The Korean Cosmetic Society holds biannual academic conferences. The K Beauty Science has covered every Korean Cosmetic Society seminar. In addition to oral presentations, we also prepare poster papers. We pride ourselves on being the most thorough among domestic professional media in covering cosmetic science.
We asked Director Park Jun-woo, head of R&D at Gounsesang Cosmetics (owns brands such as Dr G) for an interview.
Q. Please introduce Gounsesang Cosmetics and its R&D headquarters.
The R&D headquarters is divided into the Dermatology Research Institute and the Research Support Department, with a total of 11 people. After opening the Dermatology Research Institute in 2003, it was promoted to R&D headquarters to strengthen the R&D base, and is currently focusing on developing its own products and its own raw materials. We invest more than U$2.5 million every year in R&D, with a focus on introducing our own formulations, proprietary raw materials, for brand differentiation.
We also focus on patent activities for intellectual property rights, functional examination, and certification. In addition, we are strengthening collaboration with Mibelle biochemisty, a subsidiary of Mibelle, to jointly develop our own ingredients and formulations that lead global trends. Major products developed include the Royal Black Snail line and The Moisture Barrier D. In 2023 alone, the R&D headquarters registered 5 patents, filed 3 patent applications, developed 13 types of products, and 17 types of proprietary ingredients.
Q. What is the field of research that you are focusing on?
We are strengthening our brand philosophy of ‘Everyone has healthy skin’. We are developing better ingredients and formulations with healthy skin in mind. In the case of the functional clean beauty brand ‘Vivid Draw’, we conducted joint research and development using liposomal raw materials from Swiss glacier water and glacier-derived microbiome, developed in collaboration with Mibel Biochemistry. It was patented in June 2022, and a poster was presented at an academic event of the Korean Society of Cosmetology in 2023.
Q. What made the company present the poster paper and participate in the Academic Conference at the Korean Cosmetic Society’s Academic Conference last year?
The R&D headquarters grows by being challenged. Previously, new formulations and ingredients were being developed and applied to in-house products only. This is because there were many concerns about opening up the research content and company technology. But now we decided that we would learn more if we shared our research with other researchers in the cosmetics industry. Although we only presented posters this time, we plan to actively participate in more diverse academic conferences in the future. We believe that such active academic activities can promote the company brand.
Q. Can you share your future research plans?
We are holding regular ideation and technical meetings with Mibel Biochemistry, and are in the early stages of development. We will continue to expand joint research to convert clean raw materials from Switzerland into raw materials and prepare to commercialize them by conducting advanced research in Europe together. In addition, we will keep developing products such as Dr. G with our own formulations, raw materials, and technologies, we have a clear point of differentiation from other brands that do not conduct R&D. We will keep listening to consumer reviews and use them as a reference when developing products. We believe our unique strength lies in constantly studying skin.
Please visit our website for further interview contents.
“연구 성과를 공유하는 기업이 더욱 성장할 수 있습니다” < RESEARCH < NEWS < 기사본문 - THE K BEAUTY SCIENCE (thekbs.co.kr)