Korean beauty retailer PURESEOUL sits at the centre of a niche that is growing globally.
K-Beauty has become increasingly popular with UK consumers and PURESEOUL is the biggest K-Beauty retailer in the UK.
The brand has recently grown its offering and has launched MilkTouch’s liquid foundation. The foundation is the first liquid foundation from a K-Beauty brand available in the UK.
Retail Gazette sat down with PURESEOUL’s founder Gracie Tullio and its marketing strategy & communications manager Felicity Loftus to find out about how they have marketed the product.
Most people when they think of K-Beauty foundations think of cushion foundations, popularised on TikTok by Tirtir. But MilkTouch has brought a liquid version to the UK market.
Tullio explains that MilkTouch have been their partner since 2025 and are the first partner the Korean beauty brand has within Europe. She highlights that as they work with all their brands directly, it impacts the way they run their marketing campaigns.
She says: “The entire campaign, from start to finish, we’ve done in complete collaboration with the MilkTouch team in Korea.
“I think that kind of intensive localisation, personalisation and the relationships that we have with our brands kind of form the foundation of how we even begin to brainstorm a campaign like this. It’s very much about us and HQ.”
PURESEOUL had previously worked with MilkTouch to launch its cushion foundation. The foundation proved to be extremely popular with audiences and went virial on TikTok. A video of the foundation being passed around the firm’s office has over 2 million views on the social media platform.
She says: “I think Milk Touch as a brand is a good example of a brand that has put their faith in us as a local partner. The K-Beauty market looks very different in each country, and I think we really understand what it means to be a UK K-Beauty customer.
“We know what our community wants, and as a brand, they’ve really lent into that. With their previous cushion launch, we saw the results of that in a lot of the organic social media, but equally this time around, we now have got creators asking to be involved in it, and I can only anticipate that we’ll be seeing a lot of organic social content for this specific foundation as well.”
Loftus added that its previous work with the brand on its foundation cushion led to the brand approaching PURESEOUL about the liquid foundation. And the campaign started from that very moment.
To come up with the right product for the UK market, MilkTouch and PURESEOUL reached out to creators to invite them to a testing day.
At the testing day, they were able to pick out their favourite formulas and give feedback on what they thought of the shade range, the tones and the coverage.
Tullio says of its creator network: “These are people that speak to brands every day, they’re a pin, they have seen more of the market, than we have. As beauty creators, their opinion is really, really important to us. It’s almost like they’re massive product testing feedback gurus.”
Loftus believes that the consumer base for the foundations “bridges the gap” between the generic beauty customer who wants to try out K-Beauty and the K-Beauty consumer.
She explains: “A cushion foundation might feel a bit out of their realm as they’re not really sure on that format. But this product gives consumers everything they may want from a K-Beauty foundation, as it has that glowy, glassy, dewy skin finish, but it also feels quite accessible to all beauty consumers in the UK as well. I think it’s a nice bridge between existing K- beauty customers and new K-Beauty customers.”
According to Loftus, this is just something the brand did for the UK, despite the fact the foundation is being launched globally.
Alongside creators, the retailer has utilised its loyalty scheme, Cloud Club, social media and its newsletters.
Loftus highlights that the Cloud Club was an important channel for the retailer and that its loyalty members had access to a pre-launch sale for the foundation. Members of its loyalty club were also invited to the launch event on June 2 with MilkTouch’s ambassador Twice member Jihyo.
Tullio explains that they approached the brand about having Jihyo at the event after finding out she was going to be in London for a concert.
She says: “So we really cheekily went and said, “Okay, she’s in London, and we’re launching this foundation, maybe can she do something?
“The imagery from the campaign is very Jihyo heavy. And the whole photo shoot was done in a blue theme for PURESEOUL, which is awesome.”
The retailer borrowed a Korean marketing technique to introduce the product to consumers, offering a free foundation brush with every purchase. The brush is inspired by the viral makeup spatula trend from last year that had people applying their base make up with a spatula rather than a brush for a smoother, more flawless finish.
After the launch, it is important to keep up the storytelling, so most of the campaign content will come after the launch event.
Tullio says: “We really encourage organic content because we always want to be accessible to our customers. And it feels quite natural and organic, because that’s how we love and experience our products as well.
“We just want K-Beauty makeup to feel accessible and educational. It’s really crucial in terms of our strategy. No one wants to be sold to. If the product’s good enough, then people will like it, and that’ll do the job for you. I think our focus is on making sure we have good products itself, and then the rest just kind of happens naturally.”
Tullio highlighted that PURESEOUL will also look into adding promotional offers and free gifts after the initial launch.
She says: “We are really anti discounting, and we’d much rather give the customer something of value to kind of sway them if they need it, rather than just a flat promotion.”
Loftus highlights that the omnichannel experience is important to them as a brand as they aren’t a “super digital company”.
She explains: “It almost feels like an immersive experience when you’re experiencing one of our launches as a customer, because it really is across all those touch points.
“Take the journey of this foundation, they might have seen some of the content from last year, and then it’s resurfaced this year. Or maybe they saw some content of their favourite influencers attending the testing event, and then it comes to launch. Or maybe they’re on our newsletter, or they’re part of our Cloud Club, so they get those comms, and then they go into store, and they can test and shade match.”
Tullio adds: “We want our customers to feel really involved in the product story.”
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