English to French translation for award-winning Korean skincare brand.

At a Glance

Client: Then I Met You - Korean skincare by Soko Glam, founded by Charlotte Cho

Language Pair: English to French

Products : Purify&Plump Duo - Purify & Plump Duo: Living Cleansing Balm Makeup Remover + Bong² Bounce™ Cream

Scope: Packaging and product copy translation

Key Highlights

Award-winning product: The Living Cleansing Balm won the Allure Reader's Choice Award 2025.
Founder collaboration: Talking Heads worked directly with Charlotte Cho, founder of Then I Met You and pioneering Korean beauty expert, ensuring every translation reflected the brand's voice and values.
Regulatory compliance: French cosmetic labelling law requires a full French translation of all packaging under EU Regulation 1223/2009 and the Loi Toubon. Getting this right is a legal requirement, not an optional extra.
A booming market: The global K-beauty market was valued at $14.7 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $31.8 billion by 2033. French-speaking markets represent a significant opportunity for Korean skincare brands.
Specialist expertise: Talking Heads brings deep beauty and cosmetics translation experience, an in-house regulatory terminology glossary, and ISO 17100:2015 adherance on every project.

About Then I Met You

Then I Met You is an award-winning Korean skincare brand founded by Charlotte Cho - a Korean beauty expert, aesthetician, and author who co-founded Soko Glam, one of the world's leading K-beauty retailers. The brand is rooted in the Korean concept of Jeong - the deep emotional connection between people and the things they love - and blends innovative Korean ingredients with clinically effective actives to create a modern, sensorial skincare experience.

Featured in Harper's Bazaar, Allure, Glamour, and Marie Claire UK, Then I Met You carries strong press credentials alongside a highly engaged social audience, with 149K Instagram followers and parent brand Soko Glam reaching 367K.

The Product: Purify & Plump Duo

The Purify & Plump Duo brings together two of the brand's bestselling products into a single retail set designed to deliver a complete cleanse-and-moisturise routine:

Living Cleansing Balm Makeup Remover: A luxurious oil-to-milk balm that dissolves makeup and city grime whilst nourishing the skin barrier. Winner of the Allure Reader's Choice Award 2025, it has been praised by the New York Times and described by Allure as 'widely worshipped for a reason.'
Bong² Bounce™ Cream: A lightweight barrier gel-cream delivering lasting hydration with the bouncy, velvety texture that K-beauty is known for.

The K-Beauty Opportunity

Korean skincare is a global force. Driven by K-pop, K-dramas, social media, and a wider consumer shift towards ingredient-conscious routines, K-beauty has moved from niche interest to mainstream category. The global market was valued at $14.7 billion in 2024 and is forecast to grow at around 9% annually to reach $31.8 billion by 2033.

France and French-speaking markets are a natural next step for premium K-beauty brands. French consumers are sophisticated, quality-driven, and increasingly receptive to Korean skincare innovation. In January 2025, L'Oréal entered an agreement to acquire Korean brand Dr. G, underscoring the scale of confidence in K-beauty as a global growth category.

To succeed in France, however, you need more than a great product. You need packaging and copy that communicates fluently in French - accurately, legally, and with the full weight of your brand behind it.

Why Translation Matters for Skincare Brands

Legal Compliance

If you're selling cosmetics in France, a full French translation of your packaging is not optional. Under EU Regulation 1223/2009 and the Loi Toubon, all label information must appear in French - including product function, safety warnings, instructions for use, and minimum durability dates. Non-compliance can lead to product withdrawal, fines, or worse.

France is one of only six EU member states to mandate full French-language labelling. If your packaging isn't compliant, your product cannot legally be sold there.

Brand Voice

Then I Met You has a distinctive brand personality - warm, considered, and rooted in Korean cultural values. Preserving that voice in French required more than word-for-word conversion. It required a translator who understood the brand's tone, the emotional intent behind its copy, and how to render both into French in a way that feels natural, not imported.

Technical Accuracy

Skincare ingredients, active compounds, and formulation descriptors have specific names across regulatory glossaries. Mistranslation creates consumer confusion and compliance risk. Talking Heads applies a rigorous term-matching process using an in-house cosmetic terminology glossary, extracted from EU and international regulations, to ensure precision throughout.

Consumer Trust

Consumers are more likely to purchase products presented in their own language - particularly in a category like skincare, where ingredient safety and efficacy matter. Clear, accurate, culturally appropriate copy is a direct driver of conversion and brand credibility.

About Talking Heads

Talking Heads is a specialist translation agency with deep expertise in beauty, skincare, cosmetics, and personal care. Based in the UK, the agency has translated for brands including Max Factor, St. Tropez, Trinny London, Revolution Beauty, Sephora, Temple Spa, Haus Labs (Lady Gaga), and many more.

For Then I Met You, Talking Heads worked directly with founder Charlotte Cho - ensuring the brand's values, voice, and product positioning were central to every translation decision. The scope covered all packaging and product copy for the Purify & Plump Duo, with full compliance with French and EU labelling requirements.

In Summary

If you're a skincare or makeup brand - K-beauty or otherwise - looking to expand into French or other European markets, translation is one of the most critical steps you'll take. Done well, it opens your brand to a new audience without losing any of what makes it special. Done poorly, it risks both your reputation and your compliance.

Talking Heads brings specialist cosmetics translation expertise, regulatory knowledge, and a track record with some of the world's leading beauty brands. Get in touch to talk about your next product launch.

Ready to take your skincare brand global?

Korean Skincare Translation - Then I Met You