NCT Taeyong Is the Face of This Pharma-Born Eye Serum Stick

Korean pharmaceutical companies have been quietly building serious skincare brands for a few years now, and this year they stopped being quiet about it. HK InoEn tapped NCT leader Taeyong as the campaign face for Bionts' Peptide-X Firming Eye Serum Stick — a move that signals the brand is done playing it safe and is going directly after the 20s-30s skincare crowd.

The Bionts brand is positioned as a slow-aging skincare line targeting that exact demographic, and the Peptide-X Firming Eye Serum Stick is its flagship product. The Taeyong campaign dropped off the back of the product crossing a sales milestone, so this isn't a soft launch moment — the brand is using the momentum to lock in its market position.

Bionts isn't the only pharma-backed brand making noise right now. Here's the broader picture of what's moving in this space:

• Bionts (HK InoEn) — Peptide-X Firming Eye Serum Stick: The hero product that earned Taeyong as its face. Slow-aging positioning, built for the 2030 generation. The stick format is practical for on-the-go use around the eye area.

• Dinsi (Yuhan Corporation) — NMN Retinal Slow-Aging Pink Volume Serum: Actress Jeon Yeo-been is the brand model for this one. Dinsi leans into premium vegan credentials and pharmaceutical-grade quality control. The brand also just ran a collaboration with a Vietnamese mega-influencer, so Southeast Asian rollout is clearly in the plan.

• Pation (Dong-A Pharmaceutical) — Noscarnine Trouble Trace Ampoule / Pore Elasticity Cream sets: Trouble-care specialist brand that went into Daiso with a dedicated line and also landed a spot in Korean military base (PX) retail. That PX placement is genuinely interesting — it's a captive, brand-loyal audience and a distribution channel most beauty brands can't access.

• Adesi (Hanmi Science): Newly launched premium derma-cosmetic brand built around a patented ingredient complex called H-EGTI — a combination of the natural amino acid EGT (antioxidant) and the plant-derived flavonoid Resistress. The science-forward angle is the whole identity here.

The established trio in this pharma-beauty space — Hugel (Wellage), Pharma Research (Rejuran Cosmetic), and Dongkook Pharmaceutical (Centellian24) — have been pulling strong numbers, which is exactly why the second wave of companies is moving fast. The category is real, the consumer appetite for derma-backed formulas is real, and the idol ambassador strategy is the clearest signal that these brands want mainstream beauty shelf space, not just pharmacy corners. Taeyong fronting an eye serum stick is the most visible proof point of that shift.