K-beauty is preparing for a new leap forward, expanding its territory beyond Asia and North America into Latin America. With President Lee Jae-myung’s state visit to Brazil accompanied by a large contingent of K-beauty companies in the economic delegation, “presidential sales diplomacy” has kicked into high gear. Adding to the momentum, signs of an export rebound in the previously sluggish Chinese market are emerging, drawing attention to whether K-beauty stocks can once again reach their peak.<\/p>\n
K-Beauty Turns Out in Full Force for Presidential Economic Delegation<\/p>\n
President Lee Jae-myung made a state visit to Brazil from July 26 to 29. The delegation included major South Korean conglomerates such as Samsung, SK, and Hyundai Motor, alongside four beauty companies: Amorepacific President Lee Sang-mok, APR CEO Kim Byung-hoon, Goodai Global CEO Cheon Ju-hyuk, and Silicon2 CEO Kim Sung-woon. It is unusual for relatively smaller beauty companies to feature so prominently in an economic delegation traditionally dominated by large manufacturing firms.<\/p>\n
These companies attended the Korea-Brazil Business Roundtable in S\u00e3o Paulo on July 28, where they requested the removal of barriers to entering the Brazilian market. Amorepacific noted that Brazil’s imports of South Korean cosmetics have increased more than fivefold over the past three years and proposed improvements to complex distribution structures and certification procedures. APR, Goodai Global, and Silicon2 also called for better certification and trade conditions.<\/p>\n
At the Alvorada Palace, the Brazilian presidential residence, on July 27, President Lee stated, “In line with the high interest in K-culture in Brazil, we have agreed to work together to widely introduce K-beauty and K-food and contribute to improving the health and quality of life of the Brazilian people.”<\/p>\n
Brazil: World’s Third-Largest Market with High Potential but High Barriers<\/p>\n
According to South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, K-beauty exports in the first half of this year reached $7 billion (approximately 10 trillion won), up 27.3% year-on-year. This is a record high for any first half and approaches the annual export figure of $8 billion recorded in 2022. The United States led the growth, accounting for $1.45 billion, or 20.7% of total exports. China followed with $1.01 billion, and Japan with $580 million.<\/p>\n
In contrast, exports to Latin America remain negligible. According to Korea Customs Service trade statistics, cosmetics exports to Brazil last year totaled $54.3 million (approximately 77 billion won), ranking only 32nd among export destinations. Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina do not even rank in the top 20 for cosmetics exports.<\/p>\n
However, Brazil’s share of the global cosmetics market cannot be ignored. According to health industry statistics, Brazil’s cosmetics market was valued at $31 billion in 2025, ranking third globally behind the United States ($112 billion) and China ($69 billion). Mexico, at $16 billion (approximately 22.8 trillion won), is larger than France ($15 billion) and Italy ($13 billion). Both countries have larger markets than South Korea ($13 billion).<\/p>\n
NH Investment & Securities analyst Jung Ji-yoon explained, “As of the first half, exports to five major Latin American countries (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile) account for only 2% of the total, still negligible, but the growth rate is 82%, the second highest after Europe.” She added, “Brazil has high popularity for K-pop and K-culture, and its cosmetics retail market is second only to the U.S. and China. However, it is at a disadvantage compared to other Western countries in terms of distribution and tariffs. If institutions and cooperation are strengthened through the Korea-Brazil visit, it is expected to emerge as a country with significant potential.”<\/p>\n
Signs of a China Export Rebound: Can the ‘Lost Market’ Recover?<\/p>\n
Signals of a rebound are also being detected in China, once K-beauty’s largest market. From July 1 to 20, cosmetics exports totaled $623 million, up 32.8% year-on-year. Notably, exports to China rose 21.8% to $83 million (approximately 120 billion won). China exports had already increased 31% year-on-year to $150 million in June, continuing a recovery trend that began in May.<\/p>\n
China is the world’s second-largest cosmetics market, but K-beauty exports began declining in 2024. They fell 10.3% from $2.78 billion in 2023 to $2.49 billion in 2024, and further to $2.02 billion in 2025. The rapid growth of C-beauty and China’s slowing consumer economy are cited as the main causes. As of the first half of this year, China exports stood at $1.006 billion, down 6.6% year-on-year, but attention is focused on whether the recent rebound can lift overall second-half performance.<\/p>\n
Hana Securities analyst Kim Myung-joo analyzed, “Contrary to market expectations, if China’s cosmetics industry shows a meaningful recovery in the second half, South Korea’s cosmetics sector could once again enter a golden era. China’s cosmetics market is the largest globally after the United States.” The securities industry also forecasts that the annual China revenue of global cosmetics ODM (research, development, and production) companies Kolmar Korea and Cosmax will improve year-on-year.<\/p>\n
Three K-Beauty Giants Improve Earnings with Divergent Global Strategies<\/p>\n
K-beauty companies’ efforts to seize new opportunities in Latin America and China are already reflected in their earnings. The three major players\u2014APR, Amorepacific, and LG Household & Health Care\u2014are targeting the global market in different ways.<\/p>\n
APR posted record quarterly results with revenue of \u20a9767.5 billion (approximately $539.4 million) and operating profit of \u20a9190.6 billion (approximately $133.9 million) in the second quarter, surging 134% year-on-year in both metrics. Notably, overseas revenue accounted for \u20a9700 billion (approximately $491.9 million), or 92% of the total, firmly establishing the company as a global player. North American revenue jumped 264.6% year-on-year to \u20a9376.3 billion (approximately $264.5 million), while European revenue soared 380.3% to \u20a9145.1 billion (approximately $102.0 million). An APR representative stated, “The growth foundation built primarily in North America is rapidly spreading to new markets such as Europe, putting our global business on a stable growth trajectory.”<\/p>\n
Amorepacific achieved consolidated revenue of \u20a91.18 trillion (approximately $826.4 million) and operating profit of \u20a9117.3 billion (approximately $82.4 million) in the second quarter, up 17.0% and 59.3% year-on-year, respectively. A key feature was balanced growth between domestic (\u20a9610.8 billion) and overseas (\u20a9551.6 billion) markets. In particular, the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region saw 63% year-on-year growth, driven by Cosrx sunscreen sales. However, Greater China contracted by approximately 6%, interpreted as a result of a “de-China” strategy through offline channel efficiency improvements and a premium portfolio restructuring.<\/p>\n
LG Household & Health Care recorded revenue of \u20a91.66 trillion (approximately $1.2 billion) and operating profit of \u20a9102.8 billion (approximately $72.2 million) in the second quarter. Operating profit improved significantly, rising 87.5% year-on-year. The most notable change was that North American revenue (\u20a9205.8 billion) surpassed China revenue (\u20a9176.0 billion) for the first time. North American revenue surged 47.3% year-on-year, while China revenue contracted 5.0%. This is the first such occurrence since the spin-off of its independent entity, indicating progress in reducing reliance on China and diversifying growth axes. However, the fact that this operating profit improvement was partly driven by a one-time factor\u2014a U.S. tariff refund\u2014is noted as a concern.<\/p>\n
Potential for a Third Golden Era<\/p>\n
If the Latin American market development and China market recovery materialize simultaneously, it is expected to have a positive impact on K-beauty stock prices. After K-beauty-related companies such as APR and Silicon2 led the stock market rally last year, there are observations that if Amorepacific and LG Household & Health Care also see their stock prices recover this year, the entire industry could enter its third golden era, following those of 2015\u20132016 and 2024\u20132025.<\/p>\n
Analyst Jung Ji-yoon explained, “Since investor expectations for the cosmetics sector are fundamentally high, growth into Western and emerging markets (the Middle East, Latin America, etc.) must be continuously supported over the mid to long term.”<\/p>\n
The number of countries importing K-beauty expanded from 172 in 2024 to 202 in 2025. While K-beauty is now exported to virtually every country in the world, awareness remains low in some regions, including Europe and Latin America. If the presidential visit opens the door to the Latin American market and the Chinese market recovers simultaneously, K-beauty appears poised to once again establish a springboard for a leap forward in the global market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"K-beauty is preparing for a new leap forward, expanding its territory beyond Asia and North America into Latin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[439,82,17633,134,15174,51847,6293,6603,31,146,440,2322,51848,33,57398],"class_list":["post-111894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-korea","tag-amorepacific","tag-apr","tag-brazil","tag-china","tag-cosmax","tag-goodai-global","tag-k-beauty","tag-kolmar-korea","tag-korea","tag-lee-jae-myung","tag-lg-household-health-care","tag-president-lee-jae-myung","tag-silicon2","tag-south-korea","tag-south-koreas-ministry-of-food-and-drug-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}