On the Scent of a Beautiful Life : The Biography Suh Sung-whan, Korean Cosmetics Pioneer

This is the truly inspiring story of Suh Sung-whan, an entrepreneur who grew up in Gaeseong in North Korea, left school at the age of sixteen, and subsequently transformed a small family business into a multi-million dollar global cosmetics corporation, AmorePacific, famous for its perfumes and cosmetics across the world.

When Suh Sung-whan was a young boy in the 1930s, his mother supported their family by mixing and selling hand-pressed hair treatment oils, created from camellia nut trees. Inspired by his mother, he quickly learned the skills for developing and selling these products, and earned himself a spot in the first department store to open in Gaeseong – a sign of the big things to come.

Suh Sung-whan soon experienced a major setback however, when he was called up to fight with the Japanese during World War II. Following Korea's liberation in 1945, he made a fully-fledged entry into business, expanding the company, now known as AmorePacific, both in...