Inside Olive Young’s Long-Awaited LA Launch

LOS ANGELES — Over the past two years, a week has rarely gone by in Los Angeles without at least one K-beauty pop-up in town. The city has seen a steady stream of labels hoping to translate their TikTok virality into real-life hype, convincing beauty enthusiasts to line up for their showcases of sunscreens, toner pads and matte lip colour.

This Friday will be the ultimate culmination of their efforts, when the 8,647-square-foot Olive Young store opens its doors in Pasadena.

The South Korean retailer’s first US flagship, which will be followed by a second location in the Westfield Century City mall on the west side, is a stronghold of top-performing labels already thriving in the US market. Medicube, which previously was not planning on entering Olive Young US, will be launching there after all with a product lineup including special sets currently sold at Olive Young in Korea. Other brands that have achieved US virality will include Tirtir, Dr. Althea, Mediheal and Anua. The sheer number of promotions is likely to cause a frenzy.

“Every brand is bringing their influencers” to promote the opening, said Dino Ha, founder and chief executive at Memebox, which is launching its makeup brands Kaja and Nooni into Olive Young USA and bringing eight influencers of its own to spark buzz.

The store sits diagonally across the street from Sephora, which will be soon displaying its own Olive Young-curated section after the two retailers inked a partnership in January. As part of their launch at Olive Young US, existing Sephora-stocked brands Torriden and Arencia will be moved to Sephora’s Olive Young shelf, while others sold at both retailers will include Biodance and Belif, a representative from Sephora confirmed. Newcomers to the US are especially interested in receiving Sephora placement, say distributors.

“Brands that don’t have any specific nationwide retail so far really want to get into Olive Young’s Sephora partnership,” said Jaden Choi, CEO of K-beauty distributor Goodai Global USA, known as Hansung USA before Goodai acquired it in February.

Beyond Korean brands, international labels like Supergoop, Urban Decay, Lancôme, La Roche-Posay, Sol de Janeiro and Hero Cosmetics will be at the new location. Some international brands, like Japanese hair-care label Yolu, have chosen Olive Young as their first US retail partner.

“We are going to have good synergy,” said Ayaka Nakano, head of global marketing for Yolu, which selected Olive Young due to both its curation of Asian brands and the extensive experiential aspects of the store, which will eventually have an area for head spa services like scalp treatments.

South Korea’s largest beauty retailer has proven so adept at trendspotting in its home market that it has crowded out most competitors at home, but will need to support brand-building and awareness with a US audience.

“Its sales performance and rankings are widely recognised as indicators of what is resonating with Korean consumers in real time,” said Evelyn Lee, the CEO of Dr. Althea.

Olive Young’s US Roadmap

Several advantages bode well for the retailer’s prospects in the US market, including its strong grasp of the top K-beauty trends and the popularity of Korean culture such as K-pop. With the backing of its parent company CJ, a sprawling conglomerate spanning everything from entertainment to fast-casual dining, its next locations are tentatively planned for Torrance and Irvine, in greater Los Angeles, with New York and Texas in the works for the future. Timed to CJ’s KCon in August, the retailer will host its massive beauty festival Olive Young Festa in Los Angeles, with brands spending upwards of $120,000 on their booths.

For Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha shoppers, the store’s trend-saviness paired with a general price range of $15 to $25 is likely to be a sweet spot.

“This middle ground between drugstore and a Sephora level will be competitive with the younger shopper that’s buying lower price points,” said Sarah Chung Park, the CEO of distributor Landing International, which is launching Korean makeup labels Clio, Peripera and Unleashia into Olive Young.

But there are upsides and downsides to Olive Young’s unique business model. While Sephora’s layout is centred around brand displays, Olive Young locations tend to have more sections for different categories like serums or sunscreens.

“For a suncare brand, there’s a lot of benefit to that,” said Katie Glowski, Supergoop senior vice president and general manager of North America sales. “But if you’re a skincare brand that has a serum, an SPF, a moisturiser and cleansing, it would be harder for the consumer to find you because you’d be split.”

Olive Young in Korea also tends to focus on trends and competitive discounts that keep customers coming in regularly, but experts consider the retailer to be less of a brand-builder than other specialty stores.

“They are good at promotions and discounts. They can increase the sales volume, but they don’t know how to build up the brand marketing in the States,” said Choi. A handful of brands, including Beauty of Joseon and TikTok-famous hair-care brand Dr. Groot, have opted to be Sephora exclusives. Olive Young also faces competition from every major retailer as they rush to stock up on K-beauty.

The retailer’s arrival is likely to spur more momentum for K-beauty, said Choi, who noted that not only Sephora and Ulta Beauty, but Target, Walmart and CVS are also ramping up their K-beauty assortments. Canadian beauty retailer Sukoshi, which focuses on Asian brands, also recently opened its first US locations.

“There’s certainly an appetite for K-beauty and newness and discovery,” said Park. “There’s a lot untapped there.”

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