Sharing Beauty Since 1872







Being beautiful on the outside fills you with confidence. Spirit. And vitality.
But real beauty lives within. From outside in and from inside out, when the two connect, your world blooms, expands, takes on new dimensions and new energy. It soars to new heights.

It becomes #ALIVEwithBeauty.

By fusing the most brilliant science with the most profound art, we create skincare that promises healthy, vibrant skin and makeup brimming with textures and colors as expressive as you.
Skincare and makeup that harmonize inner and outer beauty to make you feel truly alive.

The Origin of Our Name

Arinobu Fukuhara recognized that there is immense power in a name. The right name has the power to stand the test of time and it has an almost unique ability to inspire everyone who encounters it.

Arinobu took the name Shiseido from a passage in the Chinese Yi Jing (or I Ching), an ancient text that has been used for divination purposes for thousands of years. Shiseido means: Do (堂): "house of”, Shi Sei (資生): “where everything is born.”

In its entirety, the passage in Yi Jing reads: “Praise the virtues of the earth, that is where anything and everything is born from.” Even today, the name Shiseido still perfectly embodies our commitment to leading beauty innovation by combining the best of Western science with Eastern wisdom.

The Story Behind Our Camellia Flower

The Camellia flower motif that’s synonymous with Shiseido was created by accomplished artist and photographer – and son of our founder – Shinzo Fukuhara when he became the first president of Shiseido in 1915.

Having studied art in Europe, Shinzo found himself endlessly inspired by Art Nouveau and its artistic interpretation of flowers and plants. His chosen subject, the Camellia flower (known in Japan as Hanatsubaki), is a beautiful flowering evergreen shrub boasting fiercely pigmented but delicately formed petals. Found mostly in eastern and southern Asia, the precious Camellia is representative of the strength and complexities we each have within us. To the Japanese people, the Camellia has long been a symbol of the divine and has played an integral role in our traditional ceremonies for hundreds of years. More than a century later, Shinzo’s Camellia flower design remains unchanged (despite a few subtle adjustments), a testament to his artistic vision and a symbol of our commitment to beauty.