Dewy skin. Innovative ingredients. Minimalist packaging. K-beauty’s most important export is not a single toner or serum – but an outlook that has redefined what American shoppers seek in the skincare aisle. Skincare is no longer a ritual steeped in the language of beauty, but rather self care and health. This shift is also changing how skincare brands market themselves.
While there is no official certification or license that designates a product or brand as K-beauty, brands like Laneige, Dr. Melaxin, and COSRX share an understated look and science-backed philosophy that has come to define the category.
Claire Kane, evp and director of strategic planning at VM, told ADWEEK Korean skincare has “completely upended” how beauty brands market their products at home and abroad.
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“Marketing has rephrased its lexicon around skincare benefits,” she said. “Foundations are marketed as ‘serums,’ lipsticks are marketed as ‘lip oils,’ blush is sold for its hydrating barrier properties,” Kane said. “Skincare has essentially become the new primer.”
Historically, American skincare has been reactive, Kane added. Either you mask an imperfection with concealer or reach for a clinical product to fix the problem. Korean beauty, on the other hand, is rooted in an obsession with skincare as a preventive, holistic self-care ritual.
This framing of skincare as a daily self-care ritual that anyone can participate in has also been a driving force behind the product lines robust social media marketing. Not only does social media serve as a space for sharing the skincare ritual, but it also gives brands an opportunity to educate consumers on lesser-known products and ingredients – and to quickly turn social scrollers into online shoppers.
“Modern skincare consumers love the thrill of organic discovery and geeking out on ingredient science,” Kane told ADWEEK. “TikTok Shop and Amazon work hand in hand. A creator posts a raw, 60-second deep dive into a formulation, and you can buy it immediately from their feed or pull it up on Amazon.”
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While social e-commerce serves consumers itching to purchase products immediately, some K-beauty brands have partnered with legacy retailers like Sephora, Ulta, and Target to gain space on shelves. Even so, to penetrate the market, Kane said these retailers are using curated “shop-in-shop” concepts, like Sephora’s partnership with Korean retailer Olive Young, to educate consumers in-store and provide a shopping experience that mirrors online discovery.
The education component is especially important since many of the ingredients in Korean skincare are relatively new to American consumers, David Van Veen, managing director of beauty branding agency MSLK, told ADWEEK. K-beauty brands tend to emphasize transparency in their formulations and ingredients, and many of the actives used in Korean products are gentler on the skin than their Western counterparts.Bakuchiol, a plant-based retinol alternative, is the most popular skincare ingredients in South Korea, but according to Van Veen, relatively unknown in the United States.
Consumers will always want to try new things, Kane said, and there are multiple opportunities for education and product adoption as someone’s skin changes over a lifetime. While Western brands cannot force their way into the K-beauty market, they can find success by tapping into the curiosity that’s driving consumers to discover new products.
“If brands stop thinking strictly about immediate sales and start genuinely geeking out on skin health alongside their community, the alignment will happen naturally,” Kane said.
This article was originally featured on Adweek.com.
