Amore Pacific sells \100B of Sulwhasoo ‘serum’

Amore Pacific, the nation’s largest cosmetics maker, said that sales of the serum version of its herbal brand Sulwhasoo exceeded 100 billion won ($85 million) as of the end of November, becoming the first cosmetics product to achieve this level of annual sales in Korea.

First released in Korea in 1997, the product is now also sold in the U.S., Japan, Hong Kong and China under the English name First Care Serum. Its Korean name translates as Yunjo Essence.

The company said that over 16.2 million units have been sold domestically since the product was released.

“About 1.75 million units were sold [in Korea] this year alone, meaning that 9.2 were sold every minute,” an Amore Pacific official said. “This is significant given that the Sulwhasoo brand was never advertised on TV.”

Amore Pacific was the first company in Korea to launch a herbal line of cosmetics.

“Sulwhasoo” is a combination of the Korean words for “snow,” “flower” and “water.” According to a press release, the company translates it as “beauty comparable to a winter tree covered in snowflakes.” Last year, the Sulwhasoo brand raised 690 billion won in domestic sales, a more than 50-fold increase from the 12.7 billion won raised in 1997.