The Face Shop (더페이스샵) is a South Korea-based retailer of body, bath, skin care and make-up products aimed at both women and men. It was founded in 1962 as a wholesale manufacturer of cosmetics. In 2003 the first retail stores opened, and spread rapidly. As of December 2005, there were 400 Face Shop branches in South Korea. The company's marketing is largely based on natural products. The CEO of "TheFaceShop Co., Ltd." is Jeong Un-ho (정운호).
There are now stores in many countries including Australia, Brunei, Canada, China, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE, United States, Costa Rica, and Vietnam.
Bae Yong Joon is the primary spokesperson for The Face Shop in Korea. He appears in a variety of advertisements.
In 2007, The Face Shop opened its first stores in the USA in the San Francisco Bay Area and the west coast. To search for spokesmodels for their USA division, they hosted the "Natural Beauty Contest". The grand prize was over $20,000 in cash and prizes for the winners as well as a 1 year contract as The Face Shop USA spokesmodel. Hundreds of applicants were narrowed to 80 models for Round 1. The final round of 34 finalists yielded six winners as Spokesmodels for The Face Shop USA. They were: 1st place: Erin Nolan (Caucasian, 5'8"), 2nd place: Amy Truong (Vietnamese, 5'6"), 3rd place: Ronamae Panganiban (Filipino, 5'7"), 3rd place: Tarhata Anima (Filipino, 5'5"), 4th place: Adara McClure (Japanese/Irish, 5'1"), and 5th place: Sheena Reddy (Indian, 5'9")[1].
The Face Shop products can now be found in The Face Shop stores and Walgreens across the United States.
On 27/09/10, a video started circulating online of a CCTV-captured robbery and possible sexual assault in a branch of The Face Shop located in The Curve Shopping Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Full details of the incident and a police report have yet to be released. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFjozuIYIBc