Clöud Café and Ulta Beauty expand K-wellness offering with coffee-and-matcha retail partnership

Clöud Café is marking its first entry into a beauty retailer with Ulta Beauty, after previously being available only through DTC, Amazon, and select Asian marketplaces. The launch is positioned as the “first ever” coffee-and-matcha brand partnership within Wellness by Ulta Beauty.

Personal Care Insights sits down with Clöud Café founder and former CEO and co-founder of The Crème Shop, Olive Kim, to discuss how K-Beauty is moving beyond topical skin care into ingestible beauty and wellness. 

Clöud Café will debut at Ulta Beauty with flavors including Black Coffee, Strawberry, Matcha Latte, Royal Milk Tea, Strawberry Milk Zero, Vanilla Latte, and Hot Choco Zero. Additionally, the brand will debut two exclusive new flavors as part of this new retail partnership: Ube Latte and Pistachio Matcha. 

Clöud Café will be available to shop on the Ulta website on March 16, and in stores beginning March 29.

Korean beauty maintains momentum

Clöud Café sources its premium ingredients, such as collagen, from South Korea.With K-Beauty continuing to boom over the past few years, Clöud Café says it is excited to raise awareness of a new side of Korean beauty and wellness in Western markets.

US consumers have long looked to K-Beauty for topical products to achieve hydrated, clear skin—but that’s only half the equation. Dewy skin, luscious hair, and strong nails are not only achieved by the products used but also by what shoppers consume.

With beverages rooted in specialty-grade ingredients like marine collagen, hyaluronic acid, and multivitamin blends, Clöud Café elevates the supplement and consumables experience by focusing on taste and efficacy.

“In the Western market, there’s always been this ‘forgotten’ half to skin care and beauty — a lot of people still don’t realize that it’s not just about what you apply topically, but also what you put into your body,” says Kim.

“Ingestible collagen, hyaluronic acid, and multivitamins have far greater efficacy than topical application in skin care products,” she explains. 

“At the same time, I wanted to make collagen consumption as seamless and tasty as possible, so that it could be an easy no-brainer to integrate into your daily routine.”

Kim projects that the combined factors of taste, pricing, and wellness benefits of the Clöud Café product range will contribute significantly to repeat purchases.

Global influences 

During development, taste and texture were a challenge. And, according to Kim, many people may not know that South Korea is actually a top manufacturer of hydrolyzed coffee, she adds. 

“We drew heavily on this expertise and have tested hundreds of formulations to perfect a select group of flavors. The efficacy- and benefit-driven ingredients can often make products taste poor, but we’ve found the right balance within our assortment.”The launch is positioned as the “first ever” coffee-and-matcha brand partnership within Wellness by Ulta Beauty.

When asked what Clöud Café’s entry into Ulta Beauty signals about the convergence of beauty retail and ingestible wellness, Kim says that “in a lot of Asian countries, getting topical beauty/skin care products and wellness supplements in one place is already very common.”

“In the last couple of years, we’ve seen the wellness category (and K-Wellness especially) continue to expand in the US, especially in brick-and-mortar retail.”

Kim explains that well-known retail platforms such as Ulta Beauty help establish trust in new products.

“Consumers don’t always have the time to research new categories or emerging products, so they turn to trusted and reputable sources like Ulta Beauty to remove those barriers and make the process of discovery and shopping much easier,” Kim concludes. 

Korean beauty brands have been doubling down on their global expansion. The country’s cosmetic exports reached a record US$11.4 billion in 2025, up 12.3% from the 2024 record.