The Secrets Behind The South Korean Cosmetics Boom: K-pop, Kardashians And Churn - Beritaja

SEOUL — Jo Min-Su was moving toward a machine subject doctorate astatine 1 of South Korea’s champion universities erstwhile he stumbled connected his calling: building a amended articulator gloss.

The 30-year-old sat adjacent his booth astatine Seoul Beauty Week, pulled retired a instrumentality of his marque — named Blup — and gave his precocious articulator a dewy pinkish glow-up.

“Nobody trusts a laminitis who doesn’t usage his ain product,” he said, smacking his lips.

Jo is 1 of the tens of thousands of entrepreneurs looking to onslaught it rich | connected the seemingly insatiable world request for beauty products from South Korea.

Following successful the slipstream of the superstars of K-pop, K-beauty has go a monolithic world business.

Los Angeles fans of South Korean imports flocked to KCON LA 2025 astatine the L.A. Convention Center successful August. At the euphony and taste festival, they saw apical K-pop idols and lined up for K-beauty astatine skin-care booths.

The three-day normal — which had much than 350 booths and attracted much than 100,000 group from about L.A. and the state — was sponsored by South Korean wellness and beauty elephantine Olive Young, which plans to unfastened its first U.S. outlet successful L.A. early adjacent year.

The concealed of K-beauty’s occurrence has been the improbable confederation of large manufacturers and mini entrepreneurs to create and proviso a dependable watercourse of caller products to consumers and the “skinfluencers” who thief them fastener successful connected the latest lotions.

Miyeon of (G)i—Dle attends constitution marque Wakemake’s pop-up shop “Palette Universe” astatine Factorial Seongsu successful Seongdong-gu connected May 16, 2024 successful Seoul.

(The Chosunilbo JNS / ImaZins via Getty Images)

Popular for offering unsocial and affordable products — for illustration sunscreens that don’t time off achromatic smears while doubling arsenic moisturizers — South Korean cosmetics person dominated immoderate societal media feeds successful caller years. Whether it is Kim Kardashian connected Instagram aliases deals from Walmart aliases Target, consumers who attraction about cosmetics are getting changeless updates connected the ever-changing trends.

That online buzz has catapulted South Korea’s cosmetics exports to much than $10 billion. Last year, it dethroned France — location of beauty royalty brands specified arsenic L’Oréal and L’Occitane — arsenic the biggest exporter of cosmetics to the U.S.

Unlike South Korea’s different marquee exports for illustration semiconductors and automobiles, beauty merchandise exports are mostly backed by smaller companies. Two-thirds of past year’s cosmetics exports came from mini and medium-sized firms for illustration Blup, according to the Korea International Trade Assn.

What has emerged is the dream that anyone, pinch the correct merchandise and a small spot of luck, could make a luck successful K-beauty. Since 2013, the number of registered cosmetics sellers successful the state has accrued sevenfold, to complete 27,000 past year.

The K-beauty inclination took disconnected successful Los Angeles and crossed the state during COVID-19 erstwhile group were locked astatine home, online, reasoning about self-care and exploring alternatives to well-known brands, said Sarah Chung Park, the laminitis and main executive of Landing International, an L.A.-based institution that connects K-beauty brands to American retailers.

“Because of COVID, TikTok really boomed, and I deliberation that was a measurement for group to observe K-beauty brands and past those brands went connected Amazon and converted that virality to sales,” she said. “Pretty overmuch each Korean marque has capitalized connected that.”

The Cosmax building successful Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

(Tina Hsu / For The Times)

Behind about of the budding brands is simply a fistful of manufacturers specified arsenic Colmar and Cosmax.

The cosmetics manufacturers down galore of the latest brands are mostly invisible to mean beauty consumers. Unlike different world players for illustration L’Oreal aliases Estée Lauder, Cosmax has ne'er sold straight nether its ain name, specializing almost wholly successful investigation and original creation manufacturing, aliases ODM.

Cosmax was founded successful 1992 and has grown into the largest cosmetics ODM successful the world, supplying 4,500 brands from its factories successful South Korea, China, the U.S. and Southeast Asia. And astatine a clip erstwhile immoderate of the about well-known beauty brands are successful diminution aliases stuck successful single-digit maturation owed to user fatigue, Cosmax reported a grounds $1.7 cardinal successful gross past twelvemonth — a 22% summation from 2023.

The institution is simply a superior logic why South Korean beauty startups person been capable to return disconnected truthful quickly, flooding world markets astatine a gait that competitors successful different countries struggle to match. Cosmax accounted for about 26% of each of South Korea’s cosmetics exports past year.

It has a unsocial expertise to create and motorboat caller products quickly while still making money supplying moreover the smallest brands, said Lee Kyung-soo, the company’s 79-year-old president and founder.

Lee Kyung-soo, 79, president of Cosmax, pinch his son, Lee Byung-joo, 46, main executive of the company.

(Tina Hsu / For The Times)

“From the constituent a marque comes to america pinch an idea, we could proviso them successful arsenic small arsenic 3 to six months,” he said. “In different markets, that could beryllium anyplace betwixt a twelvemonth to 3 years. They conscionable can’t compete pinch South Korea erstwhile it comes to speed.”

Few clients are excessively mini for Lee, who has made judge that Cosmax will capable civilization orders arsenic mini arsenic 3,000 units. The institution supplies companies pinch billions of dollars a twelvemonth successful revenue, and besides Blup, a three-person articulator gloss startup.

Kang Seung-hyun, the elder managing head of Cosmax’s investigation unit, estimates that the institution releases about 8,000 caller products annually. By the extremity of immoderate fixed year, each of the company’s 1,100 cosmetic scientists will person worked connected the improvement of 80 to 100 cosmetic products, allowing Cosmax and its home peers to, arsenic Kang puts it, “carpet-bomb the world marketplace pinch caller products.”

Bottles of different shades of instauration connected a support successful a room that showcases products that the institution has manufactured for brands and besides newer products developed by researchers astatine the COSMAX building successful Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, connected Wednesday, August 20, 2025. (Tina Hsu/For The Times)

Kang Seung-hyun, 54, elder managing head of the R&I center, stands for a image astatine the COSMAX offices successful Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, connected Wednesday, August 20, 2025. (Tina Hsu/For The Times)

The database of Korean beauty trends that person been adopted arsenic staples about the world is long: BB creams, ampoules, look masks and pimple patches.

Having large manufacturers for illustration Cosmax do the dense lifting allows galore pinch small acquisition successful cosmetics to subordinate the K-beauty free-for-all. Among the beauty newbies: a scandal-ridden politician’s daughter, a seafood retailer and a stationery-maker.

“Anyone could do it. The obstruction to introduction isn’t precocious astatine all,” said Lee Sun-young, the laminitis of fruit-based cosmetics startup Kikiglow. “And the marketplace is each about indie brands correct now.”

As small arsenic $20,000 successful starting superior will get beauty entrepreneurs their first batch of merchandise from a reputable cosmetics shaper successful a matter of months. E-commerce platforms for illustration TikTok Shop let them to waste to world consumers directly. The only things they request are a concept, a group of thumbs and a knack for societal media.

Inside the normal hall, Kikiglow’s booth was swarmed by influencers wielding camera sticks arsenic they lined up for free samples. Giving merchandise distant to arsenic galore influencers arsenic possible, hoping it will spell viral, is an basal portion of this game.

“The group will extremity coming erstwhile the samples tally out,” she said.

To beryllium sure, the fierce title from the changeless churn of caller basking products and much affordable options from China and elsewhere makes it harder to guidelines out, win and clasp customers. Meanwhile, the different tariffs coming retired of the White House are making immoderate cosmetic imports much costly and little competitory successful the U.S.

The Cosmax logo connected a wall wrong the Cosmax building successful Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

(Tina Hsu / For The Times)

“In the past, consumers would instrumentality pinch a marque for 10 years aliases truthful and go highly loyal,” said B.J. Lee, who runs Cosmax’s business successful the U.S. and is simply a boy of the founder. “But pinch K-beauty, the ups and downs are extreme. New brands are coming retired each the time, and group are perpetually chasing the adjacent breathtaking thing.”

Last year, according to authorities data, complete 8,800 cosmetic brands went retired of business.

Against specified headwinds, Blup’s trading constituent is that it could get the colors of articulator glosses conscionable right, utilizing artificial intelligence to analyse user preferences and tegument tones.

The institution is connected way to grounds about $100,000 successful income by the extremity of the twelvemonth and has plans to grow successful Japan, Jo said.

“I’m still not satisfied pinch wherever we are,” he said. “There are truthful galore entrepreneurs who are crushing it.”