Technology behind 6,000 mascara brush designs ... B&B Company sets its sights on global markets

【Daejeon = Reporter Lee Ju-mi】“A brush’s shape and processing method affect how smoothly a product applies and how well it curls. Drawing on manufacturing know-how accumulated over many years, we focus on making products that other companies cannot easily imitate.”
B&B Company, which began by manufacturing interdental brushes and medical brushes, is targeting the global cosmetics market with the technology it has built up over 28 years. It is expanding its business, including by launching its own cosmetics brand, drawing on its manufacturing capabilities developed through supplying mascara brushes to global cosmetics brands.
At a press conference held at the company’s headquarters in Yuseong District, Daejeon, on the 10th, B&B Company CEO Park Mi-suk said, “From mascaras for luxury brands to medical sampling brushes, we have exported thousands of types of brushes to companies around the world over 28 years, continually advancing our manufacturing technology.”
Founded in 1998, B&B Company grew on the strength of its medical and industrial brush manufacturing. It produced collection brushes used in cervical cancer screenings and brushes for cleaning endoscopes, among other products, and exported them to the United States, Canada and elsewhere. As low-priced Chinese products later entered the market and price competition intensified, the company moved to diversify its business. It entered the mascara brush market, where it could put its existing brush-making technology to use.
A deal with a well-known Japanese cosmetics company proved to be a turning point. The company built trust by meeting demanding quality standards and used that as a springboard to expand its client base to global cosmetics companies in Europe, the United States and elsewhere. Mascara brushes now account for about 60% of its total sales, with the rest coming from medical and dental brushes, among other products.
B&B Company’s competitive edge lies in its diverse brush designs and secondary-processing technology. A mascara brush’s performance—including how smoothly cosmetics apply and how much they clump—varies according to the thickness, elasticity and arrangement of its nylon bristles. After standard machine production, the company uses secondary-processing technology to shape brushes into a range of forms, including triangles and squares.
CEO Park explained, “We have at least 6,000 designs in mass production alone, and currently supply at least 30 designs overseas. We design products to meet orders from luxury cosmetics brands and put them through multiple rounds of testing.”
In 2023, the company also launched its own brand, Quietone. Although it was initially launched with overseas markets in mind, it first gained traction in South Korea. Starting with a listing at the Incheon International Airport duty-free shop, the brand has expanded to the OLIVE YOUNG online mall, MUSINSA and other outlets. It is also available on Amazon in the United States and at H Mart, and the company is working with local distributors to expand into the U.S. offline market. It plans to broaden the lineup with eye makeup products such as eyebrow products.
Quietone’s sales have increased by about 60% this year compared with when it launched in 2023. Building on that growth, the company is targeting total sales of at least 7 billion won this year.
CEO Park emphasized, “We will uphold our management principles of putting trust, quality and people first, grow our own brand, and become a company recognized in global markets.”
[email protected] Lee Ju-mi Reporter