If you’re new to shopping for Korean cosmetics, looking for recognizable brand names can be a good starting point for making purchase decisions. That’s not to say that a product needs to be manufactured by a huge conglomerate to be good; in fact, many of our favorite products are produced by smaller, independent beauty brands. But having some brand names in mind can help expedite the process of seeking out new products, and it also makes scanning the vast array of Korean cosmetics online and in-store a little less overwhelming.
There is an incredibly large number of beauty brands in South Korea, some of which have been around for decades, and many more that have materialized over the past several years. In the pages that follow, we’ll take a look at these brands, how they’re positioned, and where you can find them.
BRAND FAMILIES
Although there are more than one thousand cosmetic brands in the Korean beauty space, the biggest share of both domestic cosmetic sales and beauty exports are dominated by two leading cosmetic and personal-care conglomerates. Both Amorepacific and LG Household & Healthcare boast impressive beauty portfolios that contain a range of top-selling brand names spanning multiple price points and venues.
AMOREPACIFIC BRAND FAMILY
In the world of Korean beauty, Amorepacific dominates the space. You might recognize quite a few of the names in their brand portfolio, since many of them have already permeated European and North American markets, and can even be found for sale in global retail chains such as Sephora, Target, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom.
LG HOUSEHOLD & HEALTHCARE BRAND FAMILY
Not far behind Amorepacific in terms of market share is LG Household & Healthcare, which is a subsidiary of the LG Group. Outside of Asia, the LG Group is largely known for its electronics manufacturing, but in South Korea, LG is the second largest producer of cosmetics and personal care products. Like Amorepacific, LG Household & Healthcare has an array of highly acclaimed brands in its beauty portfolio, which cover a variety of price points and venue types.
BRAND CATEGORIES & STORES
To better understand how customers shop for and interact with Korean beauty brands, it helps to understand where they’re sold. In the United States, the beauty market is generally divided into two categories: drugstore brands and department store brands. There are a handful of exceptions that fall outside of these venues, but for the most part, American beauty brands are either one or the other.
By contrast, Korea has a number of venues where brands may be sold, and some brands may be sold in more than one venue type. For example, there is a lot of crossover between department store brands and those that are sold door-to-door. Let’s take a closer look at the different types of beauty retail venues and what makes them each unique.
ROAD SHOPS
Ah, Korean road shops! What are they? Why are they called road shops? And where can we find them? “Road shops†are, quite literally, shops on a road. Each road shop is dedicated to a specific mass-market brand or brand family, and price tags span from low to mid-range. If you want to compare road shop prices to those of Western brands, Revlon at the bottom of the cost scale all the way up through MAC would be a close analogy.
Some road shop products roughly equate with what North America and Europe sees as drugstore or high street brands, while others are more on par with mid-range department store lines. I say “roughly†because in actuality, though Korean health and beauty stores and hypermarkets may carry items from some of these labels, a majority of the in-person sales for these brands takes place in the dedicated road shops.
Examples of road shop brands include Missha, The Face Shop, and Banila Co.
HEALTH & BEAUTY STORES
Much like drugstores elsewhere in the world, Korean drugstores, such as Olive Young or Boons, offer a large selection of cosmetics from an extensive assortment of brands. But there is one major and enviable difference: the cosmetics truly dominate the store space. Imagine a drugstore that feels more like a Sephora, with a couple of aisles of snacks and medicine thrown into the mix. That’s the Korean drugstore experience!
Additionally, the beauty products and brands available in this setting are, on the whole, higher-end than those you might find in a U.S. drugstore. For these reasons, this retail setting can be more accurately described as a “health and beauty†store rather than a drugstore.
Price points span from economy to mid-range, similar to the price ranges for many of the road shops. In fact, some of the brands found in health and beauty stores can also be found in their own, dedicated road shops, while others can also be found online or in hypermarkets.
Dr.Jart+, Skin79, and Sooryehan are examples of brands available in Korean health and beauty stores.
DEPARTMENT STORES
Department stores in Korea offer all of the allure of chic, sophisticated, shopping as first-tier department stores in other parts of the world. The stores are vast and upscale, carrying clothing by high-fashion houses from all over the globe, as well as high-end cosmetics by domestic and international labels. The Korean beauty brands sold in department stores are of the luxury, high-priced variety.
Sulwhasoo, The History of Whoo, and Su:m37 are all examples of Korean brands you would find in a department store setting.
HYPERMARKETS
Hypermarkets, for those who aren’t familiar with the term, are large superstores that contain both a department store and a supermarket. Hypermarkets are far more economically priced than top-tier department stores. SuperTarget in the U.S. or Carrefour in France would be close equivalents of a hypermarket in Korea, such as E-Mart or Lotte Mart. These stores usually have a fairly large selection of cosmetics from economy to mid-range price points. Many of the brands sold in hypermarkets are also sold in brand-specific road shops and health and beauty stores.
Some brands you might find in a hypermarket include Illi, VOV, and Iope.
DOOR-TO-DOOR
The door-to-door cosmetics market is alive and well in South Korea. The sales methods are very similar to those used for door-to-door beauty sales in the U.S.: sellers either go door-to-door, host parties in their home, or set up a pop-up boutique in their neighborhood. But the key difference in Korean door-to-door sales is the caliber of the brands offered through this channel—many of them are the same, high-end luxury beauty brands found in Korea’s top-tier department stores. There are also quite a few road shop and drugstore brands that are included in this sales method.
O-HUI, Isa Knox, and Makeon are examples of brands with a door-to-door sales force (as well as a presence in department stores, road shops, hypermarkets, or health and beauty stores).
LIST OF KOREAN BEAUTY BRANDS
With new Korean cosmetic companies emerging daily, it’s impossible to keep up with them all, but we’ve put together an extensive list of cosmetic brand names to help you spot Korean cosmetic lines as you shop online and in stores all over the world. This list includes brands from every price point, from the sensibly economic to the luxuriously decadent.
3 Concept Eyes
3W Clinic
23 Years Old
A’Pieu
Acwell
A.H.C.
Amorepacific
Anskin
Aritaum
Aromatica
Banila Co.
Baviphat Urban Dollkiss
BBIA
Belif
Benton
Berrisom
Beucle
Beyond
Botanic Farm
Brilliant
BRTC
C20
Caolion
Carezone
CathyCat
Charm Zone
Chica Y Chico
Chosungah 22
ChungYoonJin
Ciracle
Clair’s
Clio
CNP Laboratory
COSRX
Cremorlab
Danahan
Davi
Dermalift
Dewytree
Diaforce
Doctorcos
Donginbi
Dr.G (Gowoonsesang)
Dr. Oracle
Dr. Jart+
Duft & Doft
ElishaCoy
Elizavecca
Enca
Enprani
eSpoir
Etude House
The Face Shop
Freeset
From Nature
Giverny
Goodal
Graymelin
Gwailnara
Hanskin
Hanyul
Hera
The History of Whoo
Holika Holika
I’m From
Illi
Innisfree
IOPE
IPKN
Isa Knox
Isoi
Jaminkyung
Kachet
Klairs
Kocostar
LacVert
Laneige
Leaders Clinic
Leejiham (LJH)
Lei Lani
Lindsay
Lioele
Lirikos
Lotree
The Lotus
Makeon
Mamonde
May Coop
Mediheal
Milkydress
Mirepa
Missha
Mizon
Moonshot
Naexy
Nature Republic
O-Hui
Odyssey
Papa Recipe
Peripera
Petitfe
Primera
Pure Heals
Purebess
Purederm
ReDNA
REGENcos
Rojukiss
The Saem
Scinic
Secret Key
Shara Shara
Sidmool
Skin & Lab
Skin Ceramic
Skin Factory
The Skin House
Skin Miso
Skin79
Skinfactory
Skinfood
Skylake
SNP
So Natural
Sooryehan
Su:m37
Sulwhasoo
Teen:Clear
TonyMoly
Too Cool For School
Tosowoong
VDL
VOV
Welcos
Whamisa
WondeRuci