Cheers rang out from brand booths at the Musinsa Beauty Festival — known locally as "Mubupe" — in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, on Thursday. Visitors spun roulette wheels, drew from gacha machines and completed brand challenges, filling the venue with energy. Hands bore traces of moisturizing pads and tint swatches tested at the booths, while brand representatives waved QR-code flyers to draw in passersby.
The streets of Seongsu-dong turned pink that day, as festival-goers carried the tote bags handed out at the event from booth to booth. Stuffed with freebies, the bags sagged heavily from visitors' shoulders — yet people kept moving briskly, eager to fill them further.
This year's festival runs through Sunday and operates across two venues: the Mubupe Hall, hosting 30 brands, and the Next Beauty Hall, hosting 15.
Foreign visitors were a visible presence both inside and outside the venue. Some who had not managed to secure tickets lingered at the entrance, peering in with curiosity. Mathilde, a 24-year-old French beauty influencer, said she had long been interested in K-beauty. "Being able to see so many different brands in one place was great," she said.
Now in its third edition since launching in 2024, the festival has grown beyond simply assembling popular brands. Musinsa Beauty has made discovering K-beauty's hidden gems a central mission — introducing emerging labels and weaving fashion-beauty crossover content into the program to enrich the experience.
More than 80 percent of participating brands are indie labels. Four in 10 are newcomers that have been on the market for fewer than five years, and brands less than three years old account for 28 percent of the lineup. Seven in 10 participating brands have no physical retail presence of their own.
Near the festival entrance, a dedicated zone introduced emerging brands: a special installation called "THE SECRET LAB by Ministry of SMEs and Startups × Musinsa × Cosmax," developed in partnership with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Cosmax. The zone displayed products from 20 brands with annual sales below 12 billion won ($8.61 million), all targeting a year-end launch. Brand representatives watched closely, gauging consumer reactions.
"It is significant that Musinsa has created a foundation for new brands to grow," one brand representative said. "Our goal at this event is to raise awareness of our brand as much as possible." Park, a 27-year-old beauty content creator, said she was pleased to discover products that are hard to find in ordinary stores. "Being able to try new brand products firsthand through various events is another big draw," she added.
The festival connects offline brand experiences to online purchases, and the results have been consistent. During an online campaign held from Aug. 25 to Sept. 4 last year, 40 percent of total transaction volume was generated over just three days of the offline pop-up.
Fashion-beauty collaborations have also drawn strong responses. In the "Musinsa Beauty Collab Zone," five fashion brands — including Laura Laura and Giho — were paired one-to-one with five beauty brands, including Rom&nd and Odtype, to present co-developed products. From Aug. 10 to Aug. 17, when the festival opened, transaction volume for the participating beauty brands surged 650 percent compared with the preceding week, from Aug. 2 to Aug. 9.
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