Rooted in Japanese tradition
OUR LOVE OF JAPANESE BEAUTY FOR OVER 100 YEARS.
KITAO has been a leader in cosmetics industry since in 1919. For over a century, we’ve made it our mission to provide skincare that is clean, organic, and true to our Japanese roots.
1919 Â START OF OUR LEGACY
Our founder, Kunishiro Kawabata, began in the cosmetics industry in
Japan over a century ago. We got our start in the Japanese beauty scene with talcum powders + cosmetic creams and have been improving our skincare formulas ever since.
1921 Â EXPANDING INTERNATIONALLY
Just two years later, we were already ready to join the foreign trade market and began shipping products to customers worldwide.
1930-1933 BECOMING KITAO + OVERSEAS
A decade after opening our doors, we officially established ourselves as Kitao Cosmetics Co. (a name you may recognize now as our parent company in Japan), and opened our first cosmetics factory in overseas
1972 BRANCHING OUT TO MANUFACTURING
After half a century of improving our own formulas, we realized we could further share our magic by opening a cosmetics outsourcing company, BISHO Chemical Co. With the opening of BISHO, we found other cosmetics companies were just as excited to work with us as our loyal customers had been for the past 50+ years.
1988 AWARD-WINNING LEADERS IN THE INDUSTRY
Kitao’s longstanding excellence in the Japanese cosmetics industry was honored with an award from the Governor of Osaka Prefecture, Mr. Masaru Kishi, in recognition of our decades of contributions to advancements in the pharmaceutical and health sectors.
2000 A NEW CHAPTER IN BEAUTY INNOVATION
In 2020, Kitao Cosmetics expanded into nail care by founding Groove Inc., bringing over a century of beauty expertise to this new venture. With innovative brands like Weekly Gel, a revolutionary DIY gel nail line, Groove Inc. represents our commitment to evolving with the needs of our customers.
2019 100 YEAR CELEBRATIONÂ + ULTA BEAUTY
We celebrated our 100th birthday the best way we know how- Getting more products we love to our customers who have followed us on our journey! In 2019, we launched our Kitao products at Ulta Beauty and expanded our Kitao family even further.
