Peach & Lily
Alicia Yoon's eczema was so bad she went to esthetician school in Korea to fix her own skin. She left a consulting career to bring K-beauty to America and bootstrapped Peach & Lily to $100 million.
Alicia Yoon grew up with eczema so severe that she went to esthetician school in Korea just to learn how to manage her own skin. She fixed it, then walked away from a consulting job at Boston Consulting Group to bring Korean beauty to America. She bootstrapped Peach & Lily into a roughly $100 million business and coined a phrase you have almost certainly heard: glass skin.
Yoon started Peach & Lily in 2012 as a curator, bringing Korean brands to US shoppers, then built her own line around one obsessively engineered hero, the Glass Skin Refining Serum, tested across more than 200 formulas by 40 chemists. She rejected venture capital for years to stay profitable and keep control, and one bottle of that serum now reportedly sells every two minutes.
At a glance:
| Founded | 2012, by Alicia Yoon |
| Founder background | Korea-trained esthetician; ex-Boston Consulting Group |
| Built | Bootstrapped to roughly $100 million, VC rejected for years |
| Hero product | Glass Skin Refining Serum |
| Later funding | Strategic growth investment from Sandbridge Capital (2020) |
| Sold at | Ulta and peachandlily.com |
The Story
The eczema that sent her to esthetician school
Yoon’s expertise started with her own skin. She grew up with severe eczema, and rather than live with it, she enrolled in esthetician school in Korea to understand how to manage it, and completely transformed her skin in the process. That firsthand, technical knowledge of skincare, earned out of necessity, became the foundation of everything she built.
From BCG to K-beauty
Yoon didn’t take the obvious path. She worked at Boston Consulting Group, and while there she recognized how much untapped potential Korean beauty had in the US market, a category Americans barely knew existed. She quit the stable consulting job and, in 2012, started Peach & Lily to bridge that gap.
Curator first, then creator
Peach & Lily began as a curator, carefully selecting and importing Korean beauty brands for US shoppers and educating them on K-beauty. That built trust and an audience before Yoon ever sold her own product. When she launched Peach & Lily’s own line, she already had a customer base that believed her taste, an enormous head start over a cold launch.
Glass Skin and $100 million
The brand’s own hero, the Glass Skin Refining Serum, was engineered obsessively, more than 200 formulas tested by 40 cosmetic chemists, and it became a viral phenomenon, with one bottle reportedly selling every two minutes. Yoon bootstrapped the company to roughly $100 million while rejecting venture capital, and only in 2020 took a strategic growth investment from Sandbridge Capital, on her terms.
The Strategy
Deep expertise as the moat
Yoon’s technical training and K-beauty knowledge weren’t outsourced, they were the company’s core. She’s said explicitly never to outsource the mission-critical parts of a business, and keeping formulation expertise in-house gave Peach & Lily a product edge competitors couldn’t easily copy. Real expertise is a durable moat.
One obsessively perfected hero
Rather than launch a sprawling line, Yoon poured years into perfecting the Glass Skin serum, 200-plus formulas, 40 chemists, before it became the product that defined the brand. A single, genuinely exceptional hero product carries a brand further than a shelf of decent ones.
Bootstrapped for profitability and control
Yoon rejected venture capital for years, running Peach & Lily profitably and keeping full control of its direction and standards. Bootstrapping to $100 million is rare, and it meant she owned the company and its discipline, taking outside money only once, and only on her terms.
The Marketing
Coining “glass skin”
Peach & Lily’s biggest marketing win was linguistic. By popularizing “glass skin,” the poreless, luminous look, Yoon gave a whole aesthetic a name that customers, creators, and press adopted and spread for free. Owning the language of a beauty trend is a form of earned attention no ad budget can buy, and the serum’s viral TikTok moment rode exactly that.
The founder’s credibility
Yoon is a trained esthetician who fixed her own severe skin condition, which makes her the most believable possible advocate for her products. A founder with genuine, hard-won expertise gives customers a reason to trust the brand that marketing claims never could.
The Numbers
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2012 | Yoon founds Peach & Lily as a K-beauty curator |
| 2010s | Launches its own line; the Glass Skin serum goes viral |
| Ongoing | Bootstraps to roughly $100 million, rejecting VC |
| 2020 | Takes a strategic growth investment from Sandbridge Capital |
Bootstrapped to nine figures: Peach & Lily reached about $100 million without venture funding, which is why the eventual Sandbridge investment was a choice rather than a necessity. Building profitably kept the company Yoon’s and let her negotiate from strength when outside capital finally made sense.
What You Can Learn
Expertise is a moat. Yoon’s esthetician training and in-house formulation knowledge gave Peach & Lily a product edge competitors couldn’t fake. Genuine, hard-won expertise is one of the most durable advantages a founder can have.
Perfect one hero. Years of obsessive work on the Glass Skin serum produced the product that defined the brand. A single exceptional item carries a company further than a broad, average catalog.
Curate before you create. By building trust as a curator first, Yoon had an audience ready when she launched her own products. Earning credibility before you sell is a powerful head start.
Bootstrap for control. Yoon rejected VC for years and reached $100 million on her own terms. Bootstrapping is slower, but it keeps the company, and its standards, entirely yours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded Peach & Lily?
Alicia Yoon founded Peach & Lily in 2012. A Korea-trained esthetician who grew up with severe eczema, she left a job at Boston Consulting Group to bring Korean beauty to the US market.
What is Peach & Lily known for?
Peach & Lily is known as a pioneering K-beauty brand and for popularizing the term “glass skin.” Its hero product is the Glass Skin Refining Serum, developed across more than 200 formulas.
Did Peach & Lily take venture capital?
Yoon bootstrapped Peach & Lily to roughly $100 million while rejecting venture capital for years, taking a strategic growth investment from Sandbridge Capital in 2020, on her own terms.
Where is Peach & Lily sold?
Peach & Lily is sold through its own website and at Ulta, among other retailers, having started as a curator of Korean beauty brands before launching its own line.
Sources
- FRANKI T, “Meet Alicia Yoon, founder of Peach & Lily”. Bootstrapping to $100 million and rejecting VC.
- Gold House, “Alicia Yoon”. Eczema, esthetician school, BCG, and 2012 founding.
- Sandbridge Capital, “A Fruitful Outlook: Peach & Lily’s Formula”. Glass Skin serum development, bestsellers, and in-house philosophy.
- AP News, “Creators of Glass Skin, Peach & Lily, Partners with Sandbridge,” 2020. The 2020 strategic growth investment.