[Nex-Gen Leader: Su min Park]
A Korean American couple is making waves in the global fragrance market with their unique Korean scents.
Elorea, a New York-based perfume brand, has been featured in mainstream media such as the New York Times, Elle, and Forbes, and has gone viral on social media for its Korean-inspired fragrances with bottles emblazoned with the Korean flag and each sky, earth, water, and fire.
“When I visited Korea in 2018, I realized that there was no perfume brand representing Korea,” said Su min Park, co-founder of Elorea. “So I decided to start a perfume brand with my husband. We tried to incorporate the most Korean aspects into our fragrances based on Korean narratives, culture, and history. The name Elorea is a combination of the words ‘Element’ and ‘Korea’, which means the Korean element.”
After launching online last year, Elorea opened an offline store in Manhattan in June.
“We learned a lot about Korean history and culture through the launch of the brand,” says Park. “Our ancestors used a lot of fragrances with natural ingredients such as musk. However, when the West started importing perfumes mixed with alcohol in 1872, our unique scents were forgotten.”
“Elorea has revived, modernized, and reinterpreted the forgotten scents of Korea, and our brand is now characterized by the use of Korean spices such as sesame leaves, schisandra, and green tea.”
Elorea currently offers eight genderless scents in two fragrance collections, as well as candles and hand care products.
Elorea has also been praised by the wife of South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol, Kim Keon-hee. While attending the Hangawi Festival in New York City in September, Kim visited Elorea’s booth at the festival and bought Fire, a citrus and camellia fragrance.
“The brand’s best-selling fragrances are from the first collection, sky, earth, water, and fire,” says Park, “including Heaven (sky), which has notes of bosung green tea, bergamot, and pink pepper, leaving a warm and cozy scent that is perfect for fall weather.” The fragrances are also available on (Elorea.com).
Park immigrated to the United States with her family at age 10 and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2011, where she majored in psychology and photography, and has been working as a photographer and art director for the past 10 years. In 2018, she married her husband and started a fragrance brand. Today, Elorea employs about 12 staff members.
BY YEJIN KIM [kim.yejin3@koreadaily.com]
