More than a decade after the brand’s founding, Glow Recipe is seeing the fruits of its labor.
Under the leadership of cofounders and co-chief executive officers Christine Chang and Sarah Lee, Glow Recipe’s considered approach to expansion (in terms of both geographies and categories) has culminated in a global powerhouse, one that WWD is honoring as its 2025 International Beauty Brand of the Year at the Saudi Fashion Awards and Gala Dinner being held in Riyadh on Thursday.
According to the brand, it is one of Sephora‘s top five brands globally, and in the U.S. alone, its client base grew 97 percent from 2023 to 2024. Sales are expected to be a near-even split between North America and international this year, with the former projected to comprise 54 percent while the latter will hit 46 percent.
For Lee and Chang, L’Oréal alumnae who married the best of skin care with clinical backing and recognizable hero ingredients for the masses (watermelon, anyone?), numbers like that aren’t on accident.
“We just launched Europe in the past year, which is a massive market,” Chang said. “On the innovation side, we’ve had recent launches, as well as a really exciting skin care launch coming up in the second half. Lastly, there’s the community and the social side.”
In other new points of sale, the brand recently ventured into Latin America, notably in Mexico and Brazil. “We’re getting amazing reception from these markets,” Lee added.
Those moves happened concurrently with Glow Recipe’s deepening partnership with Sephora, such as an endcap with the brand’s tinted skin care offering, which sits separately from its existing space in the store.
“It’s a priority for us to balance true skin care with clinical efficacy, as well as with the hybrids, which we’re calling Glow Hues,” Chang said. “It’s how we are unique in this crowded market. We’ll always make sure everything is rooted in true skin care.”
That strategy of balancing core with newness, and existing customers with new ones, has come to define the brand’s growth strategy.
Case in point, when Glow Recipe launched its Glass Balm lip balm on Sunday, taking cues from the duo’s Korean heritage was also meant to broaden the brand’s appeal globally. “Other strategies include community building. We’re working on a platform that has global reach to sign up ambassadors,” Chang said. “We’re also expanding our influencer network. Our definition around community is that it’s truly global because we’re a global brand. And we know there’s an interest in Korean beauty and skin care.”
As far as global expansion goes, the brand evaluates a few key criteria before deciding where to open, and when. “For example, with Sephora Mexico and Brazil, we worked directly with the Sephora global team. We identify where the market excitement is,” Lee said. “We also know that there are search words for their Sephora.coms in respective markets, and we hear it both from global and local teams.”
In-house, “We are also able to track the traffic from different markets on our social platforms as well,” Lee continued. “We then sit down to strategize how we can win — how we can build and sustain. When we have conviction across local and global, that’s when we press go.”