Beauty Costs: Why is Korean skincare so popular?

In today’s episode of our Beauty Costs series, we’re looking at a part of the beauty world that’s worth over ten billion dollars.

K-beauty is one of South Korea’s biggest exports, and in the last couple of years it’s overtaken the United States in becoming the world’s second biggest exporter of beauty products.

So we head to Seoul, where reporter Nina Pasquini finds out why consumers there think it’s infiltrated the mainstream market.

We speak to the founder of one of the biggest K-beauty disruptor brands, Alicia Yoon from Peach & Lily. Sharon Ahn, beauty analyst from global consumer trend forecaster WGSN, tells us why K-beauty is set to become worth twenty billion dollars in the next few years.

South Korea has cultivated an era of cultural dominance, in music, acting and now in beauty. A lot of which has been accessible online, mainly through social media. Youtuber SSIN has over one a and a half million subscribers to her channel, she tells us what K-beauty means to her and her thoughts on its success.

Producer and presenter: Izzy Greenfield (Image: Beige Chuu South Korean beauty influencer / Credit: Getty Images)