Crowds collect on the Males’s Magnificence popup retailer arrange by CJ Olive Younger on Hongdae Pageant Road in Mapo District, Seoul, Aug. 31. Korea Instances picture by Park Jun-seok
Olive Younger’s first Males’s Magnificence popup attracts 12,000 guests in 10 days
By KTimes
On the afternoon of Aug. 31, a protracted line shaped stretching over 50 meters outdoors the constructing of Soo Karaoke on Hongdae Pageant Road in Mapo District, Seoul.
It wasn’t a crowd ready to sing. As a substitute, within the sweltering warmth above 30 levels Celsius, they had been eagerly awaiting entry into CJ Olive Younger’s “Males’s Magnificence” popup retailer.
Inside, the shop was filled with prospects making an attempt out merchandise, leaving barely any room to maneuver. Younger males had been severely testing moisturizers that mixed hydration, solar safety, and pores and skin tone correction, in addition to lip balms with a pure tint. Many had been buying objects really helpful by their girlfriends.
This was CJ Olive Younger’s first male-focused magnificence popup because the firm’s inception. Initially, organizers had been uncertain about its success, given the prevailing query of “Why would males put on make-up?”
To mitigate this notion, they even arrange a sales space for razor model Gillette on the entrance. Nonetheless, their cautious method proved pointless.
Over 10 days (Aug. 30 to Sept. 8), the popup attracted greater than 12,000 guests. On Sept. 7 alone, round 2,000 folks confirmed up.
An organization spokesperson stated, “80 p.c of the guests had been males,” confirming the potential of this burgeoning market.
Kim Jung-won, who runs a YouTube channel with 320,000 subscribers, explains males’s make-up strategies. Captured from YouTube
Untapped potential
The lads’s cosmetics market in Korea is starting to flourish.
Whereas a full-face make-up routine stays unusual amongst males, business insiders observe a rising pattern amongst younger males of their 20s preferring low-intensity grooming targeted on brightening pores and skin tone or protecting blemishes.
Responding to this demand, some cosmetics corporations have been fast to launch merchandise that mix fundamental skincare with make-up results, setting the stage for a brand new market section. This has led main cosmetics manufacturers to increase their males’s product traces.
Kim Jung-won, a 26-year-old who runs a males’s grooming YouTube channel with 320,000 subscribers, is a firsthand witness to the untapped potential of the boys’s cosmetics market.
He began importing movies about skincare, hairstyling, and make-up suggestions for males again in 2019, however the intitial response was lukewarm. His channel stayed at round 10,000 subscribers for years, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nonetheless, when the “No Masks” period arrived in 2023, his subscriber rely started to soar, with inquiries from younger males of their late teenagers to early 20s, asking questions like, “I wish to groom myself, however I do not know the place to start out.”
Sensing the rising demand for accessible merchandise, Kim launched his personal males’s cosmetics model, Doingwhat, in July of the identical yr.
Certainly, younger males are opening their wallets for magnificence merchandise.
An organization that launched a males’s skincare line in 2022 lately reported month-to-month gross sales of over 1 billion gained ($750,000) simply via CJ Olive Younger, surpassing 10 billion gained in annual gross sales with its males’s line alone.
One other firm’s tone-up lotion, which affords hydration, solar safety, and pores and skin correction in a single, has been promoting over 10,000 models every month, because of constructive word-of-mouth.
A CJ Olive Younger spokesperson stated, “Given the still-prevalent sentiment towards males sporting make-up in society, there’s a excessive demand for low-key grooming merchandise that can be utilized identical to a lotion.”
A popup retailer held by Musinsa throughout the Magnificence Festa in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong District, Seoul, on Sept. 6. Korea Instances picture by Park Kyung-dam
Surge in gross sales
Vogue platforms like Musinsa, common amongst males of their 20s and 30s, have additionally seen a surge in gross sales of males’s grooming merchandise. From January to August of this yr, gross sales of 5 main males’s manufacturers, together with Dashu and Forbeaut, jumped practically 150 p.c in comparison with the earlier yr.
To faucet into this pattern, Musinsa even arrange a devoted males’s magnificence zone at its largest offline occasion, “Musinsa Magnificence Festa IN Seongsu,” held in Seongsu-dong from Sept. 6 to eight.
Equally, Daiso, a family items retailer, reported a 154 p.c improve in males’s cosmetics gross sales from January to July this yr.
At Lotte Division Retailer, 10 p.c of tourists to their pores and skin evaluation service, “Magnificence Salon,” are male.
Cosmetics corporations are more and more bolstering their males’s product traces in response to this rising demand. Amorepacific’s “BeREADY,” a model concentrating on males of their 20s, is a primary instance.
The model’s “True Tone Lotion,” which mixes skincare, sunscreen, and BB cream features, turned the best-selling product within the males’s classes on each Olive Younger and Musinsa shortly after its launch in July 2023.
An official at ODM producer Cosmax stated, “We’re receiving a rising variety of inquiries from numerous manufacturers about manufacturing males’s cosmetics.”
An business insider stated, “Males of their late teenagers to early 20s have a noticeably stronger need to groom themselves than the era simply above them of their late 20s.”
This text from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Instances, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Instances.
