In recent years, “K-beauty”—a term describing Korean-made and Korean-influenced beauty practices—has enjoyed increased interest and momentum within the U.S. beauty market. From the opening of Innisfree’s NYC flagship store in early September, which featured a meet-and-greet with YouTube sensation Jenn Im (clothesencounters, 2.0M subscribers), to the popularity of specialty e-retailers like Soko Glam, K-beauty has swiftly grown from niche philosophy to global phenomenon. K-beauty’s rise has been inextricably linked to influencer marketing, a rapidly changing field that has pushed the beauty vertical to become both more inclusive and more innovative. Fueled by the immediacy and virality of social media, influencer marketing has accelerated the rate at which beauty trends and practices spread across the globe.
In this special report, Tribe Dynamics analyzed the 10 highest EMV-earning K-beauty brands to understand the role influencers have played in K-beauty’s emergence onto the American stage.
