{"id":35269,"date":"2025-10-15T01:31:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T01:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/a-k-beauty-turf-war-is-brewing-in-the-us\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T01:31:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T01:31:23","slug":"a-k-beauty-turf-war-is-brewing-in-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/a-k-beauty-turf-war-is-brewing-in-the-us\/","title":{"rendered":"A K-beauty turf war is brewing in the US"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68eda7bfcc993f9955d01fe5?format=jpeg\" alt=\"A woman shops at an Olive Young store in Seoul, South Korea, April 28, 2025.\"\/><figcaption>There&#039;s a territorial war for K-Beauty brewing in the US.<\/p>\n<p>Kim Hong-Ji\/REUTERS<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>The US loves Korean beauty, which is sparking a turf war among America&#039;s biggest beauty retailers.<\/li>\n<li>Sephora and Ulta Beauty are signing exclusive sales partnerships with K-beauty brands.<\/li>\n<li>This comes ahead of South Korean retailer Olive Young&#039;s much-awaited US debut.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As South Korea&#039;s beauty giant Olive Young gears up to land on US shores, American retailers are jostling for a share of the K-beauty pie.<\/p>\n<p>US beauty retailers like Sephora and Ulta Beauty are snapping up South Korean beauty brands and inking exclusive sales partnerships to capitalize on the K-beauty trend.<\/p>\n<p>Skincare brand Hanyul announced in May that it was exclusively launching in the US via Sephora. Aestura, a sensitive skincare brand, said the same in February.<\/p>\n<p>And Ulta Beauty is the only major US retailer selling products from Medicube, a beauty tech company whose skincare devices have been touted by celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber.<\/p>\n<p>This turf war over K-beauty in the US is unfolding before Olive Young, South Korea&#039;s answer to Ulta Beauty, makes its much-awaited US debut in 2026. The retailer, which has over 1,300 stores in South Korea, is known for stocking top-ranking K-beauty brands and focusing on trendy and affordable products.<\/p>\n<p>K-beauty, known for its innovative formulations, gentle ingredients, and multi-step routines, means big money. According to data from marketing research firm NielsenIQ, it was a $2 billion industry in the US in the year leading up to July 2025 \u2014 up 37% from the same period the year before.<\/p>\n<h2>US retailers are betting big on K-beauty<\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/686c93d185e81483682d84c5?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Kylie Jenner trying out the Booster Pro at the Medicube Pop-Up in Los Angeles on March 25, 2025.\"\/><figcaption>Kylie Jenner promoted APR&#039;s Booster Pro device.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Simon\/WireImage<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sephora stocks many big-name Korean brands, such as Beauty of Joseon, Dr. Jart+, Laneige, Aestura, Hanyul, and others.<\/p>\n<p>Ulta Beauty execs said on an earnings call in August that the company is expanding its K-beauty assortment, with new additions like Anua and Peach &amp; Lily joining its existing portfolio of Korean brands like Medicube, Belif, COSRX, and others.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley Kang, the global beauty director of Chicago-based market research company Worldpanel, said K-beauty is still a niche product category. Its core audience consists of Asian consumers and younger demographics, ranging from Gen Alpha to millennials.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Until the rise of K-culture, Asian beauty outside of Japan had little global recognition,&quot; Kang said. &quot;The growing influence of Korean pop culture and dramas allowed people to see the flawless skin of Korean celebrities, building trust and belief in K-beauty products.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2>High-quality beauty at affordable prices<\/h2>\n<p>K-beauty differs from clean skincare brands from the US, like Hailey Bieber&#039;s Rhode, in several ways.<\/p>\n<p>Larissa Jensen, the global beauty industry advisor of Chicago-based market research firm Circana, said brands like Rhode home in on ethical ingredient sourcing. In contrast, K-beauty brands have carved out a niche in preventive care and long-term skin health.<\/p>\n<p>Anna Keller, a senior beauty and personal care analyst from London-based market research firm Mintel, told Business Insider that K-beauty has a price advantage over US brands.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;They&#039;re super affordable, so you&#039;re getting high-quality, effective products without breaking the bank,&quot; Keller said.<\/p>\n<p>Sephora and Ulta Beauty are choosing K-beauty brands that have already proven themselves to US consumers, she said. These brands, like Beauty of Joseon and Medicube, have been popular on online platforms like Amazon.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;A lot of this success comes from social media buzz \u2014 think TikTok trends like &#039;glass skin&#039; and the hype around ingredients like snail mucin,&quot; Keller said. &quot;Sephora and Ulta are essentially riding the wave of this existing demand, bringing in brands that are already popular and have a strong following in the US.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2>Olive Young will be entering a tough US market<\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68edce335dbc4fd10daac83f?format=jpeg\" alt=\"People shop at an Olive Young store in Seoul, South Korea, April 28, 2025.\"\/><figcaption>Olive Young&#039;s is set to enter a hostile competitive environment in the US.<\/p>\n<p>Kim Hong-Ji\/REUTERS<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With US retailers snapping up K-beauty brands before Olive Young&#039;s debut next year, the Korean company is set to enter a competitive landscape.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Unlike Sephora and Ulta, which focus on a handful of big-name brands, Olive Young is more about discovery,&quot; Keller said. &quot;They&#039;re known for curating a mix of well-known and up-and-coming Korean brands, which makes them a go-to for people who want to explore beyond the mainstream.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Kang from Worldpanel said Olive Young needs to &quot;position itself as a K-beauty specialist, ensuring that its competition does not directly overlap with Sephora or Ulta.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>She said that the retailer can take advantage of the tariff turmoil. Olive Young can provide US consumers easy access to a broad range of K-beauty brands now that there are fewer ways to obtain them.<\/p>\n<p>Kang said that K-beauty is a trend that is set to get even stronger in the US market.<\/p>\n<p>She added, &quot;This trend is not limited to skincare \u2014 it is expected to extend into hair care, makeup, fragrance, beauty devices, and beyond.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#039;s a territorial war for K-Beauty brewing in the US. Kim Hong-Ji\/REUTERS The US loves Korean beauty, which is sparking a turf war among America&#039;s biggest beauty retailers. Sephora and Ulta Beauty are signing exclusive sales partnerships with K-beauty brands. This comes ahead of South Korean retailer Olive Young&#039;s much-awaited US debut. As South Korea&#039;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}