Beauty of Joseon Sunscreen Korea vs US: Price & Formula 2026
Beauty of Joseon's Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics is the sunscreen my friends ask me to bring back from Seoul more than anything else. The usual follow-up: "Is the US version the same?" So on October 11, 2026, I checked the Korea vs US picture for Beauty of Joseon sunscreen across four stores: price, formula, and who is actually selling it. The short version is that there is no US version of Relief Sun to compare against right now.
Relief Sun is a Korean formula with UV filters that aren't on the US list of allowed sunscreen ingredients, and on October 11, 2026, neither Beauty of Joseon's US site nor Olive Young US sold it. In Seoul, Olive Young had a 50ml + 20ml set for ₩15,000 (about $11.17) on sale. The brand's US sunscreens, like Day Dew Sunscreen ($16.20 on sale, 50ml), are different products with US-approved filters, not a US version of Relief Sun.
1Beauty of Joseon sunscreen prices: Korea vs US
Seoul sells Relief Sun. The two official US stores don't.
All prices were checked on October 11, 2026. Olive Young Korea doesn't sell a plain single tube online right now. Every Relief Sun listing was a 기획 set (a promo set with extras), so the table shows those.
| Store | Product | Sale price | Regular price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olive Young Korea | Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics, 50ml + 20ml set | ₩15,000 ($11.17) | ₩20,000 ($14.89) |
| Olive Young Korea | Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics, 50ml x2 | ₩24,000 ($17.87) | ₩30,000 ($22.34) |
| Olive Young Korea | Relief Sun Aqua-Fresh: Rice + B5, 50ml x2 | ₩26,000 ($19.36) | ₩30,000 ($22.34) |
| Beauty of Joseon US site | Relief Sun (both versions) | Not sold (page not found) | |
| Beauty of Joseon US site | Day Dew Sunscreen SPF 50, 50ml | $16.20 | $18.00 |
| Beauty of Joseon US site | Dayscreen Moisturizer SPF 30, 60ml | No sale | $20.00 |
| Olive Young US | Any Beauty of Joseon product | Not sold (no search results) | |
| Amazon US | Relief Sun listings | Price not verified (see section 3) | |
The 50ml x2 set had two options: ₩24,000 for a version with a character stress ball, and ₩26,000 for the plain double set. Per 50ml, the ₩15,000 set works out to about $7.98, roughly half of Day Dew's $16.20 sale price. Keep in mind that Day Dew is a different sunscreen, so this is a price gap between two products, not two versions of one.
Count the ml, not the boxes. The 50ml + 20ml set (two 10ml minis) was the cheapest way to buy Relief Sun on October 11, cheaper per ml than the double set with the stress ball.
2Is there a US version of Relief Sun?
No. The US gets different sunscreens, not a US Relief Sun.
In the US, sunscreen is an over-the-counter drug, and it can only use active ingredients the FDA allows. Here is how the two sides compared on October 11, 2026:
- Korean Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics. The ingredient list on Olive Young Korea shows four UV filters: Diethylamino Hydroxybenzoyl Hexyl Benzoate, Ethylhexyl Triazone, Methylene Bis-Benzotriazolyl Tetramethylbutylphenol and Diethylhexyl Butamido Triazone. None of them is on the FDA's list of allowed sunscreen actives.
- Beauty of Joseon's US sunscreens. Day Dew Sunscreen and Dayscreen Moisturizer SPF 30 list avobenzone, homosalate, octisalate and octocrylene as active ingredients, which are all US-approved. The brand says Dayscreen was made "with FDA-approved filters so our US community can easily shop it."
- No Relief Sun on the US site. Both Relief Sun product pages on beautyofjoseon.com returned "page not found," and the store's catalog lists them as unavailable.
- No drug label on file. I also searched DailyMed, the US government's database of drug labels, and found no Relief Sun listing.
What about the new filter news? On June 10, 2026, the FDA added bemotrizinol to the US sunscreen list, the first new sunscreen active since 1999. But the current Korean Relief Sun ingredient list doesn't contain bemotrizinol, so that approval alone doesn't bring Relief Sun to US shelves.
Beauty of Joseon was the brand that introduced Korean sunscreen to a lot of Americans, and it's still the name people ask me about first. Funny thing is, you'll rarely see Koreans using it here. We have so many sunscreens on the shelf that it just isn't the default pick in Korea.
3Fake vs real: what Amazon showed me
The top Relief Sun listings weren't from Beauty of Joseon.
I searched Amazon US for "beauty of joseon relief sun rice probiotics" on October 11, 2026. Because I was browsing from Seoul, Amazon showed prices in won for a Korean address, so I didn't record a US price. What I could check was who sells them.
I opened five of the top listings that used the Relief Sun name or "Rice and Probiotics SPF50+." None was listed under the Beauty of Joseon brand. Their brand lines read gonalulu, RELIEF SUN, LING LI TE, HENGRUNXIN and RELIEF SUN ORGANIC, and one was sold by a seller called "Baety Jeosn." I can't tell you whether any of them is fake, but none of them is the brand's own listing.
Don't buy a "Relief Sun" listing just because the photo looks right. Check the brand line under the title and the "Sold by" name. If neither says Beauty of Joseon, you don't know where it came from.
4When buying in Seoul is worth it
If you want Relief Sun itself, Seoul is the simple option.
- You want the Korean formula. Olive Young Korea sells it, and you know it came from the brand's supply chain. The two official US stores I checked don't sell it.
- You're stocking up. The double sets were ₩24,000–26,000 on sale, about $8.94–9.68 per tube. Add it to a bigger haul and claim the tax refund, which comes to about 5–8% back on purchases of ₩15,000 or more on one receipt.
- You time it. Two of the three sets were 20–25% off. If the shelf tag shows the regular ₩20,000 or ₩30,000, check my guide to 1+1 and 기획 signs for a better deal on the same shelf.
If you're happy with a US-approved formula instead, the US options are easy to buy at home. My Olive Young price check shows how much Seoul saves on other bestsellers.
Final thoughts
The Korea vs US question for Beauty of Joseon sunscreen isn't really about price. Relief Sun is a Korean product, and on the day I checked, Olive Young Korea sold it from ₩15,000 while the brand's own US site and Olive Young US didn't sell it at all. If Relief Sun is the one you want, buy it at Olive Young in Seoul, keep the receipt for the tax refund, and skip Amazon listings that don't carry the brand's name.
FAQ
Is the Beauty of Joseon sunscreen different in Korea vs the US?
Yes. Relief Sun is a Korean formula with UV filters that aren't approved in the US. The brand's US sunscreens, like Day Dew and Dayscreen Moisturizer SPF 30, are different products with avobenzone, homosalate, octisalate and octocrylene.
Is Beauty of Joseon sunscreen FDA approved?
The US products list FDA-allowed active ingredients. Relief Sun's Korean filters aren't on the FDA list, and I found no Relief Sun listing on DailyMed on October 11, 2026.
How much is Beauty of Joseon sunscreen in Korea?
On October 11, 2026, Olive Young Korea sold a Relief Sun 50ml + 20ml set for ₩15,000 (about $11.17) on sale, ₩20,000 regular.
Does Olive Young US sell Beauty of Joseon?
Not on October 11, 2026. Searching "beauty of joseon" on us.oliveyoung.com returned no results.
How do I spot a fake Beauty of Joseon sunscreen on Amazon?
Start with the seller. Check that the brand line under the title and the "Sold by" name are Beauty of Joseon. In my search, the top Relief Sun listings were from other brand names and third-party sellers.
- Olive Young Korea online store, Relief Sun set prices and full ingredient list, checked October 11, 2026
- Beauty of Joseon official US site (beautyofjoseon.com), product pages and Dayscreen FAQ, checked October 11, 2026
- Olive Young US (us.oliveyoung.com) search, checked October 11, 2026
- Amazon US search and product pages, checked October 11, 2026
- DailyMed (US National Library of Medicine) drug label search, checked October 11, 2026
- Arent Fox Schiff alert on the FDA's June 10, 2026 bemotrizinol final order
Prices and stock change often. Spotted something outdated? Tell me.
Comments
Post a Comment