Mimoglow's Top 5 K-beauty Brands
What is beauty? K-Beauty or (Korean Beauty) trend derived from South Korea. The fad gained popularity worldwide especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and USA. 80% of global skincare comes from Asia, due to the influence of K-Beauty. K-Beauty product market size was valued at $9.3 billion in 2018, and expected to reach $21.8 billion by 2026. Products from Korea are presented with sophisticated ingredients and appealing packages. Products like snail creams, sheet masks, poppy color packaging, whimsical shaped bottles like pandas, bears, hard boiled eggs, as well as having nonsensical names like Tonymoly.
South Koreans favor having elaborate skincare routine with focus on toning, clarifying, moisturizing, and having ‘glass’ skin instead of having layers of foundation. The average K-beauty skincare regimen consists of 10 steps which includes: double cleansing (cleansing oil and cleansing foam), sheet masks, essences, lotions, serums, moisturizers, and SPF or thick sleeping cream at night. Two-thirds of skincare launches (68%) were from South Korea.
K-beauty is about having products and routines that are designed to work for long term. There is an emphasis on gently nurturing the skin towards your desired results like ‘glass skin’, ‘chok chok skin’, etc. Mimoglow helps you track all your products that you’ve used, what’s in your shelf, and what works / doesn’t work for you. Mimoglow encourages you to stay on track with whatever routines you’ve set.
K-beauty is all about customization. Everyone’s skin is unique, and understanding your own skin is the philosophy of K-beauty. If a product breaks you out, use Mimoglow’s notes section to record your reaction. Mimoglow’s AI/ML will eventually try to help you figure out which other products that may or may not work for you. Just because a product is super popular and it seems to work for everyone, it may not work for you, and that’s ok because there are millions of other products to try.
If you are new to K-beauty, these are the top five popular K-beauty brands by Mimoglow's users.
Disclosure: Mimoglow get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
COSRX
CosRX is popular in Korea and USA, the brand has been around for 18 years, founded in 2002: Cosmetics + RX = COSRX Cosmetic. CosRX focuses on minimalist packaging, putting ingredients as the main focus of the brand. CosRX is dedicated to creating products with high concentrations of actives, while maintaining an accessible price point.
Innisfree
Innisfree (Hangul: 이니스프리) is a Korean brand owned by Amore Pacific. Innisfree was created by AmorePacific in 2000, launched in 2002, the name derives from poet W.B. Yeats’ poem “The lake Isle of Innisfree”. Innisfree’s brand concept emphasizes nature with particular reference to Jeju Island, South Korea, marketed as eco-friendly brand. Innisfree uses the slogan "Clean Island, where clean nature and healthy beauty coexist happily". Many of Innisfree’s product ingredients are sourced from Jeju Island. In 2011, the brand reported over $123.1 million in sales from 434 locations in South Korea. By 2014, Innisfree had stores operating in over 80 stores in South Korea, Japan, Hong KOng, Singapore, and India.
Purito
Purito comes from the compound word formed from the words “purify” and a Chinese character that means “soil” (土). It means safe and purified natural ingredients that come from the clean soil. Purito was created in 2017, Purito is natural, vegan, and cruelty-free. Instead of using excessive packaging, the brand uses environmentally-friendly recycled paper packaging for all of its products.
Benton
'Benton' is inspired by and named after the movie 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' in which Benjamin Button grows younger with time. In the movie, Benjamin has no choice but to leave his love, Daisy as he becomes younger. What if Daisy could have also turned back time on her physical appearance, wouldn’t she be happier? Benton was established in 2011, Benton is a pioneer of clean beauty cosmetic brand that seeks to prioritize healthiness. Benton currently exports to over 40 countries.
Missha
Missha (Korean: 미샤) was launched in August 2009 by their parent group Able C&C. Missha is also known for making high quality, lower cost duplications of more expensive brands. For example, the Missha Time Revolution First Treatment Essence is a popular duplication of luxury brand essence SK-II, and the Missha Time Revolution Night Repair Science Activator Ampoule is a popular duplicate of the Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair.
