The K-beauty brand Romand, renowned for its color cosmetics such as tints and shadows, has recently stirred up the industry by officially ending its collaboration with creative director Min Sae-rom, who has been at the forefront of creating the brand name and leading product planning.

Romand is a color cosmetics brand established in 2016, famous for its products tailored to personal color. Min Sae-rom, also known as the beauty YouTuber Gaeko, has been a symbolic figure leading this brand in collaboration with its parent company iFamilySC.

The creative director of the beauty brand Romand, Min Saerom (Gaekko). Romand and Min Saerom recently announced their separation. /Courtesy of Min Saerom's SNS capture
The creative director of the beauty brand Romand, Min Saerom (Gaekko). Romand and Min Saerom recently announced their separation. /Courtesy of Min Saerom's SNS capture

iFamilySC is a cosmetics company founded by CEO Kim Tae-wook, with Romand accounting for over 95% of the company’s total sales. Kim, who is also the husband of actress Chae Shi-ra, established the wedding service company iWedding Networks in 2000 and ventured into the cosmetics business in collaboration with Min Sae-rom.

Romand's popular products include 'Juicy Lasting Tint' and 'Better Than Palette.' Romand is praised for expanding the influence of Korean color cosmetics by launching tints and shadows in various shades. Notably, the Juicy Lasting Tint has recently ranked first for three consecutive years at the CJ Olive Young Awards, a leading beauty platform in Korea.

Romand's color cosmetics. /Courtesy of iFamilySC
Romand's color cosmetics. /Courtesy of iFamilySC

Industry evaluations attribute Romand's success to Min Sae-rom's planning skills, highlighting her role in introducing cool-tone products to a previously warm-tone dominant Korean color market and popularizing color makeup that matches personal colors.

As a well-known 'makeup enthusiast,' he has been consistently researching color cosmetics since his blogging days, believing that while everyone has different skin tones, the Korean color product lineup was overly uniform. Romand's 'Rom' is also directly derived from his name.

Romand is also gaining significant popularity in Japan. Products from Romand have ranked highly on Japan's leading beauty review sites AtCosme and Lips, receiving positive feedback. This coincides with the preferences of the Japanese MZ generation (born between 1980 and 2000) for 'petit price' (affordable yet high-quality products), with Romand's diverse colors and excellent quality contributing to its popularity.

Due to this popularity, iFamilySC recorded strong performance last year. By the end of the third quarter last year, cumulative sales reached 156.5 billion won, already exceeding the previous year's total sales of 148.7 billion won. International sales account for about 70% of total revenue. Overall sales last year are expected to surpass 200 billion won, most of which are from Romand.

However, this year, as Romand embarks on a full-scale entry into Western markets such as the United States, it has declared a separation from its founder Min Sae-rom. From beginning as a small company, Romand has grown into a brand with 100 employees and over 200 billion won in sales, marking the start of 'Season 2.' This is explained as a step for the new beginnings and development of both parties. The next steps of Romand, having let go of its 'muse,' are now being watched closely.