Emerging Makeup Brand Meloway Pushes Design Boundaries To Tackle Product Problems

Long before they launched makeup brand Meloway in 2020, brothers Ash and Aiden Kim were enmeshed in the beauty industry because their parents were in the business in South Korea. “We literally learned how to make mascara and lipsticks when we were 7. So, this has been in our blood,” says Ash Kim. “Our regular dinner table conversation was literally about what makes a good mascara.”

That conversation came in handy for Meloway’s first products—$23 Your Way Mascara and $22 Your Way Eyeliner + Remover—that aren’t just the standard eye product fare. The brand, which has a mission to “make products that meet you where you are, and where you want to be,” is out to marry design that pushes the envelope with reasonable pricing. Your Way Mascara has an adjustable wand that can be angled to easily coat every lash. Your Way Eyeliner + Remover has a black waterproof liquid eyeliner on one end and a makeup remover pen on the other. 

Now, Meloway is putting its differentiated design stamp on lipstick. In its first step into the lip product category, it’s released the $25 Hi-Rise Matte Lipstick. The lipstick doesn’t have a cap and is constructed to be used with a single hand. Unlike typical lipstick cases that twist at the bottom to push up the product, its case twists clockwise at the top to reveal a rich, soft matte lipstick. The packaging, which offers a glance at its 16 shades at the crown of the case, is intended to help facilitate lipstick application for people with disabilities.

“People are constantly losing their lipstick caps, and that’s very annoying when it happens. There’s a reason why people sell replacement caps on Amazon,” says Kim, who was a lawyer before joining his family in the beauty industry. “We wanted to do this because it eliminates the need for a cap, and you’re never going to lose the cap, whether it is in your makeup bag, purse or on your counter.”

Meloway infuses skincare ingredients into its makeup, and Kim says it sits at the “intersection between skincare and makeup.” Hi-Rise Matte Lipstick features shea butter, and what the brand calls ultra filling spheres and maxi-lip to stimulate collagen, and plump and smooth the lips. Your Way Mascara has argan oil to stave off dryness and chondrus crispus extract derived from red seaweed to promote shine. 

“We are in the makeup category, but we also view makeup as an extension of skincare because we are Korean, and we were born and raised in Korea,” says Kim. “So, we are very inspired by the K-Beauty phenomenon, and we’re all about the celebration of natural beauty.” 

In addition to Hi-Rise Matte Lipstick, Your Way Mascara and Your Way Eyeliner + Remover, Meloway’s assortment contains $20 vitamin-packed tinted brow gel Brow Creation Gel, $22 nourishing lash primer Ready Set Lash and $18 waterproof gel eyeliner pencil Meloliner. Looking ahead, Kim stresses Meloway’s goal is to increase product assortment and innovation.

“I want these products to have longevity instead of being a flash in the pan,” he says. Discussing pricing, he continues, “Sometimes we definitely have a temptation to price it higher because these were highly customized and varied innovative products…It took a lot of considerable investments from us to make [them] into an actual product. We wanted to be accessible to many people. So, we are very strategic or at least that was our thought process.”

Gen Z consumers are Meloway’s target audience. The brand is largely sold via direct-to-consumer distribution. In 2021, it moved beyond its own website to Amazon, and it partnered with e-tailer Thirteen Lune last year. In August 2022, Meloway’s Your Way Mascara debuted on QVC. 

Meloway declined to discuss its sales. The business is bootstrapped, but Kim expressed an interest in securing outside funding, and Meloway is talking to possible backers about investment to fuel its product development and marketing initiatives. Kim says the brand is also “in conversation with multiple retailers about expansion and placement.”