Introducing Jina Lee, CEO of Urang
13th May 2018
I am extremely excited to be able to share with you the first part of my interview with Jina Lee, CEO of URANG, a mother, self- starter, aromatherapist living a holistic lifestyle. She created a Korean skin care line that uses natural and organic ingredients that are safe for the whole family. This brand is a wellness brand. It presents honesty and consciousness of nature. Here it is, an interview with Jina, exclusively for Skinsider.
The beginning of URANG
Jina, how long has it been since you started the company and launched the brand?
I launched URANG in December of 2016. Our brand is quite new to the cosmetic world- about 1year and 5 months.
The name is unique. What hides behind URANG?
URANG has multiple meanings. It is my nickname for my personal blog. People called me URANG, the abbreviation of organic love in Korean as well as my motto. My organic love (uginong sarang) led to my own brand URANG. It also means “U” (you) + “RANG” (with), equals to ‘safely-made products for you and I (the whole family).
What were your reasons for, approach to, and philosophy on launching URANG cosmetics?
Simple is best. Start with the basics. Concentrate on the ingredients. Never deceive the customers. Safe but effective.
My husband and I both suffered from atopic skin conditions, and when I became pregnant, I really wanted to use something that was safe for me and my child. I started to pay attention to the ingredients that were used in beauty products. I spent days learning which of the ingredients could be toxic and began to study cosmetic ingredients, cosmetic chemistry, fragrances and eventually how to make them.
For many years, before the launch of URANG, I formulated my own skincare recipe for myself and my family. With a lot of time and effort poured into creating high-quality products, my philosophy and products have led to the birth of URANG. You could say it is all because of my passion.
Quality and natural ingredients
What is the most important feature of your cosmetics?
The ingredients that go into our products are of utmost importance to me. If an ingredient is not up to my personal standards, we do not use it in URANG products. That is why we source so many ingredients from all over the world in small quantities by air to get the highest quality ingredients. We do not just rely on the ingredients available in Korea or provided by our OEM company.
My motivation comes from my family. Urang was born for my family and because I use it, and my beloved ones use it, I will continue to keep the value and quality of URANG.
You will get high quality as well as the perfect amount of ingredients in each product. Like I mentioned before, we never deceive our customers. You will see that our ingredients are simple but highly concentrated. Our most important feature is high quality, safe and very effective ingredients.
How does your brand differ from Western brands?
I think we are probably very different from all other cosmetic brands, not just Western brands or Korean brands. Even our bottles do not resemble other cosmetic brands. The ingredient list is fairly simple. Usually, on the products from other companies, you will see a long list of ingredients. We do not have lines of products like rose line, neroli line, tea tree line, etc. This is because every single product until now has been formulated for a specific purpose. I needed to use each one of the cosmetics for a reason. For example, our SOS Multi balm was originally made for my first baby’s diaper rash and my nipple scars after breastfeeding.
Future plans
In which direction is the company/brand going?
URANG is growing faster than anticipated. We are already selling our products in the States, in Italy, in the Philippines, in Japan, and in Indonesia. When I first started my brand I just wanted to share the products that I truly loved and believed in. My initial goal was to make URANG a well-known natural and organic brand in Korea, but now I hope that URANG will grow into a stable global brand that represents the natural and organic sector.
Can you share with us what new products we can expect in the future? What will be their purpose?
I have so many products on my list which I would like to launch, but it will take some time to develop them. At the moment, we are preparing to launch a concentrated floral water-based, extract-based collagen ampoule and plant-based EGF, FGF ampoule. I am also planning to launch a natural sun cream, natural shampoo and conditioner. I will update you on new launches when they are ready.
How do you want customers to remember your brand?
We are very excited to be able to launch our products in the UK and hope you love URANG. The brand was born for my family and because I use it, my family uses it, I will continue to stick to its core values. We hope you will find the value and quality in URANG cosmetics as we sincerely care about our customers and will use great quality, effective ingredients.
Since you have such sophisticated customers here who already know and are familiar with the herbal and natural cosmetic sector, I am hoping you will get to love URANG. My fingers are crossed and my hopes are high.
Jina, thank you for finding the time. The products are amazing and I believe that they will find a strong and loyal group of customers.
Dear readers, are you ready to explore URANG? Discover more.