The “style Story” Story
Founded by local Brisbane girl Lauren Lee, the idea for STYLE STORY had its origins in 2011, when Lauren participated in a university exchange to Yonsei University in South Korea. Shocked by the thousands of beauty products and brands in Seoul that she had never heard of, she began trying them for herself on her sensitive skin, and liked them so much for bought them home for her friends and family to experience. Not only did they fall in love with them too, everyone wanted to get their hands on more products.
The K-beauty Boom
What originally started as a quest to get the Korean beauty products she and her friends loved in Australia for themselves, gave Lauren the push to start STYLE STORY.
City South News reported:
“Hot on the heels of the K-Pop (Korean pop music) invasion, a small online company is leading the way in K-Beauty products….What started out as a short exchange program…has turned into one of Australia’s most unusual business success stories…”
From humble beginnings selling at the Brisbane markets on weekends, to an Instagram page and then a website, STYLE STORY has grown since 2014 to become one of the biggest names in Korean Beauty in Australia. The business has stayed true to its local routes, employing locals from Brisbane’s southside.
STYLE STORY now has two bases – a base in South Brisbane and one in Seoul, where Founder Lauren Lee now lives. City South News also quoted Lauren on the exponential growth of K-Beauty in Australia:
“In the beginning, most of our customers were international students or Australian Asians, now only half are.”
Korean beauty products have become mainstream, and are regularly featured in the beauty sections and skincare routines of Australia’s top magazines and bloggers.
STYLE STORY curates a selection of the best and most popular products in South Korea and brings them to Australia, tailored for Australian skin types and skin concerns. Korean beauty products are well known for their advanced formulations, technology that is estimated to be 12 years ahead of western beauty products, and a focus on design and the use of natural ingredients. As of 2018, animal testing on cosmetics is now illegal in South Korea.
