Whenever the Los Angeles-based skincare influencer Young Yuh visits South Korea, there’s one shop he frequents more than anywhere else. It’s easy, because there’s one on nearly every corner.
“In Olive Young, there are so many small companies that you’ve never heard of that have amazing products,” he said on a call. “It’s such a great opportunity for me to figure out, ‘What are some of these newer brands with new technologies, or something different and unique that they haven’t released in the US?’”
At South Korea’s largest beauty retailer, Yuh can stock up on an extra suitcase worth of sunscreens and cushion foundations that haven’t found their way across the Pacific. Recently, his followers demanded info on where to purchase a Dr. Althea cushion foundation he gave a rave review on. His answer: nowhere but Korea. “I’m serious. I’m a computer tech-savvy crazy guy. You cannot find this cushion online. I’m so glad I bought it.”
Soon he’ll be able to skip the 13-hour flight. Olive Young’s first US locations, announced in February of this year, will arrive in Los Angeles in May 2026, the retailer confirmed to The Business of Beauty.
While other specialty retailers have tried and failed to crack beauty-obsessed South Korea, Olive Young has steadily risen to dominate its home market over its 26 years in business. As a destination for beauty discovery and play, complete with “Beauty Bar” trial areas, a visual ranking of best-sellers and a full snack section, it is distinct from other global retailers.
The first Olive Young US store will open in Los Angeles’ Pasadena neighborhood, followed by a location in Century City Mall later in May. Other LA-based locations under consideration include Torrance and Irvine. The new physical stores will reportedly have over 200 brands, including confirmed names such as Anua, Ma:nyo, Sungboon Editor, Dr. Althea, Mediheal, Round Lab, D’Alba and Purito, as well as its in-house lines Colorgram, Bringgreen and Bioheal Boh.
In the US, Olive Young will go head-to-head with giants like Sephora and Ulta Beauty, both of which are rapidly expanding their own K-beauty sections as Korean brands continue to push into the world’s largest beauty market.
Like Sephora in South Korea, the retailer faces the inherent challenge of adapting to a new international market. While it’s a beauty kingmaker on its home turf, it will have to compete with established retailers to attract the top trending K-beauty brands, and adjust its stellar trend prediction capabilities to a new audience that’s just begun to discover many of Korea’s top innovations.
“They revolutionised the shopping experience for beauty,” said Harvard Business School professor Rebecca Karp. “They’ve thought about the mix of products in Korea differently as they’ve grown their customer base, and they’ll go through a really similar process in the US.”
Rising to the Top
Owned by CJ Corporation, a sprawling conglomerate that operates everything from dining chains like Bibigo to an entertainment arm that produced the Oscar-winning “Parasite,” Olive Young first opened in South Korea in 1999. Now with over 1,370 stores, its market share in the health and beauty retail category (stores offering a combination of wellness and beauty products) rose from over 57 percent in 2021 to more than 71 percent by 2023, according to Seoul-based investment bank Hana Securities. Its most recent earnings report showed approximately $2.93 billion in cumulative revenue for the first three quarters of 2025 with 20.8 percent year-over-year growth.
“It had been around a long time, and then at some point it became a monopoly,” said Sarah Chung Park, founder of US-based K-beauty distributor Landing International, of Olive Young’s business in South Korea. After withdrawing from China in the 2010s, its foray into the US will mark its only brick-and-mortar presence in another country.
Its market dominance at home solidified even as competitors folded. Sephora, which entered South Korea in 2019, exited by 2024. Even local beauty retail rivals Lalavla and Lotte-owned LOHB’s both shuttered all their locations in 2022. Olive Young, which does not track a “health and beauty” retail category, estimates its current market share for beauty overall to be between 20 and 30 percent, according to a representative.
The chain is known for Starbucks-level ubiquity with a mix of multi-story flagship locations and convenience-style corner stores. The largest one, in the Seongsu neighbourhood that opened in 2024, spans 4,628 square metres and five stories.
“You could be driving and see 10 Olive Youngs,” said Park.
Beyond location numbers, price competitiveness has helped it win the market. While Sephora has historically offered premium and luxury brands such as Amorepacific’s Sulwhasoo, Olive Young built its empire on a $13 to $35 price point and abundant samples.
“Koreans already know so many alternatives to other comparable Korean brands. So they’re like, ‘Why would I pay similar US prices when I can just go to Olive Young and get a buy one, get one free deal?’” said Yuh. On his most recent trip to Seoul, a purchase of one sunscreen bottle was accompanied by copious samples, including multiple sheet masks and zit stickers. Shoppers can browse a food and drinks section with an array of snacks and beverages ranging from probiotic wellness drinks to wine; large stores have lounges and tax rebate areas for international visitors.
But perhaps Olive Young’s greatest asset is its formidable merchandising team and their savvy trend forecasting, from the herbal ingredient centella and salmon sperm-derived PDRN to sebum softeners and hair ampoules, said Karp.
This fast response rate could give Olive Young a leg up against US retailers, which waited to onboard viral K-beauty brands years after they racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in sales directly to consumers or on TikTok Shop and Amazon.
The Korean beauty boom has already reshaped shopping habits as Americans, particularly young, digitally savvy consumers, flood Seoul for cosmetic procedures and product hauls. According to a recent Olive Young press release, three out of four foreign visitors to the Seongsu area shop at its flagship, and foreign card transactions at its Seongsu-area stores increased 592 percent in the past year.
“I heard more people speak English than Korean,” said Park of a recent visit to a Seoul location.
If international demand is any indication, Olive Young is primed for a successful launch. New York-based beauty influencer Ava Lee, who often posts from Olive Young on her visits to Korea, has bumped into followers from the West when shopping there.
“They saved my videos,” she said.
Coming to America
As a destination for accessibly priced, efficacious products, Olive Young’s aggressive promotion model will likely resonate at a time of heightened price consciousness in the US.
But its price advantage may be slightly dented due to tariffs. Park predicts the retailer may need to position itself as “more upscale” in the US. “I don’t know that they can provide a value-first story.”
In May 2025, made-in-Korea American brand Glow Recipe announced that it had increased prices of several products by $1, while founders like Krave Beauty’s Liah Yoo and Soko Glam’s Charlotte Cho have predicted prices would go up in videos on social media. Amorepacific has also considered price increases as part of a multi-pronged response to tariffs.
And while Sephora and Ulta Beauty were slow to jump on K-beauty’s second wave, they’re getting quicker. Landing International’s K-Beauty World curation launched in all 1,451 Ulta Beauty stores earlier this year, giving the US retailer the opportunity to swap products quickly and bring in trending brands immediately after they take off. Sephora has doubled its K-beauty roster in 2025, securing must-have brands like Beauty of Joseon, and plans to launch more brands next year, said a spokesperson.
Brands that have become especially big in the US, including Beauty of Joseon and Tirtir, have not confirmed whether they’ll be sold at the Olive Young physical store despite being stocked at its Korea-based and online stores. Medicube will not be sold at Olive Young’s US locations, a spokesperson confirmed; it is sold at Ulta Beauty. Tirtir is “more focused on Ulta [Beauty]” for its US brick-and-mortar presence due to its established footprint, said global head of marketing Lyla Kim. Amorepacific-owned Cosrx, however, is possible, as it sponsored a large booth at the Olive Young-sponsored KCon in Los Angeles at the beginning of August.
The Korean hype cycle at home can be rapid, losing brands in the shuffle when products are part of curations, giving local US retailers an edge. Prominent single-brand product display cases at Sephora and Ulta Beauty have been a major draw for in-demand brands like Tirtir, who are looking to establish themselves with a new customer.
Joey Chung, US market director for Sungboon Editor, said that Ulta Beauty and Target are the main US channels for the skincare brand, which sells the number one ranking pore serum at Olive Young in Korea; it has confirmed its place in Olive Young’s US stores.
Korean beauty enthusiasts see the retailer’s arrival as yet another sign that K-beauty’s second wave isn’t a passing tide but a sea change.
“Olive Young is going to create an entire new wave of brands that will go viral, content creators that will go viral,” said Yuh.
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