In March 2024, LG Household & Health Care put out a press release with an unusually specific number in it: 9.8 million bottles. Any History of Whoo review has to start there. That is how many Bichup Self-Generating Essences the brand had sold since the serum first appeared in September 2009, and the release was announcing that the bottle everyone knew was being retired for a fourth-generation formula built around NAD+. For a brand that trades on Joseon court records and gilt phoenix lids, it was a very modern kind of announcement.
That is the tension worth understanding before anyone gets to textures. This is a department-store brand that dresses its jars as national treasures, and at the same time it is the research-heavy end of Korea's second-largest cosmetics group. Both halves are real. Which one you are paying for depends on which line you pick up.
For readers in Australia and New Zealand who already know their way around a Korean essence, the question is not whether Whoo is prestigious. It plainly is. The question is which of its many lines earns the space in a routine that also has to cope with UV index 11 summers and heated offices in June.
In short
The History of Whoo is LG Household & Health Care's luxury department-store brand, launched in 2003 and built on Joseon court records and the Gongjinbidan herbal complex.
Start with the Bichup serum, renewed in March 2024 as the Bichup Ultimate Recovery Youth Serum around NAD+; Gongjinhyang is the signature line and Cheongidan the tier above.
Scented formulas, rich upper tiers and luxury pricing are the three things to weigh; oilier skin should stay with Bichup and Gongjinhyang:Soo.
Where Whoo sits in Korea
The History of Whoo launched in January 2003 as LG H&H's luxury department-store line, and it has never left that floor. In Korea it is sold through the brand's own online store and department-store counters.
The sales history explains why LG H&H keeps investing in it. Annual sales passed 100 billion won in 2009, 800 billion in 2015 and one trillion won in 2016, which at the time made Whoo only the second Korean single cosmetics brand to reach that mark, after Sulwhasoo. Two years later, in 2018, Korean business press reported it had become the first Korean cosmetics brand to clear two trillion won in a single year. Much of that growth came from China, where the brand opened in 2006, and from Korea's duty-free halls, where Wikipedia records it as the highest-selling brand in the major stores.
Then came the pivot. In June 2023 the brand launched its Royal Regina line and, with it, a redesign that dropped the Chinese characters and literal palace motifs from the packaging in favour of a plain English "Whoo" wordmark. An LG H&H spokesperson told the Korea JoongAng Daily the new line was aimed at North America and global markets. If you have seen both the gold-and-red jars and the newer, cleaner boxes on the same shelf, that is why.
What The History of Whoo is actually built on
The name is the first clue. Whoo is the character for a queen, and LG H&H describes the brand as being built on the court culture of Joseon's queens rather than on a single plant. The company says its researchers went through hundreds of classical texts on royal medicine before the 2003 launch, and the packaging keeps quoting the museum: the essence bottle references a white porcelain jar registered as Korean Treasure No. 1055, and the Hwanyugo cream jar takes its phoenix from a gilt-bronze incense burner listed as National Treasure No. 287.
Underneath the story is a herbal complex the brand calls Gongjinbidan. According to LG H&H it is the brand's reinterpretation of prescriptions recorded for the royal court, and when the Gongjinhyang line was renewed in 2011 the company described it as a six-herb blend that includes angelica root, deer antler and cornus fruit, with agarwood added that year. This is Hanbang in the literal sense: prepared herbal ingredients, not a single isolated active.
The Gongjinhyang line is where that complex shows up most plainly. The Inyang Balancer and Lotion are the toner-and-emulsion pair, Qi&Jin is the cream tier, and there are spin-offs for hydration (Soo) and brightening (Seol). It is the brand's signature range and its most traditional in feel. For anyone who wants Whoo without the Bichup outlay, it is the natural alternative.
The lines that matter, and the one everyone buys
Whoo's catalogue is wide, and most of it is not worth learning. Three tiers do the work.
Bichup is the hero line. Its serum, launched in 2009 as the Bichup Self-Generating Essence, held first place in Korea's prestige anti-ageing essence category for six straight years from 2011, according to LG H&H, and had sold 4.5 million units by late 2016. The March 2024 renewal, sold internationally as the Bichup Ultimate Recovery Youth Serum, is the fourth generation of the same product and the biggest change since it launched. LG H&H says it spent ten years on an ingredient it calls NAD Power24, that it gives NAD+ five times the stability of the raw coenzyme, and that the new serum contains it at 10%. A companion NAD Power Ampoule followed. Whether or not you care about NAD+, the practical point is that the serum you buy today is not the one reviewed in 2019, and older listings still carry the old name.
Cheongidan sits above Bichup. The Hwahyun cream and its gold ampoule are the tier's main products, and Cheongidan Hwahyun sets sold more than 240,000 units in a single Chinese shopping festival in 2019. It has since been renewed as the New Cheongidan Hwahyun Rejuvenating Pro-Radiance Cream, so two versions currently circulate. Above that again is Hwanyu, with the incense-burner jar, and Cheonyuldan. These are rich, occasion-grade creams, and nobody needs them to understand the brand.
Royal Regina, the 2023 line, is the outlier. Same company, but with the modern packaging and an "Energetic" naming scheme built for export counters. What LG H&H has said publicly about it concerns the design and the target markets, not a new herbal philosophy. If the gold jars put you off, this is the one to look at.
How it layers, and who it suits in Australia
The Bichup serum is the one product that fits a routine you already have. It is a serum, not a cream, so it goes on after toner and before moisturiser, and it sits under sunscreen without argument. LG H&H frames the 2024 formula around supporting the skin's barrier day and night, which is a sensible brief for a country where the day starts with UV and ends with air-conditioning. Pair it with a lighter cream in summer and something from Gongjinhyang or Cheongidan in the June-to-August months, when Melbourne and Christchurch bathrooms get properly dry.
Sunscreen is the one category where the usual advice (buy the Korean version) does not hold. Whoo does make them: the UV Ultimate range, SPF50+ PA++++ as labelled in Korea. It is a small part of the catalogue, though, and in Australia sunscreens are regulated by the TGA, so a local bottle is the one to use every day. Treat it as a curiosity, not the reason to shop the brand.
Oilier and combination skin should look hardest at Bichup and Gongjinhyang:Soo and leave Cheongidan and Hwanyu on the shelf. The upper tiers sit at the rich end of the range, and richness is not what a humid Brisbane February asks for.
Who should skip it
Anyone who wants an unscented routine. Agarwood, an ingredient long prized for its scent, was added to Gongjinhyang in 2011, and if a scented Sulwhasoo already bothers you, Whoo will not be gentler on that front.
Anyone on a tight budget, too. Even the lower tiers are priced as luxury, and a cheaper Korean essence with a clear NAD+ or ginseng claim will get a beginner most of the way.
And anyone who wants a quick verdict on "Whoo versus Sulwhasoo". They are different companies with different ideas: one is a scholar's ginseng brand, the other is a queen's cabinet. This site's Sulwhasoo review covers the other side; read both and pick the philosophy that suits your skin, not the packaging.
Where to start
Start with the serum, and start small if you can.
- The History of Whoo Bichup Self-Generating Anti-Aging Special Kit (5 Items): the trial set is the cheapest way to find out whether the Bichup texture and fragrance suit you before committing to a full bottle.
- The History of Whoo Bichup Ultimate Recovery Youth Serum 50ml: the current fourth-generation hero, and the single product that justifies the brand for most people.
- The History of Whoo Gongjinhyang Inyang Balancer 150ml: the signature-line toner, and the least expensive way to get the Gongjinbidan complex into a routine.
- The History of Whoo Cheongidan Hwahyun Radiant Regenerating Cream 60ml: only for dry or mature skin, and only once the serum has earned its place.
