Olive Young to strengthen K-beauty’s reach overseas

While the recent acquisition of a small Korean skincare brand by a global company has drawn much attention to K-beauty, Olive Young has organized the very first beauty convention in celebration of its 20th birthday bringing together leading K-beauty brands. The beauty and health retailer said Sunday that it held the “2019 Olive Young Awards & Festa” on Friday and Saturday at S Factory in Seoul’s Seongdong District.

For the past 20 years, Olive Young has been building bridges between small, affordable, yet high quality beauty brands and customers. Nearly 80 percent of the brands it carries are small and medium-sized or start-ups. Well-known K-beauty brands such as Dr. Jart+, Mediheal and Too Cool For School have also been introduced to customers through the South Korean beauty retailer.

Starting with the beauty convention, Olive Young is planning to go beyond the domestic market and help strengthen K-beauty’s reach in foreign markets. In fact, the beauty mecca has been running “Happy Companion,” a program that supports the growth of great small and medium-sized beauty brands, since 2016. “Olive Young will continue to support and promote small Korean beauty companies that are leading the K-beauty trend, not only in the domestic market but also in the global market,” the retailer said.


salthj@donga.com