How Korean Beauty Brands are Creating a Wave in Indian Skincare Industry

For generations, Koreans have been associated with skincare. They are recognized across the world for their ageless charm, glass skin, and near-flawless complexion. Korean beauty, commonly known as K-beauty, is popular for its innovative beauty products made using a combination of exotic natural ingredients and performance-enhancing actives. Given Korea’s skincare expertise, world-class manufacturing facilities, and cutting-edge research, it is no surprise that K-beauty is dominating the global skincare industry and the situation in India is no different.

Given the growing popularity of K-beauty, several Indian consumers have shown keen interest in Korean skincare and are willing to try Korean products. Considering the growing demand for Korean beauty products, several Indian brands have introduced Korean-made or Korean-inspired skincare products.

The core of K-beauty is preventive care rather than reactive care. This essentially means that K-beauty focuses on nourishing products to enhance skin health, prevent or minimize skin issues and maintain a youthful complexion, rather than focusing on products that combat skincare issues after they arise. The key to healthy skin is hydration and so you’d notice that Korean skincare has an extensive range of moisturizing and nourishing products such as sheet masks, essences, sleeping masks, pressed serums, and the likes.

The Korean beauty wave has taken the Indian skincare industry by a storm because of the following reasons:

K-beauty’s Strong Focus on Unique Natural Ingredients: The use of natural ingredients in skincare resonates with Indian consumers. The Indian skincare market has a plethora of products formulated using traditional Ayurvedic ingredients such as neem, tulsi, lemon, honey, etc. While new-age consumers understand the merits of natural ingredients, they are excited to try products with globally trending ingredients that are rather uncommon in India. Besides, they also look for products that have high efficacy and offer lasting results. That is exactly what Korean skincare is all about!

Korean products are made with a combination of unique, natural ingredients and potent actives to enhance the efficacy of the products. Natural ingredients such as cica, avocado, ginseng, chia seed, bamboo, rice water, volcanic ash are combined with actives such as retinol, niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, AHAs, and BHAs to create products that are effective but yet gentle on skin.

K-beauty wholeheartedly focuses on harnessing nature's mystical powers. Ginseng, for example, is a potent anti-aging and lightning agent. Volcanic ash is super effective for acne treatment, bamboo is a fantastic moisturizer and rice water is a wonderful pore-minimizer.

Awareness Through Social Media - Social media has played a big role in promoting K-beauty globally and in India. Influencers demonstrate the elaborate K-beauty 10-step regimen to achieve glass skin, they cover the efficacy and quality of the products, the benefits of various ingredients, and highlight the adorable and attractive K-Beauty packaging. Such content has created a lot of awareness among consumers. It encourages consumers to try new products, adopt different routines, and indulge in self-pampering through skincare.

K-Pop and K-Drama Culture - Let’s not forget when BTS came up with a music video or when Han Hyo Ju appeared in Brilliant Legacy or when Hyun Bin appeared in Crash Landing On You, viewers couldn’t help but notice their flawless, radiant skin. The growing popularity of K-pop and K-drama across India is also instrumental in driving interest in Korean skincare.

Young, aspirational consumers are truly influenced and impressed by the celebrities’ ‘glass skin’ and are hence experimenting with diverse Korean skincare products.

Takeaway

K-beauty products can be used by anyone who is eager to try unique, effective products formulated with exotic natural ingredients. You only need to understand which product or ingredient works best for you and then identify a skincare routine that helps you achieve healthy, radiant skin or rather the much-coveted ‘glass skin’.