Carly Hsieh examines facial mask items at a face shop specializing in Korean cosmetics in San Francisco on April 15, 2015.
Avila Gonzalez | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images
On a recent Saturday, ulta beauty At a store in midtown Manhattan, Denise McCarthy, a mother in her 40s, stood in front of a wall lined with tiny pastel-colored bottles, tubes, and compacts. Her phone rang – another TikTok from her 15-year-old daughter.
“My kids are sending me messages on TikTok,” she told CNBC, scooping up a basket of Korean lip tint and sunscreen that she had planned to put in her Christmas stocking. “I don’t even know what half of this is for. I just buy what they send me.”
Across two aisles, a group of college students were comparing swatches of Korean cushion foundations. A father asked a store clerk if the much-talked-about Korean sunscreen was “made by the girl who does the ‘Ready to Go’ video.” The mini pack of Korean sheet masks displayed near the cash register was almost empty.
Scenes like this are unfolding all over the country.
Once a niche market reserved for beauty-obsessed people, Korean cosmetics, known as K-beauty, has grown thanks to TikTok’s virality, younger and more diverse shoppers, and… UltaSephora, walmart and costco.
According to market research firm Nielsen IQ, K-beauty sales in the U.S. are expected to exceed $2 billion in 2025, an increase of more than 37% year-on-year, far outpacing the single-digit growth of the overall beauty market.
And despite trade tensions complicating supply chains, brands and retailers told CNBC that momentum remains strong.
“We have no intention of slowing down and see further opportunities to penetrate the market,” said Janet Kim, vice president of K-beauty brand Neogen.
In the first half of 2025, South Korea shipped a record $5.5 billion worth of cosmetics, an increase of nearly 15% year-on-year, surpassing France to become the largest exporter of cosmetics to the United States, according to South Korean government data.
“The growth has been impressive,” said Therese Ann D’Ambrosia, vice president of beauty and personal care at NielsenIQ. “Compare this to the broader beauty market, which is growing by single digits, and K-beauty is clearly operating in a different gear right now.”
NielsenIQ reports that facial skin care remains the largest revenue driver for K-beauty in the United States. According to the company, the hair care field is growing rapidly, and hybrid items such as colored serums and skin care-infused cushion compacts (sponge cushions soaked with SPF foundation) continue to proliferate.
large company
A turf war has begun as retailers scramble to take advantage of the cosmetics boom.
Ulta, which has more than 1,400 stores in the U.S., launched K-beauty World in July to highlight Korean brands and high-tech gadgets. It is the only major U.S. retailer to carry products from Medicube, a beauty technology company promoted by celebrities such as Hailey Bieber.
Ulta’s first-quarter 2025 report cited a 38% increase in Korean skin care sales, and executives said in August that a new K-beauty partnership helped the company’s second-quarter profit beat Wall Street expectations.
Sephora is making a similar effort. The Times Square flagship store now has an entire wall filled with Korean skin care and cosmetics, and the retailer has secured exclusive U.S. launches of traditional Korean brand Hanyul and sensitive skin brand Aethura.
Big players are also participating one after another. Costco and Walmart are also expanding their product lineups by adding essences, serums, and sheet masks as demand accelerates.
“It’s an arms race to see who can tap into the market for Korean products,” Delphine Horvath, a professor of cosmetics and fragrance marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology, told CNBC. “These products are now seen as the biggest driver of growth for cosmetics brands, and the boom looks set to continue.”
Competition is heating up just as Olive Young, dubbed the “Sephora of Soul,” prepares to open its first U.S. store in Los Angeles next year. Asian beauty retailer Scosi is also expanding, with plans to open 20 new stores next year in cities including Seattle, Miami and Austin, Texas.
“It’s important that we meet our customers where they can touch, feel and try what they see on TikTok,” Sukoshi CEO Linda Dunn told CNBC. “Companies across the industry are looking to expand in part because people don’t really want to wait for shipping or travel all the way to South Korea to get their products.”
This boom comes amid an ongoing trade war.
This spring, U.S. shoppers rushed to stock up on popular K-beauty products in preparation for higher prices due to tariffs, Dunn said. However, prices ultimately remained relatively stable as Korean brands temporarily absorbed the tariffs, although many brands are now exploring alternative manufacturing and transportation methods, Dan said.
South Korea finalized a deal with President Donald Trump last month, agreeing to 15% tariffs instead of the original 25% tariffs the president announced in April.
“An easy trading system is not what it was before tariffs,” Dunn told CNBC. “That said, many companies have worked with advertisers to offset these costs internally and do their best to avoid passing them on to U.S. customers.”
Visitors try Korean-made cosmetics at the Korea Tourism Organization’s 2022 Discover Your Korea event held at Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal in New York.
Lev Radin | Pacific Press | Light Rocket | Getty Images
“Second wave”
Over the past decade, from pop groups like BTS and Blackpink to this year’s Netflix The hit of “KPop Demon Hunters” has propelled South Korea’s cultural export to unprecedented popularity.
“Korean culture is exploding in all aspects, and this is especially true when it comes to K-beauty,” Dan said.
The “first wave” of K-beauty that hit the U.S. in the mid-2010s was defined by “glass skin,” 10-step routines, snail mucin, cushion compacts, and beauty blemish creams. Most products were aimed at light skin tones and distribution was limited to small boutiques. Amazon Beauty experts say seller and early test placements were done at Ulta and Sephora.
“There was some penetration in the first wave, but nothing like what we have today,” Horvath said. “It was mostly people in the know.”
The second wave is bigger, faster and more comprehensive. Our products range from color cosmetics, hair and scalp care, body care, fragrances, and high-tech equipment.
TikTok has become a central engine of discovery, especially for Gen Z and Millennial shoppers, who make up about three-quarters of K-beauty consumers, according to a market analyst report from Personal Care Insights. Posts tagged with “K-beauty” and “Korean skin care” attract 250 million views a week, according to consumer data firm Spurt. And viral products with sleek packaging often disappear from shelves faster than retailers can restock them, especially those that combine gentle formulas with low prices, Dunn said.
“TikTok changed the game,” Horvath said. “It’s easier to educate consumers about innovation and get the word out. Brands are deeply invested in paying influencers, and TikTokers talk about texture, formula, and potency.”
Virality is also pushing brands to become more inclusive to younger and more diverse shoppers. After TikTok creators criticized Korean brand Tirtir for offering only three foundation shades, the company expanded to 40 shades within a few months, and many other companies followed suit.
This trend is visible across the Americas, with 61% of consumers in Mexico and nearly half in Brazil saying K-beauty is popular in their countries, compared to about 45% in the United States, according to Statista.
“Traditional retail and e-commerce remain important, but TikTok Shop is the standout disruptor,” Nielsen’s D’Ambrosia said. “It’s not just about direct sales on that one platform, but also about how the entire discovery and purchase process is changing.”
But a second wave brings its own risks. D’Ambrosia said a heavy reliance on virality could expose brands to sudden algorithm changes and regulatory scrutiny.
“When a lot of growth is concentrated on one platform (like TikTok), algorithm changes can have a big impact on discoverability overnight,” D’Ambrosia said. “We’ve seen what happens when platforms tweak their recommendation engines. … There are definitely some warning flags that we’re looking at.”
Collagen eye patches and face masks from Face Shop in San Francisco, which specializes in Korean beauty items, on April 15, 2015.
Avila Gonzalez | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images
rapid innovation
According to Dan, K-beauty’s staying power is rooted in South Korea’s highly competitive domestic market. According to South Korean research firm KOISRA, trends change at breakneck speed and consumers spend more per capita on beauty than in any other country.
According to Neogen’s Kim, there will be more than 28,000 cosmetics retailers in South Korea in 2024, nearly double the number five years ago, creating a pressure cooker of constant experimentation.
“We develop about hundreds of formulations every day,” Kim told CNBC. “We build libraries and test our results in independent clinical tests. … Anything that’s really unique and really effective in skin care is what we develop.”
Korean consumers are quick to stir up trends, stimulating a pipeline of emerging brands that can go viral and even be acquired. For example, when snail mucin, a sticky gel used to protect and repair people’s skin, became popular worldwide, skin care brand Amorepacific acquired COSRX, a small Korean brand that helped popularize the ingredient, for about $700 million.
Analysts predict that the next wave of products is likely to be even more experimental.
Brands are betting on buzzy ingredients like DNA extracted from salmon and trout sperm, which early research suggests may help soothe and repair skin. We are also moving into biotechnology.
“K-beauty is very data-driven.[Artificial intelligence]helps us get results quickly for content, formulation development, and advertising,” Kim said. “In South Korea, we started talking about delivery systems. They’re very good at biotechnology.”
