‘K-Beauty Edit’ Launches at 87% of U.S. Sephora Stores
Direct Curation: Over 150 Products from 19 Brands
Standalone Stores for Experience, Sephora for Expansion… Dual-Track Strategy
“I recently traveled to Korea. Olive Young is very popular among women there. I have a Korean friend, so I bought some products recommended by Olive Young as well. Korean skincare products are famous, and now it’s great that I can buy even more products at Sephora.”
On the 20th, local customers crowded the moving pop-up of Olive Young ‘K-Beauty Edit’ set up in the middle of Times Square in Manhattan, New York, USA. Olive Young
On August 20 (local time), Alice (36, Brooklyn), whom we met in Times Square, New York, shared her thoughts on Olive Young’s entry into Sephora in the United States. She used to visit Olive Young herself when traveling to Korea, but now she can find the brand at one of America’s leading beauty retailers.
Amid the dazzling electronic billboards of Times Square, a giant screen displayed a green background with the message: “Korea’s #1 Beauty Store Is at Sephora.” Just below, as you enter the Sephora flagship store, there is a dedicated space marked “OLIVE YOUNG K-Beauty Edit.” Customers were seen testing out Korean cosmetics, such as Rejuran, Toriden, and Arencia, applying products or reading about them at the display.
CJ Olive Young is using Sephora as a springboard to expand its reach to American consumers nationwide. Olive Young’s “K-Beauty Edit” has launched at 580 out of approximately 670 Sephora offline stores across the United States—about 87% of all locations—including 16 stores in Manhattan alone.
American beauty influencers are exploring Olive Young, which has entered the distribution channel Sephora in a ‘Shop in Shop’ format. New York, USA – Photo by Yoonjoo Hwang
The core of this launch goes beyond individual K-beauty brands entering the market; it is Olive Young’s own curation that has landed in the U.S. market. The K-Beauty Edit offers over 150 products, including skincare and beauty devices from 19 brands that have been carefully selected for their competitiveness from the perspective of American consumers.
At the Times Square flagship store, this is presented as a separate “Shop in Shop.” Instead of arranging products by brand, they are grouped according to skin concerns and benefits, such as Skin Reset, Boost & Glow, Advanced Actives, and Mask Library. Some products are labeled as “OLIVE YOUNG AWARDS 2025 WINNER,” highlighting their popularity in the Korean market as a reference point for consumers.
Outside the store, the olive Young curation strategy could be experienced more directly. Olive Young operated a large green pop-up truck in the middle of Times Square for two days, inviting visitors to try and receive samples of “15 trendy K-beauty products selected by Olive Young,” which drew large crowds.
Prior to this, Olive Young had opened standalone stores in Pasadena and Los Angeles (LA), California, in May and June. While these stores serve as “showcases” for in-depth experiences with various K-beauty brands and the Korean beauty routine, Sephora, with its nationwide distribution network, is positioned as the channel to quickly spread K-beauty across the U.S.
An Olive Young representative stated, “If our independent stores are spaces where the diverse allure of K-beauty and a genuine beauty routine can be experienced in depth, Sephora will serve as the channel to rapidly and widely familiarize local customers with K-beauty.”
This means that Olive Young, instead of increasing its stores one by one, has secured hundreds of consumer touchpoints at once. Now, American consumers can see and purchase K-beauty products directly at a nearby Sephora, without having to seek out specialty shops or specific locations.
The product “Toriden,” which is also famous in the United States, is displayed on the Olive Young shelves. New York, USA – Special Correspondent Yoonju Hwang
The product lineup will not remain fixed. Olive Young plans to update the brands and products featured in the K-Beauty Edit twice annually, reflecting local consumer feedback and market trends. The company aims to strengthen its role as a “K-beauty curator” that discovers emerging Korean brands and introduces them to U.S. consumers.
This strategy is backed by the growing presence of K-beauty in the United States. U.S. imports of Korean cosmetics rose from 1.1 billion dollars in 2023 to 1.7 billion dollars in 2024, an increase of 54.4%, making Korea the No.1 importer for the first time, surpassing France.
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Building on this K-beauty boom, Olive Young’s strategy is to evolve from simply selling individual Korean cosmetics in the U.S. to establishing itself as a distribution platform that guides consumers on “which K-beauty to buy” in the American market.
This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.
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