Overseas buyers flock to Seoul Beauty Week: 'K-beauty works everywhere'

Tourists try out Korean cosmetics at the 2026 Seoul Beauty Week. [Seoul Metropolitan Government]

Lee Jeong-yun, chief executive of cosmetics company Tov — which owns the skincare brand Tobegreen and the hair-care brand Contentree — has attended Seoul Beauty Week every year since the event launched in 2022. For small and medium-sized enterprises like Tov that struggle to secure sales channels, the event offers a valuable springboard into both domestic and overseas markets. Tov, which has been targeting Europe, used the event to successfully break into the Romanian market. "There is now a global recognition that Korean cosmetics can be trusted for their quality, no matter where you go," Lee said. "Seoul Beauty Week, which grows in scale every year, has become an event that any company in the beauty industry simply must attend."

As Lee suggests, Seoul Beauty Week — now in its fifth edition — has grown each year to establish itself as a flagship event for K-beauty. The number of overseas buyers looking to bring Korean cosmetics to their home markets has increased annually, and foreign tourists visiting Korea have also made their way to the event to try Korean beauty products firsthand. On Monday, DDP was packed with visitors of various nationalities forming long lines in front of booths, eco bags filled with cosmetics slung over their shoulders as they browsed from stall to stall.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government held the 2026 Seoul Beauty Week at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) from Saturday to Tuesday. The event, which the city has organized since 2022, is designed to showcase global beauty trends and support promising small and medium-sized enterprises in opening new sales channels. Programming covered beauty, grooming and health product exhibitions and orders, a beauty forum, a business pitching competition, and citizen experience programs spanning fashion and wellness.

On the business-to-business side, the city hosted a beauty trend exhibition fair, with 152 large and small companies in the beauty sector taking part this year. Participants ranged from leading brands to indie labels, including Kolmar Korea, Power Player, Classys, H2Medi and Tov.

"The first Seoul Beauty Week in 2022 started with 52 companies and was held in just one zone of DDP's Art Hall," a Seoul Metropolitan Government official said. "In the event's fifth year, the number of participating companies has tripled to 152, and the beauty week now fills every zone of DDP."

The Beauty Trade Show held as part of the 2026 Seoul Beauty Week. [Seoul Metropolitan Government]

Alongside the exhibition, the Seoul Business Agency (SBA) led a business-matching program called the Beauty Trade Show, pairing Seoul-based beauty small and medium-sized enterprises with global buyers for export consultations and other meetings. This year, 116 overseas buyers from 48 countries attended Seoul Beauty Week, while 175 domestic small and medium-sized enterprises took part.

"Thanks to the influence of K-culture, we are seeing far more cases than before where buyers proactively show interest in Korean products and reach out first," an official from one participating company said. "We are feeling firsthand that Korean products are more than competitive enough in the global market in terms of both quality and price."

That global interest is translating into results. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, more than 100 companies participated each year in Seoul Beauty Week over the past three years (2023–2025), with 40,000 to 50,000 visitors attending on-site annually. This year's four-day event drew about 48,000 visitors in total, roughly 7,000 more — an increase of about 14.6 percent — than last year's approximately 41,000.

Last year in particular, 132 companies from 43 countries took part in export consultations. The cumulative consultation value over the three-year period reached 120 billion won ($86.9 million), while the total contract value came to 36 billion won.

This year's Seoul Beauty Week was also distinguished by its ambition to be a trendy, inclusive event representing Seoul's lifestyle. The event was rebranded as the "2026 Seoul Beauty Week — BeautifulLifeInSeoul (BLS)," combining exhibitions and evening festivals to let visitors experience the latest in Seoul living.

After exploring the exhibitions and hands-on experiences, visitors could spend the afternoon at DDP's Design Lab and Gallery Moon, where fashion, reading and wellness activities were on offer. The Design Lab featured an immersive exhibition space themed around athleisure, while the DDP Design Book Fair presented books and content spanning various design fields. Gallery Moon, conceived as a "sensory healing space in the heart of the city," invited visitors to recharge with wellness programs including meditation over a cup of tea.

In the evenings, visitors could take part in the running culture that has been surging in popularity, joining a program that took participants on a run around DDP with a professional running coach. Later at night, a summer hip-hop party unfolded through "Summer Seoul Con," featuring a K-pop DJ and hip-hop artists.

"BLS, making its debut this year, was designed so that citizens and tourists alike can experience firsthand the diverse lifestyles Seoulites enjoy — beauty, fashion, wellness, running, music and more — throughout every corner of DDP," said Cho Hye-jeong, Seoul Metropolitan Government's director of creative industry planning. "I hope that residents and visitors from home and abroad will discover new charms of Seoul from morning to night according to their own tastes, and that the energy sparked at DDP will ripple out to the Dongdaemun area and the participating companies."

ikson@heraldcorp.com