1 of 6 | South Korea’s leading beauty and wellness retailer Olive Young will open its first U.S. store in California on Friday. In this March photo, a visitor browses at the company’s flagship store in Seongsu, Seoul. File Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI
South Korea’s leading beauty and wellness retailer Olive Young will open its first U.S. store in California on Friday, marking a major step in the globalization of the fast-growing K-beauty industry as it expands beyond cosmetics into a broader wellness and lifestyle market.
The 8,647-square-foot store in Pasadena features roughly 5,000 products from 400 beauty and wellness brands, including popular K-beauty labels such as MEDIHEAL, Mise-en-scène, Anua and Torriden. It also includes skincare diagnostics, scalp analysis and other interactive services modeled on the company’s flagship South Korean outlets.
Located in Pasadena’s upscale downtown shopping district near retailers including Apple, Lululemon and Tiffany & Co., the store represents Olive Young’s first effort to bring Korea’s beauty retail culture directly to an American audience.
“Our U.S. debut marks an important step in bringing a more personalized and seamless beauty discovery experience to American consumers, grounded in our strengths in curation, innovation and customer experience,” Gaeun Kwon, CEO of Olive Young USA, said in a press release.
The opening comes as Korean beauty products continue to surge in popularity worldwide, fueled by social media, the global spread of Korean pop culture and demand for ingredient-focused skincare products.
South Korea’s cosmetics exports reached a record $11.4 billion in 2025, making the country the world’s second-largest cosmetics exporter behind France and ahead of the United States, according to government data.
The momentum has been especially strong in the American market, which overtook China in 2025 as the top destination for K-beauty products, according to Euromonitor International. The research firm said the United States accounted for 54% of overseas online sales of K-beauty products in 2025, up sharply from 18% in 2022.
For Olive Young, the Pasadena opening represents a shift from online-driven international expansion toward a more interactive retail strategy aimed at introducing American consumers to what the company calls the full K-beauty experience.
“It’s all about experience,” Rena Kim, a senior communications manager at Olive Young, told UPI during a visit to the company’s flagship store in Seoul’s trendy Seongsu district.
“There are tons of products out there, and you really need to see them and test them,” she said. “So we need that flagship store, especially in the States.”
Spread across five floors, the Seongsu store combines retail space with skincare consultations, wellness sections and hands-on testing areas.
The Pasadena location will offer similar features, including product zones organized by skin concerns and ingredients, cleansing stations and complimentary skin and scalp analysis services.
Kayla Villena, global insight manager for beauty and personal care at Euromonitor International, said the physical store model should appeal to younger American consumers seeking both instant access and more social, hands-on shopping experiences.
“They want to actually walk out with something,” she told UPI. “Especially the younger generation that grew up on e-commerce — going into the store for them is exciting. They go with their friends, and they want something they can all experience together.”
Villena said K-beauty’s appeal in the United States stems from its focus on skin health and high-performing products at competitive prices.
“Consumers have really woken up because of K-beauty to have a higher expectation of product efficacy at a competitive price point,” she said. “It’s very much a winning formula and I think that’s why they’ve done so well. In my opinion, it has not peaked in the U.S. This is the start.”
The expansion also reflects the growing overlap between beauty and health, often referred to in South Korea as K-wellness.
While skincare remains the core of the K-beauty boom, companies are increasingly branching into adjacent categories such as supplements, beauty devices, scalp care and lifestyle products.
Olive Young recently launched Olive Better, a wellness-focused platform built around trends including nutrition, stress management, fitness and skin recovery. The Pasadena store will also include wellness and “inner beauty” brands alongside cosmetics products.
The retailer has been building out its U.S. logistics and e-commerce infrastructure ahead of the launch, opening its first U.S. distribution center in Bloomington, California, in March while simultaneously rolling out a dedicated U.S. online store offering nationwide shipping.
Olive Young said it plans to open five additional offline outlets in the United States within the next year, beginning on the West Coast before expanding into major East Coast markets, including New York.
Villena said the growing physical retail presence could significantly accelerate K-beauty’s expansion in the United States.
“The demand is there,” she said. “Customers want authenticity, and they want to discover brands that are new to them. Having that physical store will be a game changer.”
