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Skin, K-beauty, Korea trips and the beauty industry — ask and share
Amazon now takes 〜44% of US K-beauty spending and wants to be where you discover it
BeautyMatter took a close look at Amazon's K-beauty play. The gist: Amazon is moving from "where you buy it cheap" to "where you discover it." Numbers in the piece 1,200+ K-beauty brands and 20,000 products on Amazon Abo
0 0Celebrity beauty brands: do you still buy them?
Every few weeks there is another famous name on a lipstick. Launch roundups this summer were full of celebrity lines, fashion-house collaborations and founder spin-offs, and K-pop idols keep fronting Korean brands as amb
Poll
Does a celebrity or idol name make you more likely to buy a beauty product?
Pick one to see the results
0 0Fake K-beauty is surging, and Korea is launching a way to report it
If a bargain serum ever felt off, you are not alone. Counterfeit Korean-brand beauty is a growing problem, and Korea is responding. Key numbers from the August 2026 report: 97.7% of counterfeit Korean-brand goods seized
0 0Korea is missing from Japan’s imported fragrance market. Could K-fragrance work?
In Japan's imported cosmetics data, Korea holds 43.3% of skincare and was the only major country growing in color makeup. Yet in fragrance Korea doesn't appear in the top ranks, while France holds 62.6%. A country that l
0 0If you founded an indie K-beauty brand, what would your next step be?
K-beauty now offers a range of "next steps": private-equity money, acquisitions by global groups, IPOs, and even Korean brands buying Korean brands. Trade-offs people often mention Sell to a global giant: distribution an
Poll
If I founded an indie brand, my next step would be…
Pick one to see the results
0 0TikTok’s K-beauty formula: bring creators in at the idea stage
TikTok's global product marketing lead explained to Korean press why K-beauty works so well on the platform. Examples from TikTok Shop US Medicube (APR): No. 1 with $16.77M in sales over 30 days Dr. Melaxin (Brand501): N
0 0Why 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 0Korea just passed a law to make K-beauty the world's No. 1 cosmetics industry
Korea has a new law aimed squarely at beauty. The Act on the Promotion and Support of the Cosmetics Industry was promulgated on September 15, 2026, and the government says a cross-ministry strategy follows this year. Wha
0 0K-beauty M&A in 2025: 26 deals worth $1.8B, the biggest since COVID
M&A data provider ION Analytics tallied K-beauty deal flow for 2025 (as of November 2025). Overall 26 K-beauty deals worth $1.8B, a post-COVID record Four of the top 10 deals of the past five years came in 2025 Four priv
0 0Olive Young's K-beauty edit is now inside 500+ Sephora stores in the US
Since August 20, 2026, Sephora has been selling an Olive Young-curated K-beauty selection across the US. The basics: 19 Korean brands, including Abib, BANILA CO, beplain, Cell Fusion C, make p:rem, Torriden and WELLAGE I
0 0Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong: where do you usually buy K-beauty?
Even within the Chinese-speaking world, K-beauty shopping habits differ a lot. We'd like to collect how it works where you live. Things to share Your main channel: e-commerce platforms, cross-border sites, drugstores, de
0 0Amazon Prime Day: Medicube out-searched the iPad, K-beauty sets records
At Amazon Prime Day (June 23–26), K-beauty set new records again. Highlights APR's Medicube was No. 1 in overall Amazon US search terms, ahead of iPad, Lego and AirPods. Its Zero Pore Pad topped beauty for a second strai
0 0La cosmética coreana ya mueve US$92 millones en Latinoamérica
A NielsenIQ report (K-Beauty Goes Global), covered by Forbes Argentina in September 2026, puts numbers on what many of us had already noticed on social media: Korean cosmetics exports to Argentina, Brazil and Mexico grew
0 0Dupe culture, K-beauty edition: smart shopping or just the same factory?
Dupe threads are some of the busiest posts on beauty forums right now. Someone finds a cheaper product that feels like a cult favourite, and the comments explode. In K-beauty the debate has an extra twist. Korea has larg
0 0AMOREPACIFIC / K-Beauty Makeup Class
(SEOUL HALLYU ACTIVITIES PROGRAM) (What kind of Hallyu fan are you?) (K-POP DANCE / K-FOOD / K-KIMCHI / K-BEAUTY) (K-ENT / K-COCKTAIL / K-POP TV SHOW / K-CRAFTS) (SEOUL HALLYU ACTIVITIES PROGRAM X Amore Pacific) Today's
0 0How does Spanish-language media cover K-beauty? Hype vs analysis
In recent months, business and beauty outlets in Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Spain have published plenty of pieces on the Korean cosmetics "boom". Read together, they show two very different tones: The "trend" tone Head
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 0Olive Young opened its first US store in Pasadena, with five more planned
No need to fly to Myeongdong for the Olive Young experience any more, at least if you live near LA. The Korean health and beauty chain opened its first US store in Pasadena on May 28, 2026. What is inside, per the report
0 0One year of the 15% US tariff: how did you adjust your pricing?
It's been a year since the 15% US tariff on Korean goods took effect on Aug. 7, 2025. What happened then In the first 10 days of August, cosmetics exports to the US fell 37.2% month on month to $36.9M Basic skincare near
Poll
How did you handle US pricing after the tariff?
Pick one to see the results
0 0Buy K-beauty in Seoul or order cross-border at home — how big is the gap?
A debate that comes up constantly in Chinese-speaking K-beauty groups: is it really cheaper to buy in Korea than on cross-border shopping platforms back home? The usual arguments: Korean stores often run 1+1 deals and bo
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