The Skincare Brands That Exist in Complete Isolation

This morning, walking through the vegetable market in Tanjong Tokong, Penang, my mind wandered to an unusual topic: North Korean skincare brands. Sometimes the most interesting ideas strike during the most mundane moments.

Later today, during our Pitchmasters Toastmasters Table Topics session, I was challenged to pitch from an unusual location. Immediately, I thought: what if I launched the international story of a DPRK skincare brand from Kim Il Sung Square? The juxtaposition felt both absurd and fascinating.

The Discovery

My friend Dr. Jong Sang Hun introduced me to these products—part of a broader conversation about the hidden commercial landscape of North Korea. Kaesong Koryo Insam Cosmetics, produced by the Korea Cosmetics Trading Company in North Phyongan Province, represents something genuinely rare: a brand developed in complete information isolation from global beauty trends.

The product line centers on Korean ginseng (insam)—a traditional ingredient with centuries of use in Korean skincare. The packaging shows a comprehensive range in coordinated yellow-gold packaging suggesting premium positioning.

Why This Matters

We’re familiar with K-beauty from South Korea, J-beauty from Japan, and C-beauty from China. But DPRK brands exist in a complete information vacuum for most of the world.

These brands operate as a control group for what beauty products look like when developed entirely outside global marketing influence:

• No access to Western trends: No Instagram beauty influencers, no TikTok skincare routines, no Sephora benchmark
• No international ingredient supply chains: Formulations limited to domestic resources
• Complete cultural continuity: Traditional Korean ingredient knowledge unbroken by modernization trends

Kaesong Koryo Insam uses ginseng not because it’s trending on Pinterest—but because Korean skincare has used ginseng for centuries, and geopolitical isolation meant they never faced pressure to switch to retinol or peptides.

That’s accidental authenticity.

Kaesong Koryo Insam Cosmetics — a complete skincare range developed in complete isolation from global beauty trends. Image source: DPRK Foreign Trade magazine, December 2023.

The Documentation Value

Every brand tells a story about the culture that created it, the resources available, and the aspirations it serves. Even—perhaps especially—brands from places we rarely hear from.

North Korean skincare brands aren’t just commercial products. They’re cultural artifacts that reveal:

• What ingredients North Korea has access to (ginseng cultivation clearly robust)
• What beauty standards resonate with consumers (youthful complexion, fresh skin)
• How a planned economy approaches premium consumer goods (coordinated product lines, gift sets)

These insights exist nowhere else. No market research firm has this data. The brands simply exist—visible only to those who know where to look.

What Happens Next

After having this thought this morning, I’ve decided: we’re going to do a full sector research run on North Korean skincare.

Using our sector deep-dive methodology, we’ll investigate:

• What brands exist beyond Kaesong Koryo Insam?
• What ingredients define DPRK skincare formulations?
• How does a planned economy structure beauty product development?
• What distribution channels exist domestically?
• Are there any export activities (China? Russia? BRICS+ markets)?

This is exactly the kind of “hidden market” research Brandmine was built for. We’ll document what we find and share the results in our Insights section.

I don’t know if Kaesong Koryo Insam Cosmetics will ever reach international markets. Sanctions make distribution nearly impossible. But that’s not the point.

The point is that somewhere in North Phyongan Province, a cosmetics company is manufacturing skincare based on centuries of Korean ginseng knowledge, serving a domestic market of 26 million people we know almost nothing about.

The question: what do we learn about beauty, culture, and commerce when we study brands that developed in complete isolation from the systems we assume are universal?

Brandmine exists to illuminate hidden brands from overlooked markets. North Korean skincare doesn’t fit our typical profile of export-ready $5-20M SME brands seeking international partners. But they do represent evidence that entire commercial ecosystems exist parallel to—and completely isolated from—the global systems we assume are universal.

Documenting that isn’t about creating business opportunities. It’s about building a more complete picture of global commerce. About recognizing that “invisible” doesn’t mean “non-existent.”

Stay tuned for our deep-dive research findings.

What unusual brands have caught your attention? Have you encountered products from unexpected origins?