The Rise of K-Beauty

Skincare is a large part of Korean culture. So much so, that Korea is at the forefront of global skincare trends and technology. Korean Beauty products are known for their use of unique ingredients, highly effective yet gentle formulas, and extensive product layering through 10-step routines.

K-Beauty is the largest cosmetic industry in Asia and is valued at over $1 billion. The high demand for skincare products created an overly saturated domestic market, prompting brands to look towards a global audience.

As an economic development effort, South Korea has become a major exporter of pop culture—through media and entertainment such as K-Pop and K-Dramas as well as cosmetics and fashion. This has contributed to the widespread popularity of K-Beauty throughout Asia and, in more recent years, America.

Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast is a Korean American musician. Zauner’s first album as Japanese Breakfast was was created as a way of processing the death of her mother. She has been very vocal about the impact of this loss on her work and has written a memoir, Crying in H-Mart, about her experience. Being mixed race, she talks about feeling unmoored from her Korean heritage after her mom’s passing, and how she turned to cooking Korean food as a way to reconnect with her culture.

Her current album Jubilee centers on joy and the optimism that comes from moving through grief. The branding for this album revolves around persimmons, symbolic of joy and transformation in East Asian culture. The persimmons also pay homage to Zauner’s relationship to food and the role it’s played in her healing.

As a proposed brand partnership between Japanese Breakfast and Glow Recipe, I have created packaging for a persimmon face mask as well as some persimmon branded merch.