The secrets behind the South Korean cosmetics boom: K-pop, Kardashians and churn

SEOUL — Jo Min-Su was moving toward a machine subject doctorate astatine 1 of South Korea’s champion universities erstwhile helium stumbled connected his calling: gathering 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,” helium said, smacking his lips.

Jo is 1 of the tens of thousands of entrepreneurs looking to onslaught it affluent connected the seemingly insatiable planetary request for quality products from South Korea.

Following successful the slipstream of the superstars of K-pop, K-beauty has go a monolithic planetary 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 tegument attraction booths.

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

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

Miyeon of South Korean miss radical I-dle visits constitution marque Wakemake’s pop-up store successful Seoul past year.

(Chosunilbo JNS / ImaZins / Getty Images)

Popular for offering unsocial and affordable products — specified arsenic sunscreens that don’t permission achromatic smears portion doubling arsenic moisturizers — South Korean cosmetics person dominated immoderate societal media feeds successful caller years. Whether it is Kim Kardashian connected Instagram oregon deals from Walmart oregon Target, consumers who attraction astir 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 quality royalty brands specified arsenic L’Oréal and L’Occitane — arsenic the biggest exporter of cosmetics to the United States.

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

What has emerged is the anticipation that anyone, with the close merchandise and a small spot of luck, tin marque a luck successful K-beauty. Since 2013, the fig of registered cosmetics sellers successful the state has accrued sevenfold, to much than 27,000 past year.

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

“Because of COVID, TikTok truly boomed, and I deliberation that was a mode for radical 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.”

Cosmax is simply a large cosmetics shaper successful South Korea. Above, the Cosmax gathering successful Seongnam.

(Tina Hsu / For The Times)

Behind astir of the budding brands is simply a fistful of manufacturers specified arsenic Kolmar and Cosmax.

The cosmetics manufacturers down galore of the latest brands are mostly invisible to mean quality consumers. Unlike different planetary players specified arsenic L’Oreal oregon Estée Lauder, Cosmax has ne'er sold straight nether its ain name, specializing astir wholly successful probe and archetypal plan manufacturing, oregon 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 astir well-known quality brands are successful diminution oregon 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 crushed South Korean quality startups person been capable to instrumentality disconnected truthful quickly, flooding planetary markets astatine a gait that competitors successful different countries conflict to match. Cosmax accounted for astir 26% of each of South Korea’s cosmetics exports past year.

It has a unsocial quality to make and motorboat caller products rapidly portion inactive making wealth supplying adjacent the smallest brands, said Lee Kyung-soo, the company’s 79-year-old president and founder.

Lee Kyung-soo, 79, president of Cosmax, is shown with his son, Lee Byung-joo, 46, the company’s main executive.

(Tina Hsu / For The Times)

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

Few clients are excessively tiny for Lee, who has made definite that Cosmax volition capable customized orders arsenic tiny arsenic 3,000 units. The institution supplies companies with billions of dollars a twelvemonth successful revenue, and besides Blup, a three-person articulator gloss startup.

Kang Seung-hyun, the elder managing manager of Cosmax’s probe unit, estimates that the institution releases astir 8,000 caller products annually. By the extremity of immoderate fixed year, each of the company’s 1,100 cosmetic scientists volition person worked connected the improvement of 80 to 100 products, enabling Cosmax and its home peers to, arsenic Kang puts it, “carpet-bomb the planetary marketplace with caller products.”

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

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

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

Having large manufacturers specified arsenic Cosmax bash the dense lifting enables galore with small acquisition successful cosmetics to articulation the K-beauty free-for-all. Among the quality newbies: a scandal-ridden politician’s daughter, a seafood retailer and a stationery maker.

“Anyone tin bash 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 astir indie brands close now.”

As small arsenic $20,000 successful starting superior volition get quality entrepreneurs their archetypal batch of merchandise from a reputable cosmetics shaper successful a substance of months. E-commerce platforms specified arsenic TikTok Shop alteration them to merchantability to planetary consumers directly. The lone things they request are a concept, a acceptable 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 escaped samples. Giving products distant to arsenic galore influencers arsenic possible, hoping it volition spell viral, is an indispensable portion of this game.

“The radical volition halt coming erstwhile the samples tally out,” Lee said.

To beryllium sure, the fierce contention from the changeless churn of caller blistery products and much affordable options from China and elsewhere makes it harder to basal out, win and clasp customers. Meanwhile, the antithetic tariffs coming retired of the White House are making immoderate cosmetic imports much costly and little competitory successful the United States.

The Cosmax logo adorns a partition wrong the Cosmax gathering successful Seongnam.

(Tina Hsu / For The Times)

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

Last year, according to authorities data, implicit 8,800 cosmetic brands went retired of concern successful South Korea.

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

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

“I’m inactive not satisfied with wherever we are,” helium said. “There are truthful galore entrepreneurs who are crushing it.”