Normally, acne is not something to celebrate, but Ju Rhyu credits a few bad breakouts as the reason she became an overnight business success.
The founder of Hero Cosmetics, a skincare brand that promises to be your savior when it comes to acne, describes her career path as definitely not “straight and linear.” Rhyu recently said, Luck It wasn’t until she was recruited to work in Seoul, South Korea, that she stumbled upon a big business idea: launching a skin care line that focused on a proactive approach to tackling pesky acne.
Mighty Patches allow users to cover up blemishes and forget about the embarrassment that comes with having acne. The small patches—about 0.47 inches in diameter—are transparent, allowing users to cover up blemishes at night or even in public. They are a discreet alternative to other solutions for covering blemishes, such as makeup, which can draw more attention to the face.
“I always joke that I’ve worked at some of the biggest brands in the world—Kraft Foods, Mondelez, American ExpressAnd SAMSUNG Electronics—and then started an independent skin-care brand,” she says.
At age 35, while working in corporate marketing for Fortune 500 giant Samsung, Rhyu suffered from frequent breakouts until she noticed something strange: Her coworkers were all wearing hydrocolloid patches on their faces at the office.
Confused, Rhyu asked why her colleagues were brazenly applying Band-Aid-like squares and rectangles to their cheeks and chins, something she had never seen in the United States. Their simple explanation? Soothing a pimple.
“I went to the drugstore, I tried one, and it changed my skin-care routine because it was so much more effective than anything I had ever used before,” she recalls. “I used it at night, and in the morning, it had taken all that dirt off.”
That dirt—a combination of bacteria and dead white blood cells—is often the cause of visible facial blemishes. Being able to remove it overnight is a game changer for acne sufferers, as it often leads to negative impact on self-esteem.
The experience sparked the young entrepreneur’s “education” about skin care. After trying “everything possible” to get rid of her acne — including dermatologists, toothpaste, and sticky pink cream — Rhyu set out to revolutionize skin care, starting with the Band-Aid counter.
Leveraging his entrepreneurial background, Rhyu began strategizing how to bring his idea to market with his two co-founders.
“One of the consumer behaviors that I noticed was that the hydrocolloid patch format had actually been around for quite a while, but it was in the Band-Aid aisle,” she said. “At that time, there was nothing in the beauty area.”
In 2017, the trio decided to start their own business, pooling $50,000 of their own money rather than seek investors; it was “very counterintuitive” at the time. However, after successfully launching Mighty Patch on Amazon—where their initial inventory sold out in just 90 days—Ryhu and her team were poised for mainstream success.
By 2022, the brand had generated over $100 million in sales and agreed to be acquired by Arm & Hammer, Nair, and OxiClean’s parent company Church & Dwight for $630 million.
“I never thought Hero would be as successful as we were,” Rhyu said.
Exposure to cultures around the globe not only inspired Rhyu’s business, but has also been a constant theme throughout her time as CEO of Hero Cosmetics. After leaving Seoul in 2014, Rhyu eventually moved to Paris for six years, where she continues to run her New York City-based company.
“I’ve been traveling a lot for the past six to seven years,” she said. “When I lived in Paris, I spent three weeks in Paris, a week in New York, so I’m definitely a professional.”
The CEO recently decided to move back to the United States and settle in Los Angeles. Although she still lives in a different time zone than Hero’s headquarters, that doesn’t make her any less involved.
She says her key is not work-life balance, but work-life harmony.
“It’s really just about finding a schedule that works for you. It’s going to be different for everyone,” she says. “I don’t think we can expect anyone to be online all the time, 24/7.”
The founder gave Luck An exclusive look at her daily routine, starting early in the morning at 6am
With good skin care, great nutrition
6:00 AM: As soon as she wakes up, Rhyu prioritizes breakfast “no matter what.” Her typical breakfast consists of two eggs and a piece of toast, along with a cup of coffee. After breakfast, she completes her morning skincare routine, which includes a quick rinse with water followed by application of a Vitamin C serum and sunscreen.
As the workday for his New York colleagues began, Rhyu headed to his desk and got straight to work, checking emails and preparing for the day.
8:00 To be: Now that he had had enough coffee and caught up on the day’s news, Rhyu started taking Launch Call a colleague, varies by day.
“Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I can have three to five meetings a day,” she said, adding that Monday and Friday are “much clearer.”
12:00 afternoon: Around noon, Rhyu took a break for lunch, a meal she always enjoyed preparing for herself.
After lunch, if there is no meeting, the CEO will spend this time to deal with work or personal needs.
“That’s when I’m thinking,” she said, adding that she often takes time out for tasks that are “a little bit uncomfortable, but I have the time and silence to focus on it.”
3:00 afternoon: After lunch, Rhyu works out with a personal trainer on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The businesswoman recently purchased a modified pilates machine, which she uses on her days off.
“I try to incorporate walking because we live in LA and the weather there is really great,” she says.
6:00 afternoon: After completing the rest of her workday, Rhyu has dinner and spends time with her husband.
“We will pull up Netflix or we’ll put on a movie,” she said. “We just try to watch something that relaxes us in the evening.”
For her nighttime skincare routine, Rhyu always double cleanses (a trick she learned while living in Korea) using Hero’s Dissolve Away Cleansing Balm and Tatcha’s Rice Polish Foaming Enzyme Powder. She pairs it with a retinol or hydrating serum.
“All in all, it probably took about five or 10 minutes,” said the CEO of the skin-care company.
9:30 PM: What’s the last thing Rhyu does before bed? Read a few pages of a book, a staple habit that helps her fall asleep.
“I try to go to bed around 9:30/10:00 pm and then I fall asleep shortly after.”
