Alicia Yoon is the founder and CEO of Peach & Lily. Alicia struggled with eczema throughout her childhood until she began to educate herself on the topic which led her to enroll in beauty school and continue to pursue skincare as a hobby while enrolled at Columbia University. Upon graduating with degrees in Philosophy and East Asian Languages and Cultures, Yoon worked at Goldman Sachs before attending Harvard Business School. While working at the Boston Consulting Group, she realized the untapped potential of the Korean beauty industry in the US and quit her job to found Peach & Lily.
What inspired you all to create this company?
I grew up with severe eczema. I went to esthetician school in Korea to understand how to manage my eczema — and completely transformed my skin. I started my career in finance and consulting, but nights and weekends were spent giving facials and skincare consultations helping others transform their skin. In 2012, after graduating from Harvard Business School, I decided to take the leap and start Peach & Lily to pursue my passion for helping others transform their skin full-time. To help people achieve their healthiest skin, we provide the best of Korean beauty products and complimentary skin consultations with licensed estheticians. We both curate brands and create our own products and distribute them on our e-commerce platform as well as in national retailers including Ulta, CVS, Target and more.
What distinguishes your company and product in the market?
Peach & Lily was one of the first companies to bring Korean Beauty to national US retailers and helped pioneer the K-Beauty movement Stateside. Our business is unique in that we offer both a true retail destination for Korean and Japanese beauty products on our website carrying hundreds of carefully curated products – and offer complimentary advice from skin therapists every step of the way to help educate consumers about the world of Korean beauty. We also create our own beauty products and offer a differentiated take on formulations leveraging Korean beauty technologies allowing for a “zero compromise” standard of nontoxic formulations, high-performance and sensorially delightful textures. We are one of the fastest growing beauty companies in the US with wide distribution across several national retailers including Ulta, CVS and Target.