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From growing up between Korea and the UK to building her own beauty brand, BOTARI founder Molly Park shares the inspiration behind her design-led approach to K-beauty, the challenges of entrepreneurship, and her vision for the future.
What happens when Korean beauty innovation meets a London-inspired design perspective? For Molly Park, the answer is BOTARI, a modern K-beauty design house built around thoughtful products, distinctive design, and the small rituals that make everyday life feel special.
With a background in design and creative leadership, Park spent years developing products and building brands at Oliver Bonas and Papier before deciding to create a brand of her own. Drawing on her experiences between Korea and the UK, she set out to bring together the culture of care she grew up with and the creative sensibility she developed in London.
BOTARI began with hand care, focusing on effective formulas, beautiful scents, and products designed to be used and enjoyed every day. But Park's vision extends beyond the products themselves: she wants to build a brand with a recognisable creative identity, meaningful customer relationships, and room to evolve into new areas of beauty and wellness.
We spoke with Molly Park about her journey from building other brands to founding BOTARI, how she approaches modern Korean beauty, and what it takes to turn a creative vision into a growing business.
What Inspired You to Create BOTARI?
I'm Molly Park, the founder of BOTARI, a modern K-beauty design house. My background is in design and creative leadership, and before starting BOTARI I spent years developing products and building brands at Oliver Bonas and Papier.
I'd always wanted to create a brand with my own design philosophy, where I could think about the entire experience, from the product itself to how someone discovers it, opens it and lives with it. I also wanted to create something that reflected who I am. I grew up between Korea and the UK, and BOTARI brings together the Korean beauty innovation and culture of care I grew up with, and the design sensibility I've developed through my life and career in London.
We've started with hand care: effective formulas, beautiful scents and products you want to keep close and use every day. What I'd most like people to know is how much thought goes into the whole thing. I care deeply about how it looks, but I'm just as particular about the texture, performance and how it makes you feel. That combination is what BOTARI is built around.
What Did Building Other Brands Teach You About Creating Your Own?
One of the biggest things I learned is that a meaningful brand understands who it's serving and what it's promising them. That promise includes how the product works, but also the emotional experience, the personality and the point of view people connect with.
The brands I worked for were very different, but each brought together people who shared certain values and a way of looking at the world. That connection gave the brand strength. It taught me how important a clear vision is, and how much every part of the experience needs to support it.
I also learned that you build a brand with your customers. You can have a strong vision, but what people buy, what they come back for and what they tell you should influence how it develops. It can become something better than you originally imagined.
After years of putting my creativity into other businesses, I wanted to build something that belonged to me and that I could shape from the beginning. I love creating products with a distinctive point of view, and I'm obsessive about quality. BOTARI gives me the opportunity to bring those standards and my own creative handwriting into one business.
How Did Growing Up Between Korea and the UK Shape BOTARI?
Growing up between the two gave me different ways of thinking about care, community and individuality. In my experience of Korea, there was a real warmth in how people looked after one another. The idea of jeong, that affection and connection that builds between people, is a beautiful part of the culture. A lot of what I learned about looking after myself came from my mum, friends and the people close to me.
In the UK, I found a different kind of space to develop my individuality. I was drawn to the freedom of expression and the richness of British design, and London has had a huge influence on my taste and creative approach.
Those experiences come together quite naturally in BOTARI. The Korean influence is in the approach to care, the curiosity about ingredients and innovation, and the attention to how a product feels on your skin. My design approach brings in colour, texture, personality and a clear visual point of view.
That's why I describe BOTARI as a beauty design house. For me, design includes the product, the science and the experience, and how they all connect.
What Does Modern Korean Beauty Mean to You?
People often associate K-beauty with effective products, interesting ingredients and accessible prices. What interests me is the thinking behind that: the willingness to experiment, respond to what people need and keep improving the experience.
For me, modern Korean beauty is about that curiosity, combined with a culture where looking after yourself is part of everyday life. I wanted BOTARI to express that philosophy through a complete brand experience.
With hand care, we began with very practical questions. What do people need from a hand cream? What stops them using it? How should their hands feel afterwards? That informed the formulation brief. At the same time, I wanted the fragrance to be something people looked forward to, and the packaging to be something they enjoyed keeping on their desk or taking out of their bag.
I think of it as bringing art and science together. The formula, fragrance, colour and materials all contribute to the same experience. The identity comes from that consistent way of thinking, and from my own perspective on what Korean beauty can feel like today.
How Do You Turn an Idea Into a BOTARI Product?
It begins with a clear picture of the person and the experience I want to create for them. What do they need? What frustrates them about what's already available? How do I want them to feel when they discover the product, open it and use it every day?
I have a lot of ideas, so the work is in editing them. An idea needs to solve a real problem and offer something distinctive. It also needs to make sense within the world we're building.
For our hand creams, I worked with formulation scientists with K-beauty expertise on a specific performance brief, and with fragrance specialists to develop the scents from scratch. Different people have different skin needs and preferences, so each product needed its own character while still belonging to the same collection. The packaging and visual identity developed alongside that work.
Interestingly, writing the brief for my own brand was harder than doing it for someone else's. I had to define the positioning and make all those decisions from the beginning. But it meant I could consider everything together. The fragrance, formula and packaging each had a role from the start, and the creative process was about making them work beautifully together.
What Makes BOTARI Different From Other K-Beauty Brands?
I hope people recognise a distinctive creative point of view, alongside products they really enjoy using. The design house idea matters to me because it gives us a consistent philosophy that can develop across products, stories and collaborations.
I think about how a fashion house can evolve through different collections while remaining recognisable. That's the kind of creative consistency I want for BOTARI. I love colour, texture and pattern, and I want there to be personality and a sense of joy in what we create.
I'm also interested in the people around the brand. Because we launched with hand care, it felt natural to explore what hands make possible, especially through the work of creative people. Our Modern Makers series is one way of bringing those stories into BOTARI.
I'd like people to come to us because the products are excellent, and stay interested because we have something to say. Whether it's a new product, a collaboration or a story, I want it to feel considered, recognisably ours and worth spending time with.
How Can Beauty Products Make Everyday Rituals More Meaningful?
For me, a meaningful ritual needs to fit into real life. There's a perception that Korean beauty always involves a very long routine, but my own approach is practical. A product should make looking after yourself easier and more enjoyable.
When I researched hand care, one of the biggest frustrations people mentioned was greasiness. They wanted to care for dry hands, but they also needed to get straight back to their laptop or whatever they were doing. That became a key part of our brief: a texture that absorbs quickly and feels comfortable.
Then I thought about what would make someone look forward to using it. Scent plays a big role, and so does the visual experience. A beautiful object can bring a little pleasure to an ordinary moment.
Even our accessories begin with a practical idea. The mini format makes the hand cream easy to carry, and the charm gives it a playful way to travel with you. I want people to have their hand cream close when they need it. If it feels good, smells beautiful and is easy to reach, looking after your hands becomes something you naturally do throughout the day.
How Is BOTARI Reaching a Global Audience?
I think people are drawn to the combination of performance and discovery: products that address a need, but also introduce them to a texture, ingredient or approach they haven't experienced before. For me, the excitement around Korean beauty comes from that sense of possibility.
BOTARI has a global perspective because it comes from my experience of growing up between countries. Korean beauty innovation and a London design sensibility are both part of its identity. We make that accessible by being clear about what each product does and making the experience easy to understand and enjoy.
We're very early in the business, but we've already received orders from France and the US, which has been encouraging. We're exploring a European launch early next year and, further ahead, opportunities with US retailers.
I understand the importance of focus for a young brand, and we need to grow thoughtfully. At the same time, people discover brands across borders from the beginning now. I want to learn from that interest and reach the people who connect with BOTARI, wherever they are, while keeping our product standards and point of view consistent.
How Does Customer Feedback Shape BOTARI?
I think of it as a promise to our customers. When they pick up a BOTARI product, I want it to work, feel beautiful and lift their mood. Learning whether we're delivering that promise is a big part of my role.
Before launch, I brought together a founding family through my network, including people who followed my work on LinkedIn. I write personal emails, run focus groups and ask for feedback directly. I really enjoy those one-to-one conversations because you hear things that wouldn't necessarily come through in a survey.
Selling online makes that personal connection especially important. In a shop, someone can talk you through a product and help you choose. I think carefully about how we create that feeling through our website, emails and the way we respond to people.
One response that's stayed with me is people asking whether we'd make perfumes because they love the scents. It's early feedback, but it has made me think more about the role fragrance could play in BOTARI's future. I have a clear vision, and I want customers to help shape how we get there.
What Has Been the Biggest Challenge of Building BOTARI?
The biggest adjustment is how often you have to change roles. You're thinking about the creative direction, then cash flow, then operations, then sales. The priority can change week by week, and you have to be honest about where your time will make the most difference.
At this stage, a lot of my attention is on marketing and distribution: helping people discover BOTARI and getting the products into their hands. I love product development, but building the business means giving the commercial side the same focus.
I've also learned how much of the job is managing yourself. You can have a very slow sales day followed by a brilliant conversation with a retailer. There are frequent highs and lows, and you need to keep your perspective. I have incredible support around me, but the responsibility feels different when it's your own business.
I knew I'd need to learn quickly. What I probably underestimated was how frequently I'd need to make a decision, get new information and adjust it. My approach is to stay focused on the long-term vision while being willing to question the route. You make mistakes, learn what you can and keep moving.
What Is Your Long-Term Vision for BOTARI?
I want BOTARI to become a global beauty and lifestyle design house, with products people trust and a creative world they want to be part of. Hand care is our starting point, and over time I'd love to apply the same thinking to more of the things people use to look after themselves every day.
I can see that growing through our own online business, retail partners and collaborations, with each part helping people experience BOTARI in a different way. The ambition is to make the whole experience recognisable, wherever someone encounters us.
I'm clear about the standards I want to protect: product quality, a distinctive design approach and real attention to the customer. The exact categories, markets and timing need to develop through what we learn. What people buy, how they use it and what they come back for should influence where we invest next.
Having a long-term vision helps me make decisions now. I can ask whether an opportunity takes us towards that business and whether we can deliver it well at this stage. I want BOTARI to grow into its ambition with a strong foundation.
What's Next for BOTARI?
I'd like BOTARI to show how much better an everyday product can feel when performance, design and the wider experience are developed together. As a customer, I have high expectations. I want something that works beautifully, looks considered and feels like it belongs in my life.
I'm excited by the opportunity to bring that approach to other beauty and wellness categories, including body and hair care. The starting point will always be a real need and an opportunity to improve the experience. Fragrance is another area I'm curious about, especially given the response to our hand creams.
Creatively, I also want BOTARI to keep evolving through collaborations, imagery and the people whose stories we share. I want someone to feel there's always a reason to come back and see what we're doing.
Ultimately, I'd love people to say they trust our products and find our creativity exciting. I want BOTARI to have a clear identity while staying curious, culturally connected and open to new ideas. That's the kind of brand I've always wanted to build.
Discover BOTARI
From its Korean beauty roots to its London-inspired design perspective, BOTARI is building a brand around the idea that everyday care can be both practical and pleasurable. With hand care as its starting point and new possibilities in beauty and wellness on the horizon, Molly Park's vision is to create products people trust and a creative world they want to return to.
Follow BOTARI's journey and discover its approach to modern K-beauty and everyday rituals.
