Data Shows Korean Skin Care Brands Are Dominating Via Organic TikTok Buzz — and It’s Not Close

Noor Lobad

July 30, 2024 at 1:01 PM·4 min read

Korean skin care is swelling — and with little effort by the brands leading the pack.

Data from Spate indicates that six out of the top 10 skin care brands by quarter-over-quarter TikTok views growth are K-beauty brands, including Medicube for its viral Age-R Booster device, and Skin1004 for its serum-like PA++++ SPF and other centella asiatica-infused offerings.

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Equally as significant: The growth of these K-beauty brands has been largely organic, where that of its U.S.-based counterparts is mainly driven by views of paid content. Olay, for example, rakes in a weekly average of 76.2 million views on TikTok. The brand’s quarter-over-quarter views are up by 248.7 million — but 97 percent of those views are of paid content, or that which is tagged #ad or #OlayPartner.

By contrast, paid content is only contributing to 1.1 percent of TikTok views for Anua, a K-beauty brand which ranks number-three by growth after Olay and La Roche-Posay, with a quarter-over-quarter increase of 62.4 million views. The brand is best known for its heartleaf-infused offerings, particularly its Pore Control Cleansing Oil, which retails for $20 and purports to address sebaceous filaments.

“K-beauty is absolutely not new in the U.S., but it has had a resurgence over the last two years, driven by Korean beauty practices and Korean brands,” said Spate cofounder Yarden Horwitz, adding that views of the #KoreanSunscreen hashtag are up by 43.6 million — or 106 percent — versus quarter one, while “Korean skin care routine” views grew by 14.9 million, or 30 percent during the same period.

“We’re seeing bigger brands having to pay to get the kind of engagement growth that some of these K-beauty brands, which have a level of cool factor and in some cases are quite an affordable alternative to U.S. skin care products, are getting organically,” Horwitz said.

The growth of Medicube, led by its $480 (but oft on sale for half the price) microcurrent and LED “glass glow” device, “is similar to the trajectory of Solawave,” said Horwitz, adding that both benefit from their positioning as comparatively affordable alternatives to other offerings in the at-home LED therapy space.

It helps, too, that K-beauty products are more accessible now than ever before for U.S. consumers, thanks to the international growth of e-tailers like South Korea’s Olive Young, Cocomint Beauty and YesStyle — plus TikTok Shop, where brands like Round Lab, Skin1004 and Beauty of Joseon, which dominate the Korean SPF conversation, are selling.

South Korea’s Mixsoon, which was founded in 2020, is meanwhile set to enter U.S. retail via an estimated 200 Costco doors.

“This data is a great snapshot of what’s happening on TikTok this quarter versus last; K-beauty shows no sign of slowing down, and a lot of these brands are actively making a push to increase their distribution in the U.S. — it’s going to become really important for [U.S.] brands to acknowledge them as real competitors,” Horwitz said.

Here, the top 10 skin care brands by quarter-over-quarter TikTok views growth, plus what percent of each brand’s views were of paid content, per Spate.