Coming home through self-care: How a Korean adoptee built a wellness brand between cultures

Marie Perruchet was born in Seoul, but Korea was not the place that taught her how to be Korean. Sent overseas for adoption at 18 months and raised in Normandy, France, Perruchet grew up without the language, traditions or beauty rituals of her birth country. She later lived in 10 countries, worked as a correspondent for the BBC and spent years in Silicon Valley before eventually returning to Korea as an entrepreneur. When she arrived, she was not coming back to a childhood home. She was discovering one. That experience became part of the story behind Clapoti, the wellness brand she founded in 2022. She describes it as "loved in Paris and perfected by Korean heritage," incorporating Korean manufacturing innovation, French sensory and scent tradition and an American instinct for functional, no-nonsense packaging. Perruchet's relationship with beauty had already been shaped by moving between cultures. Growing up in France, she said she rarely saw herself represented in beauty magazines. Some products weren't designed for her skin tone, and she remembered a stylist admitting she didn't know