May 1, 2026
Charles Choi is not interested in making products that merely work. For Choi, the founder of Korean skincare brand mimmua!, efficacy is the floor, not the ceiling. What he is after is something rarer: a product that feels worth wanting before you even open it.
“We think about the full arc of the customer experience,” he says, “from the moment the product arrives in the mail, to the first time someone sees the packaging, to the moment the formula touches their skin. That is what customers are paying for.”
It’s a philosophy that sets mimmua! apart in a crowded market, and one that Choi has built into every decision the brand makes. The mission, as he describes it, is built around a single idea: kissable skin. The daily ritual mimmua! offers is designed to give people a boost of confidence and self-love, while doing away with everything he finds clichéd about the beauty industry, the recycled formulas, the interchangeable packaging, the quiet assumption that functional is enough.
The brand’s best-selling product, the Volume UP Time Block Serum, is proof that the formula- plus-experience approach resonates. Its star ingredient is Volufiline, a patented compound developed by the French cosmetic ingredient maker Sederma. The formula combines a synthetic oil, an herbal extract called Anemarrhena Asphodeloides Root Extract, and vitamin E. It’s the saponins in the herbal extract that do the heavy lifting: lab testing shows they help differentiate at cells in the dermis, plumping skin from the inside out and softening fine lines, wrinkles, and sunken areas of the face. Testing also found that the ingredient performs best at a five percent concentration, which is precisely what the serum and moisturizer contain. The toning essence, by design, contains one percent, making it an ideal entry point for those who want to introduce Volufiline gradually.
The serum’s second active is Beta Glucan, sourced from Schizophyllum commune, a type of split gill mushroom. Long used in oral supplements for its health benefits, Beta Glucan is prized in skincare for its moisture retention and soothing properties. Studies suggest it is 20 percent more hydrating than Hyaluronic Acid, and it has no known side effects, suiting all skin types. That last point was not incidental to Choi. “Volufiline might not work for every skin type, just like any active ingredient,” he says. “I used Beta Glucan specifically to offset any irritation it might cause.” The pairing reflects a philosophy that runs through the entire line: proven ingredients, thoughtfully balanced, chosen not for trend but for function.
Even with limited marketing after launch, the serum found its audience quickly. Within two months, mimmua! was doing $10,000 in daily sales on Amazon, most of it driven by this single product. The Volume UP line has since grown to include a moisturizer, toning essence, and a 100 percent Volufiline oil.
Choi is also forthright about what he sees as a failure of imagination in the broader Korean skincare market. Most brands, he notes, trend toward minimal packaging, colorless and clinical, often dressed up as a kind of rigor. He finds it frustrating. “Being minimal has nothing to do with being clinical,” he says, “and too often it is simply a way to cut manufacturing costs.” His counterargument is right there in the name. Beauty should be beautiful. Not pretty (that’s subjective, he’s quick to note) but purposeful and desirable. Customers are not only paying for the formula. They are paying for the container and the experience. It’s a distinction that keeps mimmua!’s manufacturing costs high and, by all accounts, keeps its customers coming back.
The road ahead is ambitious. Mimmua! is currently in the process of entering Ulta, with a longer-term goal of moving into all major retail. The brand is already live on Amazon Canada, the UAE, and Australia, with Amazon Saudi Arabia launching next month and Europe to follow in June.
What is perhaps less expected is the philanthropic thread running through it all. Mimmua! currently supports single mothers in Korea through the Salvation Army, and Choi is candid about wanting to do more, particularly for children, not just in Korea but around the world. His goal is to donate a portion of profits from each country back to people in need within that country. The brand has always been about how you feel in your skin, he says. It seems right that it should also be about how other people feel in theirs.—mimmua.shop
