After attending a slew of K-pop concerts, Melissa Alfer noticed something incongruous.
The audiences at the shows she attended in the US and Europe were overwhelmingly attended by fans with melanin-rich skin, including Black, Latino and hijabi teens and twentysomethings. But K-beauty, another key element of Korean culture, seemed to exclude them.
“Melanin-rich consumers love K-beauty, but K-beauty wasn’t designed with us in mind,” Alfer told The Business of Beauty.
“They’re fluent in Korean culture, but not reflected in the skincare made in Korea.”
Her observation dovetails with data. In a recent report released in September, market research firm Mintel found that Black women in the US show greater interest in foreign and K-beauty products (27 percent) than their white counterparts (19 percent).
K-beauty is big business: After booming in the aughts, the category has seen a resurgence in global popularity thanks to TikTok, with domestic players like Tirtir, Laneige and Aestura becoming hot brands overnight. Global retailers like Sephora, Ulta Beauty and Space NK have all increased their K-beauty selections rapidly to meet demand.
There are opportunities for brands to reframe K-beauty for darker skin tones to reach new consumers and optimise revenue. Alongside buzzy brand Beauty of Joseon’s 2025 inclusive skin tint range, Mintel highlighted the potential of K+Brown, the brand Alfer went on to launch — though it is yet to launch a product.
Co-founded by Alfer and fellow French entrepreneur Hugo de Mondragon, K+Brown aims to be the first Korean skincare brand formulated and clinically tested specifically for melanin-rich skin. All its products will be made and developed in South Korea, and Alfer is relocating to Seoul after being granted a specialist visa.
According to the company’s motto and trademark, “Galskin” is the new glass skin. It’s set to launch in March 2026, with interest building fast after the brand teased its launch on social media in January; a waitlist opened on Dec. 12. It has already raised half of its $500,000 goal in a pre-seed round.
South Korea’s government appears aligned with the brand’s ambitions. Alfer said the residency visa she was granted to set up the business is one of only three to have been awarded globally.
In addition to demand for K-beauty products from Black and brown customers, synergies exist between popular products and the needs of darker skin tones. K-beauty products often focus on hydration and radiance, two common concerns.
There’s also a personal urgency for Alfer. “My daughter told me she wasn’t pretty because she had brown skin, and that her favourite K-pop idols bleach their faces,” Alfer said.
“That was when I realised something deeper had to change.”
Making K-Beauty’s Science More Inclusive
With its launch, K+Brown is attempting to address wider imbalances in how the beauty industry treats customers with darker skin tones.
Alfer said that fewer than 1 percent of beauty brands test their product claims on darker skin tones, pointing to disparities in the skin’s structural characteristics. Melanin-rich skin is often lower in ceramides, exacerbating dryness, so a moisturiser only tested on lighter skin tones may not perform as well on darker skin, she explained.
“Most consumers would be shocked at how little clinical testing is required in the US — and how rarely darker skin is included,” said Nisha Phatak, founder of inclusive skincare brand Lion Pose. Even potent active ingredients are typically formulated based on how they behave on lighter skin, despite evidence that melanin-rich skin absorbs active ingredients more intensely, increasing the risk of irritation or rebound pigmentation.
K+Brown’s internal data suggests that around 30 percent of K-beauty consumers in the US are Black, Latino or non-white/non-East Asian. Yet most K-beauty formulas are still created and tested almost exclusively on East Asian skin.
K+Brown’s hero product, the Galskin Barrier+ 24:7 serum, $24.90, contains niacinamide, ceramides and provitamin B5. It will also offer a hydrating mist, another popular K-beauty product.
With the US as its first core market and Europe following suit, K+Brown plans to expand to reach melanin-rich consumers worldwide, with a focus on India and the Middle East.
A Growing Category Under Pressure
K+Brown enters a market that has seen increasing demand but also significant churn.
Inclusive brands are facing choppy waters: Venture investment in Black-founded beauty brands has fallen sharply, creating a more challenging fundraising environment. According to data firm Crunchbase, in 2022, Black-founded beauty brands raised $73 million, representing 9.56 percent of industry investment. In 2024, they only raised $16 million.
Over the past decade, several brands have sought to address melanin-rich consumers more directly, including African botanical skincare line 54 Thrones, Gen Z favourite Topicals and even tone specialist Urban Skin Rx. Their offerings often focused on hyperpigmentation, barrier repair or uneven tone. While some names like Topicals and makeup brand LYS Beauty continue to grow, in July 2025, the news that clean makeup brand Ami Colé was closing despite strong cultural equity, shocked the industry.
Although demand for solutions tailored to melanin-rich skin is growing globally, these brands still face the same structural pressures as all emerging brands such as rising production costs and the cost of retail expansion, on top of tariffs in the US.
“We need labs, testing panels and institutional support that treat melanin-rich skin as a starting point, not an afterthought,” said Alfer. She and de Mondragon are confident that the blend of K-beauty’s buzz and perception of being higher quality with an inclusive touch will be a winner.
Customers will likely respond to well-formulated, not just well-marketed products.
“Scientific inclusivity has to start in the lab, not on the shelf,” said Lion Pose’s Phatak.
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