Glass Skin and Snail Mucin: South Korea’s Journey to Global Beauty Power
Demand for K-beauty products internationally blossomed alongside the country’s cultural wave, known as “Hallyu” in Korean, in the late 1990s, when South Korean television shows started gaining popularity in Asia. Over the past decade, musical acts like BTS and Blackpink, television shows like “Squid Game” and this year’s summer blockbuster, “KPop Demon Hunters,” have vaulted the country’s cultural exports to new heights of global popularity.
The sector isn’t dominated by one or two players, said Kwon Yoo-jin, a professor of apparel and fashion studies at Korea National Open University. “K-beauty itself is a cultural brand,” she said.
As global audiences get a window into life in South Korea through movies and television shows, they are introduced to the age-defying skin of Korean celebrities, as well as the country’s cosmetic products and elaborate skin care routines.
The country’s skin care industry is highly competitive. South Koreans spend more on beauty products per capita than residents of any other country in the world. However, trends come and go quickly, creating opportunities for start-up brands to break through with new ingredients or technologies.
For decades, Amorepacific, a South Korean beauty conglomerate, has infused natural Asian ingredients into cosmetics. To this day, their researchers study the best ways to cultivate ginseng, a notoriously fickle plant.
The pearl of the ginseng plant is a chemical component called saponin, which helps with anti-aging. The company’s researchers devote themselves to maximizing and optimizing the saponin through countless experiments. Studies of ginseng date back thousands of years in Asia, but many aspects of the plant remain a mystery.
Excerpts from the story by Daisuke Wakabayashi and Jin Yu Young.
Commissioned and published by The New York Times.
November 2025
Photographed in Gangwondo-do, Gyeonggi-do, and Seoul, South Korea
Cho Jeong-hun, a senior researcher, at a ginseng farm. Ginseng is very fickle and grows best at a five- to 15-degree slope. It is harvested only every four years.
Visitors customize their own lip products at Amore Seongsu.
The flagship store for Sulwhasoo, a luxury skin care brand owned by Amorepacific, in the historic Seoul neighborhood of Bukchon.
A display of cosmetics from Sulwhasoo, Amorepacific’s luxury skin care brand, at its flagship store in Seoul.
Sulwhasoo is known for incorporating traditional herbs such as ginseng into its cosmetic products.
On a trip to South Korea, Arlene Freeman and her husband, Gerald Wechter, both from New Jersey, visited the Sulwhasoo store in Seoul.
Shelters are built to shield ginseng plants from direct sunlight, allowing them to grow healthy.
A soil-moisture meter at a ginseng farm tracks moisture, acidity and temperature to help researchers maintain ideal growing conditions.
Freshly dug-up ginseng.
Visitors customize their own lip products at Amore Seongsu.
At Amore Seongsu, visitors can watch machines create foundations and blend pigments or create customized lip products.
Suh Kyungbae, Amorepacific’s chairman, took over the family business from his father, who was the company’s founder.
Amorepacific started in Kaesong, a city now part of North Korea, before moving to Seoul, where it has its headquarters.
Cho Jeong-hun brushes the dirt off a ginseng root.
Kim Dong-hyun, a chief researcher, shows dug-up ginseng at a ginseng farm.
Amorepacific researchers continue to study how best to cultivate ginseng, a notoriously delicate plant.
A concentrated ginseng powder is extracted from liquid at Amorepacific’s research center in Yongin, a neighboring city to Seoul.
Dried ginseng roots.
Various forms of ginseng in a lab.
A concentrated ginseng powder is extracted from liquid at Amorepacific’s research center.
Kim Dong-hyun, a chief researcher, and Cho Jeong-hun, a senior researcher, in a lab at Amorepacific R&I Center.
Visitors at Amore Seongsu.
Visitors from Spain: Sarah Yang, Laia Manzero, and Anna Arregui at Amore Seongsu.
Visitors at Amore Seongsu store.
Amore Seongsu store in Seoul.