Who would have thought serums infused with snail mucin - the sticky substance they secrete - would become a part of skincare routines around the world?
Well, it's happened - and the gooey elasticity is key, according to a viral TikTok challenge promoting the serum. It made its manufacturer, the small South Korean label CosRX, go global. It is now owned by Amorepacific, the country's biggest cosmetics company.
The rapid spread of that sticky serum tells you just how wildly successful K-beauty has become. Fuelled by viral content and trends, it is one of the biggest industries in South Korea, where the pressure to look almost flawless has always been huge in a highly competitive society.
The domestic market alone was valued at about $13bn (£9.6bn) in 2024, with sales of some products expected to grow at double-digit rates. And the rest of the world is just as obsessed with K-beauty - which is perhaps unsurprising given it's part of the Hallyu, or Korean Wave, which has made K-Pop and K-dramas a global phenomenon.
K-beauty brands now occupy whole sections at global retailers - from Sephora to Boots to Walmart. In the first half of 2025, South Korea overtook France, the birthplace of modern cosmetics, to become the world's second-largest exporter of beauty products, after the United States.
Search for Korean skincare on TikTok, Instagram or YouTube and you'll be met with a deluge of content from influencers, some of whom have hundreds of millions of followers. They dissect ingredient lists, film unboxings and record Get Ready With Me videos built around ideas such as glass skin, sheet masks and, of course, snail mucin.
At the heart of K-beauty's rise is a relentless pace of innovation. New formulations appear every few months, often designed to spark the next online obsession.
Ten-step skincare routines, overnight water sleeping masks and headline-grabbing ingredients such as salmon sperm were once viewed as niche or unappealing. Today, many are staples in bathroom cabinets from London to Los Angeles.
Social media has been central to this shift. Products launched in Seoul are on TikTok and Instagram feeds in the US, UK, India and Australia instantly.
There are however growing concerns about the social impact of beauty ideals, particularly on young people. Experts warn that constant exposure to skincare content online can fuel anxiety and excessive spending.
We are fully aware that excessive use or misuse of social media can lead to backlash, said Kim Seung-hwan, Amorepacific's chief executive, adding that brands must strike a careful balance in how they use online platforms.
The challenge will only grow as the industry expands to include Western multinationals. L'Oreal acquired a South Korean conglomerate which included the brand Dr.G in late 2024, saying the deal would help meet rising demand for effective yet affordable K-beauty products.
Many of South Korea's large beauty brands are part of the country's powerful conglomerates, or chaebols. Amorepacific accounts for roughly half of the domestic market. Its portfolio ranges from premium brands such as Sulwhasoo to global mass-market names like Laneige and environmentally focused labels such as Innisfree.
In 2024, Amorepacific sold about $6.2bn of products. LG Household & Health Care, another major conglomerate, recorded sales of $4.1bn. The scale of the industry continues to show up in South Korea's export figures too.
Exports rose 15% in the first half of 2025 to a record $5.5bn, largely driven by strong sales in the US and Europe, putting the country on track to surpass $10bn in annual beauty exports.
Even large conglomerates outsource some product lines, while smaller names depend heavily on ODMs to move quickly and keep costs down. Cosmax, one of the largest manufacturers, supplies products to about 4,500 brands.
This allows products to move from being conceptualized to being sold in as little as six months - a process that can take one to three years for many Western brands.
Speed, however, comes at a cost. Intense competition has contributed to thin profit margins and high rates of business failures. More than 8,800 cosmetics brands have gone out of business in recent years.
As competition intensifies, brands face growing pressure to be more transparent and to focus on ingredients and the effectiveness of their products rather than celebrity endorsements.
Through the founder and the CosRX team, we were able to learn their approach to formula innovation and how to respond more quickly to consumer needs, Mr Kim said. These lessons have since been integrated into our wider organization.
Yet the firms have the backing of the South Korean government, which designated K-beauty a strategic national asset in December, promising to support manufacturing and exports.
It is a telling vote of confidence in an industry that kicked off as a viral trend and is now an economic force.
