The US beauty industry is experiencing a rapid entry of K-beauty brands, and it is a growth that is fueled by a blend of cultural influence, advanced formulations, and an unparalleled understanding of the modern consumer. In a new report by Landing International, this second wave of K-beauty not only reshapes global beauty standards but is also redefining what it means to be a successful beauty brand in an increasingly competitive marketplace. It states that South Korea has now surpassed France as the top exporter of cosmetics to the US, with exports in the first quarter of 2024 reaching $477.1 million, capturing a market share of 20.1%. This is a staggering achievement, signaling a shift in global beauty dynamics, and it’s one that beauty executives cannot afford to ignore.
In this new era, K-beauty is no longer a niche and unfamiliar market. It has become a major player, driven by innovative formulations, digital-first marketing strategies, and immense cultural force, which encompasses K-pop, K-dramas, and other aspects of South Korean culture. With a projected global market value of $91.99 billion in 2022 and a compound annual growth rate of 9.3% through 2030, K-beauty is poised for continuous growth, particularly in North America. BeautyMatter delves further into this new report by Landing International—The Second Wave of K-beauty—using the following trends to highlight the strategic areas that beauty brands and executives need to understand if they wish to compete in this rapidly evolving landscape.
The Cultural Power of the Hallyu Wave: A Strategic Lever for K-Beauty
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One of the most significant drivers of K-beauty’s second wave is its connection to the broader Hallyu wave—the global phenomenon of South Korean cultural exports, including K-pop, K-dramas, K-movies, and K-food. The cultural significance of Hallyu has swept across the world, with South Korean music, film, and television becoming global staples. K-beauty, as part of this cultural package, benefits from this enormous international appeal.
Korean cultural products are expected to generate over $143 billion globally by 2030. This massive cultural shift provides a ready-made platform for K-beauty brands to ride the wave of South Korea’s global influence. K-pop, in particular, has played a crucial role in this expansion. Acts like BTS, BLACKPINK, and TWICE are not only global music superstars, but are also ambassadors of Korean lifestyle and beauty products. Their influence has made K-beauty accessible to millions of consumers who may not have initially been interested in skincare from Asia, but were drawn in through K-pop’s wide-reaching influence.
Beyond K-pop, K-dramas like Squid Game and Crash Landing on You have also played a major role in bringing K-beauty into the spotlight. These shows have attracted international audiences, leading to curiosity and eventual adoption of the beauty routines portrayed in the media, with the stars of these shows snagging ambassadorial deals. For example, Squid Games’s HoYeon Jung was named Louis Vuitton's Newest Global Ambassador, and is an ambassador for Lancôme. K-beauty brands like Sulwhasoo, HERA, Some By Mi, and many others, are capitalizing on this by using social media and influencers associated with these cultural phenomena to push their products globally.
Brand Takeaways: For the global beauty industry, the Hallyu wave presents a unique opportunity to tie K-beauty branding into broader cultural narratives. By positioning K-beauty products as part of a larger Korean cultural experience, brands can gain stronger consumer loyalty and engagement. This strategic move can go beyond simply marketing products, and involve collaborations with K-pop idols, using K-drama storylines, or even food-inspired beauty products that tap into the K-food craze. Brands that integrate these cultural elements effectively can create a more immersive consumer experience that goes beyond mere product functionality.
E-Commerce and the Amazon Effect: Redefining How Beauty Is Sold
As e-commerce continues to reshape the retail landscape, K-beauty brands have found significant success online, particularly through Amazon. The report showed that in 2023, K-beauty sales on Amazon surged by 78%, and in early 2024, they had already more than doubled from the same period the previous year. It shows that e-commerce platforms like Amazon are providing convenience, accessibility, and global reach for these brands.
Amazon has become a pivotal player in the global distribution of K-beauty products, enabling smaller brands to reach international markets without needing to establish a physical retail presence. Its “Project K-Beauty Go Big” scheme launched in 2024 aims to streamline the process for Korean beauty brands to sell on its platform. This initiative has drastically reduced logistical barriers, making it easier for even emerging brands to scale quickly and efficiently.
The importance of Amazon’s role cannot be overstated. By 2024, over 12% of the top 50 skincare products sold on Amazon were K-beauty brands, including well-known names like COSRX and BIODANCE. This dominance on Amazon is crucial because it highlights the shift in consumer shopping behavior—especially in the post-pandemic world where convenience, fast shipping, and wide availability have become key drivers of consumer choice.
Brand Takeaway: As sales in the beauty industry continues to be of key importance, understanding how to navigate and optimize e-commerce platforms like Amazon is essential for staying competitive. Brands need to invest in logistics, supply chain management, and digital marketing to ensure they can leverage Amazon’s massive reach effectively. Additionally, the rise of social commerce—wherein consumers discover products through social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube before purchasing them on e-commerce platforms—means a cohesive strategy across multiple online channels is crucial. Beauty players must ensure their brand presence on platforms like Amazon is aligned with their overall digital strategy, optimizing product listings, customer reviews, and influencer partnerships to drive sales.
Social Commerce and the TikTok Boom: Driving Engagement and Sales
One of the most transformative trends in K-beauty’s second wave is its reliance on social commerce, particularly on platforms like TikTok. TikTok has emerged as a leading platform for beauty discovery, and K-beauty has become a viral sensation there. According to Landing International’s report with data and search platform, Spate, searches for “Korean skincare” on TikTok have skyrocketed by 180% year-over-year, and hashtags like #kbeauty and #kbeautymakeup have accumulated billions of views. This massive growth in interest is not just driving awareness but also converting into direct sales.
TikTok’s algorithmic nature means that products can go viral overnight, leading to massive sales spikes. Brands like Anua and COSRX have seen tremendous growth, largely attributed to influencer-led TikTok campaigns. TikTok users—often influencers with niche audiences—demonstrate product application and effectiveness, generating trust and curiosity among viewers. In some cases, this has led to products selling out within hours after being featured in a viral TikTok video. In the third quarter of 2023, small- to medium-sized K-beauty brands reported a 79.1% increase in exports to the US, largely driven by social media marketing, with TikTok being the key platform. This surge in visibility through user-generated content and influencer reviews allows brands to bypass traditional marketing channels and connect directly with consumers.
Brand Takeaway: For brands, the implications of this trend are profound. Social commerce is no longer a supplementary marketing channel, but a primary driver of brand discovery and consumer engagement. Brands that fail to invest in TikTok strategies may risk being overshadowed by more agile competitors. Executives must develop integrated marketing plans that include partnerships with influencers, content creators, and beauty communities on TikTok. Furthermore, executives should consider experimenting with TikTok’s e-commerce tools, such as in-app shopping and TikTok Shops, to further streamline the consumer journey from discovery to purchase.
The Clean Beauty Movement: K-Beauty’s Commitment to Skin-Friendly Formulations
K-beauty has always been known for its innovation in skincare, but one of its most significant contributions to the global beauty landscape is its focus on clean, skin-friendly formulations. Consumers today are more educated than ever about what they put on their skin, and K-beauty has responded by prioritizing transparency, safety, and effectiveness in its product offerings. The CleanForMe analysis in collaboration with Landing International shows that 95% of K-beauty products are free from drying alcohols, 96% are aluminum-free, and 100% are paraben-free. It also showed that 98% are made without sulfates, 75% are made without known allergens, and 99.9% are talc-free.
K-beauty’s approach to clean beauty goes beyond avoiding harmful ingredients. It emphasizes natural, efficacious components like snail mucin, centella asiatica, and hyaluronic acid, which have been proven to deliver results without irritation. This focus on science-backed, nature-inspired ingredients has made K-beauty a leader in the clean beauty movement.
This demand for clean beauty, as it prepares the industry for a post-climate crisis world, is not just a consumer-driven trend, but also a strategic response to regulatory pressures in various markets. As clean beauty standards evolve globally, particularly in regions like the European Union, which has stringent regulations on cosmetic ingredients, K-beauty brands are well-positioned to meet these demands. Their long-standing commitment to safe, nontoxic formulations gives them an edge in a market that increasingly values sustainability and skin health.
Brand Takeaway: Beauty executives must recognize that clean beauty is no longer a niche category, but an actual industry standard. Companies like Sephora are raising the bar, and those that fail to adopt clean beauty practices risk losing consumer trust, particularly as younger generations demand greater transparency from the companies they support. For K-beauty brands, one of the challenges would be to continue innovating while adhering to clean beauty principles, ensuring that their products remain at the forefront of this movement.
The Retail Revolution: Online vs Physical
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As K-beauty continues to surge in popularity around the world, the way it’s revolutionizing retail is a standout factor in its success. Far from relying solely on online sales or niche beauty platforms, K-beauty, alongside other global brands, has strategically infiltrated both physical and digital retail channels, making its products accessible to a wide range of consumers. Although online shopping dominates physical retail stores, one of the key drivers of this retail revolution is K-beauty’s ability to blend the strengths of e-commerce with in-store retail experiences. According to this report, K-Beauty’s global retail strategy has allowed it to penetrate markets that were previously dominated by Western beauty brands, particularly in the US, which has now become one of K-beauty’s most significant consumer bases.
K-beauty’s retail revolution is highly visible through strategic partnerships with global retailers like Sephora, Ulta Beauty, and even mainstream stores like Target and Walmart. These collaborations have been instrumental in giving K-beauty brands the visibility and accessibility needed to compete in Western markets. For instance, Sephora’s K-Beauty section has become a staple of the store, featuring popular brands such as Laneige, COSRX, and Innisfree. These brands have capitalized on the retailer’s wide customer base while providing an immersive, educational experience through in-store demonstrations, beauty advisors, and personalized skincare recommendations.
While K-beauty shines in traditional retail spaces, its dominance in e-commerce is unparalleled. K-beauty brands have made significant strides in the online retail space, leveraging digital platforms like Amazon, Olive Young, YesStyle, and Soko Glam to reach a global audience. Amazon, in particular, has been a key player in K-beauty’s retail success. With the platform’s massive reach, K-beauty brands can enter new markets with relative ease, benefiting from the trust and convenience that Amazon offers consumers.
One of the unique aspects of K-beauty’s retail revolution is how brands have transformed the retail space into an educational platform. These brands provide in-depth consultations, in-store product testing, and skin analysis tools that offer personalized recommendations. This educational approach, combined with a commitment to high-quality, innovative formulations, sets K-beauty apart from other beauty segments that focus primarily on selling single, standalone products. By turning retail spaces into immersive experiences, K-beauty brands have built stronger connections with consumers. This level of engagement helps transform casual shoppers into loyal, repeat customers who value the educational aspect of their shopping experience.
Brand Takeaway: For beauty executives, the lesson from K-beauty’s retail revolution is clear—success in today’s market requires more than just great products. It demands a multichannel retail strategy, a focus on consumer education, and the ability to adapt quickly to the evolving digital landscape. Brands that can replicate K-beauty’s hybrid approach, combining the best of traditional retail with cutting-edge e-commerce, will be well-positioned to thrive in the highly competitive beauty industry.
The second wave of K-beauty is reshaping the global beauty landscape, driven by cultural influence, e-commerce innovation, social media virality, and a commitment to clean, inclusive, and innovative formulations. There is also now an influx of brands with strong and clever packaging and shock value ingredients.
For beauty executives, these trends offer valuable insights into the future of the beauty industry. By embracing these shifts, investing in research, and aligning with the cultural and technological drivers of K-beauty’s success, brands can position themselves to thrive in an increasingly competitive and dynamic market. As K-beauty continues to evolve, it is clear that there is a fundamental shift on how beauty is consumed and perceived globally. Brands that adapt to these changes will not only succeed in the short term, but also build lasting legacies in the beauty industry.
