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Why global giants’ K-beauty acquisitions struggled, and Dr. Jart+ may be sold back
An analysis piece says a string of once-celebrated K-beauty acquisitions by global groups has underdelivered. Deals mentioned Unilever → AHC (Carver Korea): €2.27B (about $2.7B) in 2017, a landmark deal at the time Estée
0 0A busy-morning 3-minute routine—is this much enough?
When getting ready for work, skincare is usually the first thing we cut back on. There are actually only a few things you really need to keep in your morning routine.
0 1Oily skin in humid weather: the routine that stops the 3pm shine
Humidity makes oily skin feel like it is melting by mid-afternoon. The instinct is to strip everything with harsh cleansers — which usually makes skin feel tight and oily.
0 4Moisturize Right After Showering: Starting in the Bathroom Makes a Difference (3-Second Routine After Cleansing)
You step out of the shower, dry your hair, get dressed, check your phone for a bit, and then do your skincare. A familiar routine, right? But in the meantime, your face has already dried out quite a bit. Try changing jus
0 0Jongno Jewelry Street / Arcade
Jongno Jewelry Street is a jewelry arcade with 40 years of tradition. Transactions remain active enough to account for 70% of the nation’s jewelry freight volume. First of all, the most noticeable feature is the wholesal
0 0Staying in Jongno: Jongno 3-ga or 5-ga, and would you book a Korean motel?
A first-timer on the Tripadvisor Seoul forum had settled on Jongno and was choosing between two private-room stays, one near Jongno 3-ga station and one near Jongno 5-ga. The second had the nicer room, but they had read
0 0LCDC Seoul: what's on each floor of Seongsu's converted garage
LCDC Seoul is a four-floor culture and shopping complex built inside a former car repair garage, run by SJ Group and named after the fashion label LE CONTE DES CONTES, roughly "a story within a story." By July 2025 the s
0 0Why Your Face Feels Tight Just Minutes After Cleansing (When You Feel Dehydrated Skin)
Your face feels refreshed the moment you pat it dry with a towel after cleansing. But by the time you’ve dried your hair, gone to your room, and started your skincare routine, your face already feels tight. Your skin loo
0 0Japanese visitors to Korea hit a record in 2025: the "go to Korea today" era
According to the Korea Tourism Organization, 3.65 million Japanese travellers visited Korea in 2025, a new record. The 2026 target is 4.5 million (up 23%). Here is what Japanese travel trade site Travel Voice reported ab
0 03 Things to Check When Choosing a Lip Balm at a Pharmacy
When you stand in front of the lip balm section at a pharmacy, you’ll see several lip balms that look similar. Here are three things worth checking before choosing based only on price or brand. 1. What’s near the top of
0 0Gloshell Arrives at ANZ Pharmacy in Seongsu
Gloshell now has an offline stop in Seongsu. The Squalane Melt Lip Balm and 3 Second Skinbooster Serum are available to see at ANZ Pharmacy, so you can check the products in person instead of relying only on product page
0 0Kolmar Korea retakes the market-cap lead over Cosmax after 560 days
The ODM ranking flipped again on the stock market. As of May 20, Kolmar Korea was worth ₩2.1669 trillion and Cosmax ₩2.0089 trillion, ending Cosmax's lead that had run since Oct. 30, 2024, 560 days in all. Numbers behind
0 0Sinsa-dong Garosu-gil
Garosu-gil has been one of the hottest neighborhoods in Seoul in recent years. Ten or twenty years ago, it was once packed with galleries, and at another time it was full of designer shops. There was also a period when f
0 0Olive Young opens a three-floor store in Myeongdong: Central Myeongdong Town
Another Olive Young in Myeongdong doesn't sound like news, but this one is on a different scale. Olive Young Central Myeongdong Town opened on 26 March 2026 with three floors and roughly 3,100 m², making it the chain's s
0 0Korea passes the US to become the world’s No. 2 cosmetics exporter, now shipping to 202 countries
In 2025 Korea overtook the United States to become the world's second-largest cosmetics exporter. France is still No. 1. Global cosmetics exports (2025) France: $24.3B Korea: $11.4B (+11.8%) United States: $10.8B Other n
0 0Euljiro's 'Hipjiro' alleys: printing shops by day, hidden bars by night
Euljiro doesn't look like a nightlife district at first glance. By day it's still full of small printing shops and metal workshops that have operated there since the late 1960s — paper stacked on the pavement, delivery c
0 0Which K-beauty category carried you through 2026? Vote
Three months left in the year. Looking at @cosme rankings and Mega Wari cart reveals, 2026 was full of talking points: PDRN mists, toner pads, soft matte lips and more. So we want to know: which K-beauty category did you
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Which K-beauty category did you rely on most in 2026?
Pick one to see the results
0 0Don’t Pick at Flaky Lips—Try This at Night (Before-Bed Lip Care Routine)
When you see flaky skin on your lips, your hand reaches for it first, right? It seems like you can just peel off a little, but it always comes off in a bigger piece than you expected and stings. The next day, that spot f
0 0Four structures you keep seeing in K-beauty short videos that travel well abroad
Scroll through K-beauty on TikTok or Instagram Reels and some formats repeat again and again. Here are the structures brand marketers often reference. None of them guarantees results, but they make good starting points f
0 0Why new Korean brands pop up on Qoo10 every week: Mega Debut
Open Qoo10 Japan lately and you will see a lot of Korean brands you have never heard of. Much of that comes from Mega Debut, a launch programme for brands entering Japan. FASHIONSNAP reported its first-year results. Year
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