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Skin, K-beauty, Korea trips and the beauty industry — ask and share
Why Korean cosmetic ads can no longer say "exosome", "microneedle" or "clinic only"
Korea's MFDS revised its cosmetics labeling and advertising guideline in January 2025, and a lot of trendy wording landed on the banned list. Has your team updated its product pages yet? Newly banned examples Wording tha
0 0How far do you trust beauty YouTubers' recommendations?
A post titled "Stop watching cosmetics YouTubers" went up on DC Inside's perfume and cosmetics gallery. Dermatologist YouTubers are better, it argued, because cosmetics YouTubers are ultimately in it to launch their own
0 0Before-and-after photos in cosmetic ads: how far is okay?
Before-and-after photos are among the most powerful assets in cosmetic advertising. That also makes them easy to get wrong, so marketers ask about them constantly. Common concerns Same conditions? Different lighting, ang
0 0K-beauty now leads EU imports, and the compliance bill arrives in August
According to a market-analysis newsletter, Korean cosmetics now hold 21.7% of EU imports, ahead of the US at 19.7%. At the same time, a wave of regulation lands all at once. Three regimes taking effect between July and A
0 0Before you put "clinically tested" on a product page, check these
Plenty of brands put a "clinically tested" badge at the top of their product pages. The shared view in the industry is that how you say it matters more than whether you say it. Checklist before using it What was tested:
0 0Retinol at 500 ppb on the front of the pack: marketing or meaningful?
On r/AsianBeauty, someone looked up the ingredient list of viral 'retinol collagen' toner pads and was let down. Water, glycols and glycerin led the list, hydrolysed collagen was declared at 50 ppm (0.005%) and retinol a
0 1EU microplastics rules: rinse-off products have until October 2027
The EU's microplastics restriction (Regulation 2023/2055), adopted in 2023, gives cosmetics different sell-by deadlines depending on product type. If you export to Europe, now is the time to plan reformulation backwards
0 0Are the "skin-nourishing" shots Korean clinics promote really just fillers?
On Taiwan's PTT forum (facelift board), someone who had been drawn in by Korean clinic ads looked closer at the "skin-nourishing injections" many Gangnam dermatology clinics were pushing. The listed products turned out t
0 0Korea now requires a "virtual person" label on ads with AI-generated models
AI-generated models are all over beauty ads. Korea's Fair Trade Commission revised its endorsement guidelines, and from June 1, 2026 ads featuring them must be labeled. Key points Ads with AI-made people must clearly say
0 0A friend is in Korea: what's worth asking for that you can't get back home?
A classic from r/KoreanBeauty: a friend was in South Korea and offered to bring something back. The poster, in the US with sensitive combination skin in a very dry climate, asked what is genuinely unavailable at home, be
0 0Shinsegae Department Store Myeongdong Main: how to work the duty-free floors and food hall
If you only have half a day and want a department store, a duty-free floor and a proper Korean food hall in one stop, Shinsegae's Myeongdong main building is the easy pick. It sits right by Myeongdong Station, and floors
0 0Olive Young N Seongsu: what's inside and how to shop it
Olive Young N Seongsu is the chain's biggest single store and its test bed for what a K-beauty flagship can be, according to https://www.glowolive.net/ko/oliveyoung-n-seongsu/. Set inside the Factorial Seongsu building,
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