Speaking to NutraIngredients-Asia, CEO Yanghee Paik said that the goal was to provide solutions to women throughout their 28-day menstrual cycle. The firm’s target audience are young professionals and young mothers in their 20s to 30s.
“Rael is positioned as a holistic cycle care company, and we’re on a mission to empower women by providing all the solutions that women need throughout the hormonal cycle,” said Paik.
Today, the company is not only well-known for its organic sanitary pads but is also seeing strong market response for its two-year old health supplement arm.
Hormonal Balance Supplement powder and Vaginal Health Probiotic capsules, for instance, are some of its popular products in South Korea and the US where it currently sells its supplement products.
The former is formulated with myo-inositol, D-chiro inositol, folic acid that promotes healthy hormone levels for regular menstrual cycles, ovarian support, and balanced skin.
The latter contains five clinically-studied Lactobacillus strains and claims to balance healthy vaginal and gut microbiome, as well as supporting urinary tract health.
The strains used include Lactobacillus acidopilus La-14, Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001, Lactobacillus casei Lc-11, Lactobacillus gasseri Lg-36, and Lactobacillus acidopilus NCFM.
In South Korea where it debuted its supplement business back in October 2022, Paik said that the positive uptake of its health supplements could be attributed to consumer trust in the company as a reputable feminine care business.
“Because we have been a leader in addressing feminine care, hygiene and skincare in a very innovative way, people gave us a lot of trust when we came up with supplement items,” she said.
She also observes that South Korea is a well-educated market in terms of women’s health supplements.
On social media, including TikTok where the company has about half a million followers, some of the common women’s health concerns raised include irregular menstrual cycles, menstrual cramps, and bloating.
These also served as inspirations for new product development.
“Although we sell products, a lot of our customers also see us as a knowledge resource. They ask a lot of questions without any shame about their periods and what they have to put through during the hormonal cycle and those are the inspirations for us to continue the innovation.”
How it started
Co-founded by Paik and two other Korean Americans in 2017, the California-based firm was first set up to address the market gaps for sanitary pads made with organic and highly absorbent cotton.
The concept was a success, with major stockists across the US onboard, including Amazon, Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, and Ulta Beauty.
Across Asia-Pacific, the products have also made its way into South Korea’s Naver, Olive Young, Singapore and Malaysia’s Watsons, Shopee, Lazada, Japan’s Qoo10, and Thailand’s Lazada and Shopee.
To expand the business, it started exploring the areas where it could support a woman throughout her menstrual cycle.
“We looked at these four different phases of hormonal cycle, and then looked at all the troubles, concerns, like challenges women go through because of the hormonal changes that are happening inside their bodies.”
From then on, the company developed feminine hygiene, skincare products such as pimple patches to help their customers cope with hormonal acne break-outs.
In late 2022, the company debut its health supplements in South Korea, before launching the products in the US in January this year.
“The natural move was to get into supplements, because we wanted to address women’s wellness from a 360-degree approach,” said Paik.
Asked if the company would go into other areas such as menopause, Paik said that that could be “one of the areas for exploration” and the firm would continue to centre its activities around women’s health.
