CJ Olive Young to open 5 more US stores by mid-2027, expanding to San Diego
A CJ Olive Young store in Pasadena, California / Courtesy of CJ Olive Young
CJ Olive Young, Korea’s largest health and beauty store chain, will open five more stores in California by the first half of 2027, bringing its U.S. total to seven, the company said Monday.
The retailer opened its first U.S. store in Pasadena in May and a second at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles in June.
Four of the new stores will be in the greater Los Angeles area: Spectrum Center, a lifestyle shopping center in Irvine; Del Amo Fashion Center in the South Bay area; Bloom on 3rd, a shopping complex near the Farmers Market in central Los Angeles; and Brea Mall in Orange County. The fifth will open at Fashion Valley in San Diego, its first outside the Los Angeles area. Opening dates for each store have not been set.
Three of the sites — Del Amo Fashion Center, Brea Mall and Fashion Valley — are operated by Simon Property Group, a major U.S. mall owner.
The company said the expansion will help small and independent Korean cosmetics brands, collectively known as K-beauty, reach American consumers without their own distribution networks.
Olive Young said its stores also introduce shoppers to product types common in Korea, such as sunscreen sticks, cushion compacts that dispense sunscreen through a sponge, and toner pads, which are cotton pads presoaked in skin toner.
Its in-store Skin Scan service, which analyzes a customer’s skin condition and recommends products, had been used by about 27,000 customers as of late October, roughly five months after the first store opened.
“Olive Young’s U.S. stores serve as a bridge that helps emerging brands settle into the mainstream market,” an Olive Young official said.
“We will work with our brand partners to lay the groundwork for sustainable global growth, so that K-beauty becomes part of the beauty mainstream rather than a passing trend.”
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.