Yepoda Just Launched at Sephora US — Meet the Half-Korean Founder Behind This K-Beauty Brand (2026)
By the Hallyu101 Editorial Team
Walk into a Sephora that's just added Yepoda to its shelves and you'll see a brand marketed squarely in K-beauty language — six-step routines, color-coded packaging, the whole Korean skincare playbook. Look up the company, though, and the first thing you'll find is that it wasn't founded in Seoul. It was founded in the Netherlands, in 2020, by a couple who don't run a Korean company at all. That's not a red flag or a marketing sleight of hand, though — it's actually the most interesting part of the story once you understand it. Yepoda launched at Sephora US on August 11, 2026, following a March 2025 debut across Sephora Europe, and its co-founder happens to be half Korean himself. Here's what's actually going on, and why the "is this really K-beauty" question is worth asking honestly rather than dismissing.
| Founded | 2020, in the Netherlands, by Sander Joonyoung van Bladel and Veronika Strotmann |
| Founder's heritage | Van Bladel is half Korean, half Dutch — raised in the Netherlands with a Korean mother |
| Sephora US launch | Online August 11, 2026; in-store rollout through the rest of August |
| 2025 revenue | Over $100 million, up from $71 million in 2024 |
| Certifications | Certified B Corp; roughly 60% of products are refillable |
| Is it a Korean company? | No — it's a Netherlands-founded brand describing itself as Korean-inspired, not a Korean company entering the US market |
What Actually Launched at Sephora US
According to Beauty Independent's August 2026 report, Yepoda's Sephora US rollout began online on August 11, with in-store distribution following through the rest of the month. The brand is bringing its full six-step routine system, priced between $23 and $39 per product, along with the color-coded, guided-routine packaging that's become its signature retail hook — the idea being that a shopper who doesn't already know Korean skincare terminology can still follow the steps in order. About 60% of the lineup is refillable, which lines up with the brand's Certified B Corp status. Yepoda previously made its Sephora debut in Europe in March 2025, so the US launch is an expansion of an existing retail relationship rather than a first-time bet on the Sephora channel. The brand has also indicated plans for four-day pop-up activations in New York and Los Angeles in September 2026 — worth confirming closer to the date, since that detail was still at the pre-announcement stage as of this writing.
Wait — Is Yepoda Actually Korean?
No, and it's worth being direct about that rather than burying it in a footnote. Yepoda was founded in 2020 in the Netherlands by Sander Joonyoung van Bladel and Veronika Strotmann, according to both Beauty Independent and an nss G-Club interview with the founders. It is not headquartered in Korea, was not started by a Korean company, and doesn't market itself as one to industry press — the "K-Beauty" framing describes the product philosophy and formulation approach, not the company's nationality. What makes this more than a marketing borrow, though, is van Bladel's own background: he's half Korean and half Dutch, raised in the Netherlands, and has described in interviews how visiting Korea meant friends would regularly ask him to bring back Korean beauty products for them. "I'm half Korean and half Dutch," he told nss G-Club. "Every time I visited Korea, friends would ask me to bring back K-beauty products. I felt proud." That's a materially different origin story than a company with no Korean connection slapping "K-beauty" on a label to chase a trend — it's a founder building a business out of a role he was already informally playing for the people around him.
Why This Distinction Actually Matters
It would be easy to wave this off as a technicality, but it's genuinely useful context for anyone browsing a Sephora K-beauty shelf, because that shelf now contains at least three distinct categories of brand, and they are not the same thing. There are Korean companies selling directly into the US, like Olive Young's own retail push. There are Korean companies using celebrity-driven global ambassador strategies to build Western brand recognition. And now there's a third category: brands founded outside Korea, by founders with genuine Korean heritage or direct sourcing relationships, building products explicitly inspired by Korean skincare philosophy without claiming to be a Korean company. None of these are more or less "legitimate" than the others by default — but conflating them means a shopper can't actually tell whether they're supporting a Korean export business, a global company with Korean ties, or something else. Yepoda's own marketing doesn't hide which category it's in if you look past the shelf label, and that transparency is arguably the more important story here than the geography itself.
| Brand | Company origin | US strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Olive Young | Korean company (CJ Group) | Direct retail expansion — own US stores plus Sephora curation |
| Anua | Korean company | Global ambassador strategy (e.g. Kendall Jenner partnership) |
| Sephora x Olive Young Edit | Korean brands, curated | Multi-brand retail partnership inside Sephora |
| Yepoda | Netherlands company, Korean-heritage founder | Korean-inspired formulation, own retail expansion via Sephora |
The Bigger Picture: K-Beauty as a Category, Not Just a Country
Yepoda's launch is a useful marker of something that's been happening quietly across the beauty industry: "K-beauty" has started to function less like a strict label for products made by Korean companies and more like a recognized formulation philosophy — heavy on hydration layering, gentle actives, and multi-step routines — that founders anywhere can build around, provided they're transparent about it. U.S. K-beauty sales overall reached roughly $2.8 billion in early 2026, up about 48% year-over-year according to NielsenIQ data cited by Beauty Independent, and that kind of category growth tends to attract exactly this pattern: adjacent brands building on an established aesthetic and technique set rather than just Korean companies exporting directly. Whether that's a healthy evolution of the category or a dilution of it probably depends on whether brands keep being upfront about their origins the way Yepoda has been so far — the risk isn't that non-Korean brands exist in the space, it's brands that quietly let shoppers assume something about their origin that isn't true.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Yepoda a Korean company?
No. Yepoda was founded in 2020 in the Netherlands by Sander Joonyoung van Bladel and Veronika Strotmann. It describes its products as Korean-inspired rather than presenting itself as a Korean company.
Is Yepoda's founder actually Korean?
Co-founder Sander Joonyoung van Bladel is half Korean and half Dutch, raised in the Netherlands with a Korean mother. His personal connection to Korean beauty routines is part of the brand's origin story.
When did Yepoda launch at Sephora US?
Online on August 11, 2026, with in-store availability rolling out through the rest of August 2026. It previously launched in Sephora stores across Europe in March 2025.
How much does Yepoda cost?
Products range from $23 to $39, spanning a six-step guided skincare routine with color-coded packaging.
Is Yepoda sustainable or cruelty-free?
Yepoda is a Certified B Corp, and approximately 60% of its product lineup is refillable, according to Beauty Independent's reporting.
Related Reading
- Is Olive Young at Sephora Now? Everything About the K-Beauty Edit's August 20 Launch
- Sephora Is Bringing Olive Young's K-Beauty Picks to 700+ Stores This Fall
- Anua Just Named Kendall Jenner Its First-Ever Global Ambassador
- Olive Young Just Opened Its First U.S. Store in Pasadena
Written by the Hallyu101 editorial team, based on reporting from Beauty Independent, nss G-Club's founder interview, Trend Hunter, and Verlinvest's investor disclosures, cross-checked as of August 25, 2026.
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