What Is Hanbang Skincare? Meaning, Ingredients and Rules

Hanbang skincare is Korean skincare inspired by ingredients from traditional Korean medicine and everyday tradition, such as ginseng, rice and mung bean. “Hanbang” is a marketing category used by brands and shoppers; it is not a product class defined in Korea’s cosmetics law.

A hanbang product follows exactly the same labelling and advertising rules as any other cosmetic, and if it wants to claim a regulated function such as brightening or wrinkle improvement, it must go through Korea’s functional cosmetics procedure separately. Here is what hanbang means, how it is regulated and what buyers should check.

Step 1: Understand what hanbang skincare means

Hanbang (韓方) refers to the prescriptions and materials of traditional Korean medicine. In cosmetics, the label is usually applied to:

• products built around extracts of plants also known as herbal medicines, such as ginseng and red ginseng, angelica root or licorice;
• products using ingredients with a history in traditional grooming, such as rice, mung bean or soybean;
• products whose packaging and brand story draw on traditional Korean aesthetics.

We found no legal threshold for how much of such ingredients a product must contain to call itself hanbang. In practice it is a concept each brand defines for itself.

Step 2: Know its legal status in Korea

Article 2 of the Cosmetics Act¹ defines “cosmetics”, “functional cosmetics” and “customised cosmetics”, among others. There is no definition of hanbang cosmetics, and the term does not appear in the Enforcement Rule² either.

The Act defines a cosmetic as a product used to cleanse or beautify the body or maintain skin and hair health, with only a mild effect on the body, and excludes medicines under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act. Using an ingredient that shares its name with an herbal medicine does not make a cosmetic a medicine, and it must not be presented as one.

To claim brightening, wrinkle improvement, UV protection or another regulated function, a product must be reviewed or reported as a functional cosmetic under Article 4 of the Act, whether or not it is hanbang. We explain that system in Korean functional cosmetics.

Step 3: Learn the INCI names of key hanbang ingredients

On the ingredient list, “hanbang” never appears; individual ingredients do. Names checked in the Korea Cosmetic Association dictionary and the EU CosIng database:

Swipe sideways to see the whole table.

The key point for importers: ginseng, red ginseng and wild-simulated ginseng extracts all appear as Panax Ginseng Root Extract in INCI. If you want to promote “red ginseng” in your market, get the Korean ingredient list or the raw-material specification as evidence; the English list alone will not show it.

Step 4: Follow labelling and advertising rules

Article 13 of the Act prohibits labels or ads that could be mistaken for a medicine, that make a non-functional product look like a functional cosmetic, or that otherwise mislead consumers. Hanbang marketing, with its herbal names and words like “remedy” or “secret prescription”, is an easy place to cross that line.

Content claims need care too. According to a November 2023 report in Medical Daily, Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety revised its cosmetics labelling and advertising guideline to make clear that the diluting solvent must be excluded when stating an extract’s content.

Inflating the figure by counting the solvent can be treated as misleading advertising. Article 14 also requires factual claims to be substantiated.

Step 5: What buyers should check

• Korean and English ingredient lists side by side, since INCI names do not always reveal which ginseng or plant part was used.
• Evidence for any percentage claim, calculated without the diluting solvent.
• Functional status: if a product claims brightening or wrinkle improvement, look for the “functional cosmetic” marking on the pack (Article 10(1)8 of the Act) and confirm the review or report.
• Translation of “hanbang”: in some markets a literal “herbal medicine” translation reads like a drug claim; wording such as “hanbang-inspired” keeps it a concept.

Step 6: A hanbang-inspired Korean brand

SEONGWOO GLOBAL supplies Beauty of Joseon, a hanbang-inspired Korean skincare brand. See the brand page for supply information.

Related pages: Beauty of Joseon · Brands we supply · FAQ · Contact us · Korean functional cosmetics · Clean beauty definition · Heartleaf in Korean skincare

See also: Beauty of Joseon sunscreen wholesale