Born in Korea, Raised in France — Then She Came Back
SEOUL — For Marie Perruchet, returning to South Korea was never simply a trip back to the country where she was born.
She was adopted overseas at just 18 months old and raised in Normandy, France, growing up without the Korean language, traditions and beauty rituals that might otherwise have connected her to her birthplace.
Years later, after living in 10 countries, working as a BBC correspondent and spending time in Silicon Valley, Perruchet eventually returned to Korea — this time not as a child looking for the home she remembered, but as an adult discovering a culture that had always been part of her story.
That journey would eventually inspire Clapoti, the wellness company she founded in 2022.
The brand describes its identity as “loved in Paris and perfected by Korean heritage,” bringing together Korean manufacturing expertise, French approaches to scent and sensory experience, and an American preference for functional, straightforward design.
When Self-Care Became Part of Finding Home
Perruchet’s relationship with beauty and wellness was shaped long before she became an entrepreneur.
Growing up in France, she recalled rarely seeing herself represented in beauty magazines. She also encountered products and styling experiences that did not always account for different skin tones or hair types.
Her international life exposed her to other approaches.
In India, she encountered reflexology and treatments centered on the feet, circulation and tension. Her experiences in California introduced her to a more ethnically diverse beauty environment.
Travel, she said, changed not only how she understood different cultures but also how she experienced her own body.
The result was an increasingly global view of self-care — one that did not fit neatly into a single country’s definition of beauty or wellness.
The Pandemic Changed the Way She Saw Wellness
The COVID-19 pandemic added another dimension to that journey.
With spas and professional beauty services becoming less accessible, home-based self-care became more important.
For Perruchet, the experience reinforced the idea that wellness products could be designed around everyday rituals rather than occasional visits to a professional service.
That thinking became part of the foundation for Clapoti.
Instead of treating wellness as something tied exclusively to luxury or specialized settings, the brand developed around products intended to bring elements of that experience into people’s daily routines.
Clapoti Becomes a Meeting Point of Three Cultures
Perruchet’s background is reflected directly in how she approaches the company.
Korea contributes manufacturing expertise and a connection to her birth heritage.
France brings the sensory and fragrance traditions she encountered while growing up.
The United States influences the brand’s emphasis on practical, functional packaging.
Rather than choosing one identity, Clapoti was built around the idea that different cultural influences can coexist within the same product and business.
That mirrors Perruchet’s own life.
She grew up in one country, was born in another and spent adulthood moving across different parts of the world.
Her business ultimately became another expression of that multicultural identity.
More Than a Beauty Story
Perruchet’s story also reflects a wider shift in the wellness industry, where consumers increasingly look for products connected to personal identity, cultural experience and everyday rituals.
For a founder with such an unusual personal journey, the concept of “home” carries a different meaning.
South Korea was her birthplace, but it was not the place where she learned to be Korean.
Her connection to the country developed later, through travel, discovery and entrepreneurship.
That distinction gives Clapoti’s story an unusual dimension: the brand is not simply selling a wellness concept inspired by Korea. It emerged partly from its founder’s attempt to understand her own relationship with the country.
Finding Identity Through Entrepreneurship
Perruchet’s journey illustrates how cultural identity can evolve rather than remain fixed.
Her story stretches from adoption and childhood in France to journalism, international travel, Silicon Valley and eventually entrepreneurship in Korea.
Along the way, experiences that once seemed disconnected — beauty, travel, cultural differences and self-care — became pieces of the same story.
Clapoti represents that convergence.
It is a wellness brand shaped by multiple cultures, but its deeper story is personal: a woman born in Seoul eventually returning to Korea and building something that connects the different worlds that shaped her.
She left Korea as an infant. Decades later, she returned with no childhood memories of the country — and ended up building a business that helped turn that complicated journey into something entirely her own.
The question now is where that cross-cultural story goes next.
WWC ONE MEDIA G,A
