South Korean health and beauty retail giant Olive Young announced that it is opening its first US store in May next year, marking its entry into the world’s largest beauty market amid rising American interest in Korean skincare.
Founded in Seoul in 1999 and part of the CJ Group, Olive Young runs more than 1,300 outlets in South Korea and boasts a mix of trendy skincare, cosmetics, and wellness offerings. The news of the physical store comes nine months after the company established its US subsidiary, CJ Olive Young USA in February as part of preparations for overseas expansion.
The new store will be located in Pasadena, California, about 18km from central Los Angeles, which will position it to draw from both the city’s consumer base and the wider West Coast beauty market. Olive Young is expected to stock more than 200 brands, including popular Korean names such as Anua, Sungboon Editor, Dr Althea, Mediheal and Purito, alongside its own in-house ranges like Colorgram, Bringgreen and Bioheal Boh.
According to the Korea Times, the Pasadena outlet will be designed as a full “K-beauty showcase”, combining products, skincare assessments, and experiential services based on data from its Korean stores and its global e-commerce platform.
The company is reportedly in discussions with more than 400 Korean and global brands for potential placement and is establishing a local logistics centre, sourcing operations, and marketing infrastructure to support the expansion.
Over time, Olive Young has plans to link US stores with its international online mall to create a full omni-channel experience.
“We want to expand K-beauty’s reach to more consumers worldwide and provide a platform that helps Korean brands grow overseas,” an Olive Young official told the Korea Herald. “Our goal is to evolve into a global beauty and wellness platform that spans both Korean and international brands.”
As Olive Young embarks on this US debut, it is joining a wave of Korean cosmetics and skincare companies deepening their presence in the American market.
According to South Korea’s ministry of food and drug safety, the country surpassed the US to become the world’s second-largest cosmetics exporter, after France, in the first half of 2025, generating $10.28bn in cosmetics exports last year, a 20.3 per cent jump from 2023.
A Reuters report stated that South Korea overtook France as the biggest cosmetics exporter to the US in 2025, with online sales of the top five Korean brands in America rising 71 per cent over two years.
Some Korean brands have even become more successful abroad than at home. “Our biggest market is the US. We’re not really popular in Korea, I have to admit,” Sumin Lee, co-founder of Beauty of Joseon, told the Glossy Beauty podcast.
Olive Young’s largest-ever international activation at KCON LA 2025 captured the scale of K-beauty’s rise. Its 430-square-metre booth showcased 66 brands and 164 products to 125,000 attendees, drawing long queues for skin-analysis stations, sunscreen demo zones, and beginner-friendly routines.
The company’s global online mall has also reported strong growth, with overseas sales rising 70 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2025 and order volumes up 60 per cent, according to Korea Times.
Olive Young is also a major destination for foreign visitors in South Korea. International tourists accounted for 26 per cent of offline sales in the first half of this year, rising above 30 per cent in the second quarter, according to Korea Economic Daily.
Of the 7.2 million tourists who visited the country from January to May, nearly six million made purchases at Olive Young stores, and found its multilingual services, tax-refund counters, colour-analysis consultations, and personal shopping programmes specifically designed for customers unfamiliar with local brands very helpful.
The appeal of Korean beauty, and Olive Young in particular, was further boosted during the recent APEC summit in Gyeongju city, where US White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and presidential adviser Margo Martin shared their Olive Young product hauls on social media.
According to Maeil Business News Korea, foot traffic at the branch they visited jumped 77 per cent compared with the previous week, while the share of foreign-customer sales rose from 20 per cent to 63 per cent.
Despite Olive Young’s quick expansion, the retailer has faced concerns over parts of its operation. At home, South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission fined the retailer 1.89bn won (£985,601) in December 2023 for what it ruled were unfair practices toward suppliers, including forcing them to shoulder the cost of Olive Young’s own promotional events, according to the Korea Times.
Overseas customers have complained about Olive Young’s global e-commerce site, with Trustpilot reviews citing unexpected customs charges and missing parcels. “I ordered 1+1 item as their web page image, but delivered only 1. I sent an inquiry and the response was that it wasn't a 1+1 promotion. I can not believe a company which runs globally, makes a mistake like this and handles customer service poorly,” wrote one customer.
Another wrote: “Paid over €30 (£26.47) in customs. In the website there is no transparency regarding how much and if custom costs are applicable.”
Moving to a brick-and-mortar physical store in the US with local pricing and on-the-ground support, Olive Young might be able to sidestep the delivery delays and customs surprises that international customers have raised about its online operation.
Nevertheless, the US launch has come as trade conditions grow more complex. The US government introduced a 15 per cent tariff on low-value Korean imports, which were previously exempt under the de minimis threshold, from late August this year, targeting Korean goods, including cosmetics.
Smaller Korean aggregators have said they are stocking up on bestsellers before the hikes hit them, and some brands said they may be forced to raise prices.
The competitive landscape Olive Young is entering is equally challenging. American retailers have spent the past two years racing to acquire Korean brands; Sephora has signed exclusive deals with Hanyul and Aestura, while Ulta Beauty has become the only major retailer stocking Medicube’s skincare devices.
Both chains have expanded their assortments of Korean brands, and K-beauty has grown into a $2bn industry in the US in the year to July 2025, up 37 per cent year-on-year, according to NielsenIQ.
However, Olive Young may still carve out a distinct position in the US market despite tariff pressures and intensifying competition. Part of that advantage lies in the sharp contrast between its stores and the environments created by American beauty giants.
Anna Keller, a principal analyst from London-based market research firm Mintel, told Business Insider: “Unlike Sephora and Ulta, which focus on a handful of big-name brands, Olive Young is more about discovery. They'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.”
This emphasis on “discovery” is central to the store’s physical design as well. According to Harvard Business School assistant professor Rebecca Karp, who spoke to the Korea Herald, the retailer has built its success on immersive “beauty playgrounds”, or stores which combine more than 10,000 products with interactive displays and category-driven layouts that encourage browsing. The company’s Myeong-dong flagship in central Seoul, for example, reportedly handles more than 5,000 purchases daily.
“What I love the most about Olive Young is the ability to try, discover and search for products,” Karp said. “If you want to try and use products for ‘slow aging,’ for example, they are all grouped together, so you can learn about and utilise the full ecosystem of products, not just a particular brand that you might know.”
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