #1 beauty brand in Korea, operating more than 1,500 stores across 11 Asian markets. The US opening last September marked a huge milestone for Innisfree as it’s the first non-Asian market for the brand, and it has received an amazing welcome from the US consumers. Amongst many exciting innovations for the US launch, the fact that Innisfree is the first K-beauty brand to offer our cushion compact technology in 14 shades created a lot of buzz!

What are the key values of the brand?

Natural Beauty: offering the highest quality natural ingredients from Jeju Island.

Sincerity: offering meaningful and authentic experiences that connect to the heart of the customer.

Sustainability: responsibly sourcing ingredients from our place of heritage, as well as giving back to the earth and our community.

With Spring around the corner, what are some beauty or makeup trends that you can share with us?

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Beautiful, natural skin is always on-trend. We believe in using less makeup and enhancing skin from the inside out by using the right skin care routine customized to your needs. Prepping the skin with hydrating products, like our Intensive Hydrating Serum with Green Tea Seed followed by a moisturizer will help anyone achieve a natural healthy glow. For make-up, using foundation with skin care benefits is important. Products like our Aqua-Fit Cushion foundation with Green Tea extract, Hyaluronic Acid, and SPF 40 will help even skin tone and cover imperfections while hydrating and protecting the skin.

What are the best beauty tips that we can learn from Korean beauty?

Korean Beauty is all about prevention. To protect and preserve their skin’s health, Korean women start anti-aging treatments  from a young age. They use methods like double cleansing, which involves using a cleansing oil followed by a cleansing foam; another is the 7-layer skin method, which involves layering the toners so the skin can absorb one layer. This process maintain the overall health of the skin and allow other products in their routine to better absorb into the skin. There are many more tips that we share in our K-Beauty Secrets class, which is part of the Skin Care Series classes we have in store.

What are your must-have beauty products from Innisfree?

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Our best sellers are definitely must-haves. Everyone needs the Intensive Hydrating Serum with Green Tea Seed. It’s the most important step in the Innisfree beauty routine. Instead of purified water, we use green tea extract along with green tea seed oil to replenish moisture loss after cleansing.

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Our Pore Clearing Mousse Mask with Super Volcanic Clusters is another must-have. This 6-in-1 multi-tasking mask smooths the skin while infusing it with potent minerals that minimize the look of pores. It also cleanly dispenses from a can for less mess when applying. My personal Innisfree must-have is the Brightening and Pore-Caring Sleeping Mask. It’s infused with tangerine peel extract which has 4X more Vitamin C antioxidant power. I use it two to three times a week in place of my night cream and wake up with brighter, smoother, more hydrated skin.