K-beauty grows!

By Bernard Rowan

For years, my wife and I marvel when we travel to or through Korea using Incheon International Airport. The shops are beautiful and sell outstanding products. Increasingly, beauty products dominate the counters and shop spaces. A traveler can buy all the top brands. The same goes for shopping in the fine department stores and shopping areas of Seoul and other cities.

These days, however, Korean beauty products gain ground as leading sellers in these shops ― and even more, in shops throughout the world. Korea is reinventing beauty, or perhaps reminding us of what makes for beauty, through advanced product design, excellent marketing, and providing good value for money.

Consumers in many nations continue to seek ways to counter the effects on the body of working more hours. We look for therapies to care for the body in an age where so much leads us to forget ourselves. Just as ambient music, spa treatments, and fitness have seen renewed popularity, beauty products are a key trend as part of healthy living.

Today, Korean facial cleaning and moisturizing products take the world by storm. Many people in my family use the skin masks for cleaning and making the skin softer. These excellent treatments help fight off the damage caused by our sun-soaked places and dehydrated interior spaces. They counter the results of aging. People don't want to focus just on making skin look better with coloring and makeup. They want products that keep the skin clean, healthy, and luxuriant.

Korean beauty products have become leading export items for your advanced economy. I read at premiumbeautynews.com that exports have reached $2.75 billion, with the leading importers being China and Hong Kong. Korean products are now beginning to rival those made in other advanced countries. Exports to the United States and France are also growing. Double-digit growth, sometimes at annual rates of 50 percent or more, characterizes the spread of Korean beauty products in global markets.

Some of the leading enterprises in the Korean beauty products world include Innisfree, Laneige, Etude House, and Sulwhasoo, all from the AmorePacific Group. These brands have begun to spread how good Korea's consumer goods are, just as have Samsung phones or KIA cars, for example. In the past, Korean beauty products launched as what people call "BB creams." They combine foundation, moisturizer, sunscreen, and antioxidants in one product, according to Debbie Carlson of The Chicago Tribune (March 9, 2016).

From what I've read, Korean beauty treatments may use refinements of natural substances and new chemical compounds or additives. However, the treatments often simply return consumers to practices of good skincare, stressing the cleaning, sun-protecting and restorative and hydrating properties. The Carlson article noted this as a contrast with American or European beauty treatments that stress convenience and not having to take much time. Korean treatments focus on the need to care for the skin not just regularly but several times a day, morning and night.

Some people might think this is unnecessary, and I'm sure it's possible that using Korean-style beauty products and therapies doesn't work for everyone. That's not unique to Korean products though. I'm sure the valuable benefits of Korean products will push use past those tied to staid devotees of 20th century beauty treatments and mainstay products.

The Korea Times (March 7, 2016) recently featured an article by Kang Hyun-kyung that notes another important key for continuing the trend of K-beauty products in the Middle East, as an example. They will need to distinguish or divide the market to tailor Korean treatments to the preferences of consumers in different global sectors. The article focused on differences in skin types, the price advantages or comparative advantage of Korean beauty products, and popularizing beauty product lines for younger consumers.

K beauty products feature multiple treatments in one. They also use substances long thought helpful such as eggs or hydrating and moisturizing masks. Others turn to more exotic materials, like mushroom, snail, and seaweed derivatives. I don't think finicky consumers in Western countries will take to all of this. On the other hand, when it's in the attractive packaging or container, it's okay. Most won't have to worry they're rubbing kelp on one's face!

I think overtime, global consumers will also see that there's more to beauty than cultural prejudice trumped-up in packaging. Just as Korean food and diet properly open an entire view of the person, K-beauty creates possibilities for education about broader understandings of beauty and health that Koreans have known for decades and longer.

Bernard Rowan is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University, where he has served for 22 years. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University. Reach him at browan10@yahoo.com.