Jae Won Jeong
Consumer-goods operator who entered K-beauty through a process — fermentation — rather than an ingredient, and patented a black-rice extraction method to anchor a fragrance-free, vegan, daily-ritual brand named for the Korean word for 'everyday'.
"Building a business takes more than a great idea; it takes the tenacity to navigate every moving part with empathy at the centre."
— Jae Won Jeong
Jae Won Jeong came to Haruharu Wonder from product development and consumer goods rather than pharmaceutical chemistry. Her intellectual entry point into skincare wasn't a single active but a process: fermentation — the ancient Korean food preservation technique she recognised as the most underutilised scientific resource in formulation.
She obtained a patent for the brand's proprietary fermented black rice extraction process, which she describes as producing antioxidant potency 30 times greater than unfermented black rice. Her consumer-side argument is that women who use beauty products daily generate product insight that no laboratory protocol can replicate.
BeautyMatter named Haruharu Wonder in its Future 50 for 2026 — the only Korean clean brand in that cohort — and Target US added the brand to its 2025 K-beauty expansion alongside Beauty of Joseon and Biodance.
Empathy before science. Lived experience generates the brief; fermentation technology executes it.
Gentle innovation is not gentle ambition. Plant-powered, fragrance-free, certified-vegan formulations can still deliver measurable barrier outcomes.
The name and the architecture are inseparable: 'everyday' has to mean a ritual that doesn't exhaust the skin or the consumer.
- Pre-2019Consumer goods and product development background; researches fermented ingredient technology and Korean traditional ingredient science.
- 2019Launches Haruharu Wonder in Seoul in April.
- 2019–2021Black Rice line gains international traction through clean beauty communities; fragrance-free positioning resonates with sensitive-skin audiences in the US and EU.
- 2021–2023Expands international distribution; listed at major clean beauty retailers; receives EWG recognition for transparency standards.
- 2025Target US adds Haruharu Wonder as part of its expanded K-beauty assortment.
- 2026Named in BeautyMatter's Future 50 in February.
"What I wanted was a brand that you really needed — a skincare line where small changes can offer a higher value. I thought that's an area where women can excel."
"Building a business is never easy. It takes more than a great idea, but also the tenacity to navigate the many moving parts. I focused on empathy about our everyday life."
Skinsider Interview
The Wonder of WONDER: An Interview with Founder Jae Won Jeong
interviewOhLolly ↗The Wonders of Natural Skincare: An Interview with the CEO of Haruharu Wonder
interviewSkinsider ↗Haruharu Wonder: FUTURE50 2026
featureBeautyMatterTarget continues to lean into K-Beauty with the addition of Haruharu Wonder
featureGlossy ↗