Beauty of Joseon Review 2026: Is It Worth It?

Quick Answer

Key Takeaways

• Rating: 4.3 / 5 - one of the most consistently well-formulated K-beauty brands, held back mainly by supply and counterfeit issues rather than the products themselves.
• The Relief Sun is a legitimate best-in-class sunscreen - the texture, the SPF50+ PA++++ rating, and the lack of white cast make it one of the few sunscreens I tell patients to actually enjoy wearing daily.
• The Glow Deep Serum earns its reputation - rice extract and alpha-arbutin in a lightweight, fast-absorbing base that layers well under makeup.
• Hanbang is a real differentiator, not just marketing - the brand draws on traditional Korean herbal medicine ingredients like ginseng and rice bran water, which gives the formulas a distinct, gentle character.
• Results move slowly - this is a maintenance and prevention brand more than a corrective one; for faster, more targeted results I typically pair it with MediCube.

Quick Links

• Beauty of Joseon Brand Overview
• What Beauty of Joseon Does Well
• Where Beauty of Joseon Falls Short
• Beauty of Joseon vs MediCube Comparison
• Alternatives Worth Considering
• Where to Buy Authentic Products
• Frequently Asked Questions

Beauty of Joseon Brand Overview

Beauty of Joseon takes its name and much of its visual identity from Korea's Joseon dynasty, and the brand leans hard into hanbang - the traditional herbal medicine system that underpins a lot of classical Korean skincare thinking. Rice, ginseng, and rice bran water are recurring ingredients across the line, chosen for their long history in Korean beauty rituals rather than as trend-chasing additions.

The brand's two flagship products are the Glow Deep Serum, built around rice extract and alpha-arbutin for gentle brightening, and the Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics sunscreen, which has developed an outsized reputation among skincare communities as one of the best chemical sunscreens available at its price point. Beyond those two, the catalog includes the Dynasty Cream, a ginseng-forward moisturizer, and a small but growing range of cleansers and toners.

What sets Beauty of Joseon apart from a lot of Korean skincare exports is restraint. The formulas are simple, the packaging is understated, and the brand hasn't chased the same aggressive SKU expansion some competitors have. In clinic, I recommend Beauty of Joseon most often for sun protection and as a gentle daily-brightening layer - it's rarely my first pick for a patient who needs a corrective, fast-acting treatment, which is a different job than MediCube's PDRN and collagen-forward lineup is built for.

The brand has also expanded distribution meaningfully over the past couple of years, moving from mostly online K-beauty retailers into a wider footprint of specialty and mainstream beauty shelves. That broader availability has helped somewhat with the sellout problem, though the most viral items still move faster than restocks can keep up. Packaging design is worth mentioning too - the muted color palettes and traditional motifs give the line a distinct shelf presence that's become recognizable on its own, separate from the product performance.

What Beauty of Joseon Does Well

The Relief Sun sunscreen deserves the hype. It's a genuinely elegant chemical sunscreen - SPF50+ PA++++, a near-invisible finish with no white cast, and a texture light enough that patients who normally skip sunscreen because they hate the feel will actually wear it daily. Daily SPF compliance is one of the single biggest levers in preventing photoaging, so a sunscreen people actually enjoy applying has outsized clinical value regardless of what else is in a routine.

The Glow Deep Serum is a well-built brightening product. Rice extract and alpha-arbutin is a gentle combination that most skin types tolerate without irritation, and the lightweight, slightly milky texture absorbs quickly enough to layer under moisturizer and makeup without pilling. It's not an aggressive brightening agent the way a prescription-strength hydroquinone would be, but for patients who want gradual, well-tolerated evening of tone, it's a reasonable everyday choice.

More broadly, the hanbang angle isn't just a marketing story - the formulas built around ginseng and rice bran water tend to have a calming, soothing character that patients with reactive or easily irritated skin respond well to. And the price-to-quality ratio is excellent; you're getting formulation quality that would cost considerably more from a Western skincare brand.

I'd also flag the Dynasty Cream and the broader ginseng line as underrated. Ginseng root extract has real supporting research for its antioxidant properties, and the cream itself has a rich but not heavy texture that layers well for patients moving into cooler, drier months. It's not a product that gets the same online attention as the sunscreen or serum, but it rounds out the routine reasonably well for anyone who's already bought into the brand's approach.

Where Beauty of Joseon Falls Short

Availability is the brand's biggest practical problem. The Relief Sun sunscreen in particular sells out with some regularity on major marketplaces, and when a beloved product goes viral and goes out of stock, counterfeit and reformulated versions tend to appear on third-party listings within weeks. I've seen patients unknowingly buy diluted or expired stock because the real product simply wasn't available where they were shopping.

The gentle formulation philosophy is also a double-edged sword. Because Beauty of Joseon prioritizes tolerability and a soft, traditional-medicine approach, results build slowly. If you're looking for visible pore refinement, firming, or a dramatic glass-skin transformation in a matter of weeks, this brand's formulas generally aren't potent enough on their own - they're built for gradual maintenance, not correction.

The catalog is also narrower than some competitors once you move past the two or three hero products. There's no strong exfoliating-pad category, no PDRN or exosome-based technology, and the moisturizer and mask options are thinner than what a brand like MediCube offers for someone building a complete routine around texture and firmness.

Patients with a history of skin cancer or actively managing significant photoaging or pigmentation also tend to need something more clinically potent than what a gentle hanbang formula can deliver on its own. I still use Beauty of Joseon products alongside prescription-strength treatments in those cases, but I don't rely on the brand to carry that work by itself, and I say the same thing about most gentle-formula brands regardless of origin.

Beauty of Joseon vs MediCube: Side-by-Side

Alternatives Worth Considering

I don't tell patients to drop Beauty of Joseon - the Relief Sun sunscreen stays in most routines I build. But if you want faster, more visible results alongside the sunscreen, pairing it with a MediCube routine solves the availability and pacing problems. The Affordable Glass Glow 7-Day Skincare Set ($77, compare $136.99) is my go-to recommendation - it includes the Zero Pore Pads, Zero Foam Cleanser, and Collagen Niacinamide Jelly Cream in a sequence designed to work together, and it ships reliably from a US warehouse without the sellout risk you'll hit chasing Beauty of Joseon's viral products.

For brightening specifically, the Deep Vitamin C Capsule Serum is a reasonable, more potent comparison to the Glow Deep Serum for patients who've plateaued on gentler formulas. If firmness and glow are the goal, the PDRN Pink Collagen Exosome Shot ($28, compare $56.99) delivers a faster, more noticeable plumping effect than anything in Beauty of Joseon's hanbang line. And for overnight recovery, the Collagen Night Wrapping Mask ($24) pairs well as a twice-weekly add-on. None of this is a knock on the sunscreen specifically - keep using the Relief Sun if it's already working for you. The point is that pairing a reliable daily protector with a more potent, consistently-stocked active routine gets most patients to visible results faster than waiting on restocks alone.

See our glass skin routine guide for how to sequence a full routine, and browse the Korean skincare collection for the full range. If you're comparing Korean skincare brands more broadly, our other honest reviews cover COSRX for single-ingredient formulas, SKIN1004 for centella-based calming, TIRTIR for the viral cushion foundation, and Anua for its heartleaf barrier line.

Where to Buy

Given how often the Relief Sun sunscreen sells out, buy Beauty of Joseon only from an authorized retailer, and be especially cautious of steep discounts on third-party marketplaces - that's the most common sign of counterfeit stock.

For MediCube, the same rule applies in reverse: buy only through an authorized reseller. Our store stocks 100% authentic MediCube products with a 60-day money-back guarantee and free US shipping on orders over $50, shipped from a US warehouse with consistent stock. The Glass Glow 7-Day Set is the simplest way to start, and the skincare sets collection and PDRN skincare collection show the rest of the range. Check the current MediCube discount codes before checkout, and see the brand authenticity guide for how to verify packaging.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Beauty of Joseon a legitimate hanbang skincare brand?

Yes. The brand's ingredient choices - ginseng, rice bran water, rice extract - draw directly from traditional Korean herbal medicine, and the formulations are built around those actives rather than using hanbang as a marketing label over generic ingredient lists. It's one of the more credible hanbang-positioned brands currently exporting internationally.

Why does the Relief Sun sunscreen sell out so often?

It went viral in skincare communities for its texture and lack of white cast, and demand has consistently outpaced restock cycles since. If you find it in stock from an authorized retailer, it's worth buying more than one bottle rather than waiting until you run out.

Should I use Beauty of Joseon or MediCube for glass skin?

They work well together rather than as an either/or choice. Beauty of Joseon's Relief Sun protects the results, while MediCube's Zero Pore Pads and PDRN Exosome Shot do more of the active pore-refining and plumping work. If you can only pick one system for faster visible glass-skin results, MediCube's curated sets move faster.