What’s the K in K-beauty?

Judging solely based on the number of models and peers wearing sheet masks in my Instagram feed, we are in the middle of a K-beauty craze. Beauty sites and magazines, including STITCH, have capitalized on the trend with articles detailing the 10-step skincare process and listing the latest must-have K-beauty products. The K is short for Korean, as in beauty products developed in or inspired by South Korea. But that single letter also contains its own beauty standards and ideals, products that many Korean Americans used long before this trend emerged, the commodification of a culture and the growing influence of South Korea not only in America, but around the world.

The emergence of K-beauty

“I grew up with these products being the norm,” Justine Kim, a sophomore Social Policy and Asian Studies student, tells me about growing up in a Korean American household. “My mom would say goodnight to me with a sheet mask on. K-beauty hasn’t been necessarily appropriated, but it has been repackaged to seem as if Americans found it.”

The rise in availability, and subsequent popularity, of K-beauty skincare and cosmetic products is a recent trend in the United States — Forbes dubbed 2016 the year of K-beauty. Korean American Charlotte Cho founded Soko Glam in 2012, one of the first companies that marketed and sold K-beauty products directly to consumers in the United States. But even before then, many Americans were familiar with K-Beauty products without realizing it.

“I just saw a commercial for the [L’Oréal] Lumi Cushion,” Kim says. “That idea of foundation in a cushion came from Korea. As I become more aware of my own identity, K-beauty becoming a trend feels more salient. It’s not only the products that become a commodity, but the lifestyle, like having dewy skin.”

Mi-Ryong Shim is an associate professor of Korean Literature and Culture in the Asian Languages and Cultures department and she tells me that she does not see a difference between American and Korean beauty practices, so much as an intensification.

“Clinique has the three-step process,” Professor Shim says. “But these companies triple that to 10 steps. Maybe the emphasis on the intensity is something the brands themselves want to market. I think there is a lot of marketing done intentionally by Korean companies, or middlemen fulfilling a role between Korean producers and American consumers. There are Korean women with something to gain by promoting a certain stereotype of a woman who is very regimented, obsessed about pore-reducing. But promoting this works to create more stress for Korean and American women.”

The South Korean beauty industry

While it is difficult to pinpoint the exact reason why K-beauty products exploded in popularity in the United States, it is also worth asking how products which, up until a few years ago, were all but impossible to find in this country, are now available at the local CVS. Articles and beauty influences who speak in vague terms of American consumers realizing the benefits of K-beauty ignore the complicated way the global marketplace shapes trends.

“There is a lot of marketing that we as consumers don’t realize. It seeps into us,” Professor Shim says.

In South Korea, the cosmetics industry is booming as new products are developed and released every four to six months. Professor Shim described the cosmetics market as “a lot of small Sephora or Ulta-like boutiques.” But while there are seemingly hundreds of brands to choose from, such as Dr. Jart, Innisfree and Etude House, the brands are all owned by a handful of massive conglomerate cosmetic corporations.

A case study of how K-Beauty has found its way to the United States can be found with AmorePacific conglomerate, one of South Korea’s biggest cosmetics companies that houses over 30 separate brands. Forbes details how in 2008, the company released the first foundation compact cushion, and by 2014, AmorePacific was selling a cushion every 1.2 seconds, primarily in Korea and East Asia. Those kinds of numbers made American brands take notice, and in 2015, L’Oreal released the Lancôme Miracle Cushion, a translation of a popular product for the Western consumer.

This may seem like a beauty footnote, industry information of little importance, but consider that no trend is truly organic. There is a reason for every product on a shelf and it is worth asking how K-beauty has earned its own shelf in retailers as varied as Target and Bergdorf Goodman.

“There is a commodification and commercialization of a culture that shouldn’t be or cannot be commercialized or commodified,” says Professor Shim. “With K-beauty though, I think so much of it is already commercialized from the supposed origin or location where it started.”

As Western beauty brands like Estee Lauder invest in Korean conglomerates like Dr. Jart parent company Have & Be, there is an even greater incentive to sell more K-beauty products to consumers in the United States.

The South Korean government is also involved in the rise of K-beauty in America and across the world. Every year the Korean Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, or KOTRA, a branch of Korea’s Ministry of Trade, organizes a Beauty Expo in Ilsan City, where hundreds of foreign companies and buyers are invited to encourage the growth of K-beauty in particular and Korean culture in general.

This kind of government intervention makes sense in the broader context of the Korean Wave, or Hallyu — the increasing popularity of Korean culture, especially in its neighbor, China. The Chinese market for all types of Korean culture, from music to television, also includes an appetite for K-Beauty. According to the Straits Times, in 2015 South Korea exported over $2.5 billion-worth of cosmetics, and more than $1 billion of that went to China. The Hallyu has helped change how South Korea is perceived globally, from a war-torn country, to a cultural powerhouse.

“It is a stereotype of Asians, and especially Koreans, that they’re fashion conscious,” says Professor Shim. “It’s a stereotype, but it’s a different stereotype than how people used to think of Korea. I wonder if that is why more Korean Americans are embracing this. Now it’s hip to be part of Korean culture, when fifteen years ago, it was like, do Koreans eat dogs?”

K-beauty in America

Providing cosmetics to consumers is one feat, but selling them is another. The popularity of K-beauty says as much about Americans’ desires as it does about companies’ business acumen.

“My parents always tell me that my makeup style is very Americanized,” say Grace Choi, a junior Medill student who identifies as Korean American. “I’m not a huge fan of the Korean style, it’s less contouring, and more fresh-faced. Stereotypically, Asians don’t age a lot in our faces, so I think that’s why K-beauty is popular, for younger-looking skin.”

In contrast, Justine Kim tells me that she has used Korean products her whole life, as she thinks they work better with her combination skin.

“We are at a tipping point where a super-sculpted look has been here for a while, and I think trends tip from one end of the spectrum to the other,” Kim said.

During our interview, Professor Shim brought up an interesting point: that K-beauty might not have much to do with beauty at all.

“I wonder if, with the market crash of the late 2000s, young people are increasingly aware of the competitiveness of the job market,” Professor Shim says. “Maybe that competitiveness, which also marks Korean youth culture, has affected America. It’s a feeling of ‘I need to survive in this market, what can I do to make myself better?’ I find these sleeping masks striking. You can’t even have free time while sleeping—you better be multitasking while you sleep.”

The explosion of K-Beauty cosmetics and skincare also means that an entire culture is being commodified and commercialized. On the one hand, companies like Soko Glam are owned by Korean Americans, illustrating the entrepreneurial possibilities of the trend. On the other hand, though, it is often less clear who benefits.

“I think it’s more complicated than is this good or bad for Korean women,” says Professor Shim. “It depends on your position in this beauty expansion. The fact that it’s marketed as K-beauty, and that Korean women do this every night…there is an exoticization that makes it appealing and eye-catching. It certainly does play into the model-minority myth.”

Kim also takes issue with how regimented the K-beauty routines are presented, and how this reinforces stereotypes of Asian women.         

“Magazines will make it seem so convoluted,” Kim says. “As if all these Korean women are conforming to this ten-step process, whereas in my experience, it’s not as consistent as that. Everyone has their own routine. I don’t do nearly as close to ten steps, whereas my mother does, and some women do more. I try to look at it and make it my own.”         

The majority of K-beauty skincare articles focus on the so-called 10 Step regime. The focus on the many steps in a certain order can reinforce stereotypes about strict Asian women. More than that, the unspoken assumption behind a trend that emphasizes how fastidiously Koreans care for their skin, is their vanity.

“It is true that Korean women do prioritize their skin,” Kim says. “But that is also based on class and socio-economic status, like here. These articles often fail to recognize that beauty standards across the world do have commonalities to them. Asian women are portrayed as putting their skin above all else. It paints a two-dimensional picture. But K-beauty has also created a platform for Korean American entrepreneurs to bring these products here and package them in a way that isn’t problematic. It goes back to the question of intent versus impact. But I think a lot of Americans don’t think of it when they see these advertisements.”

In its own context, K-Beauty products are used to achieve the South Korean ideals of dewy, clear skin — skin that is also as pale as possible. While every culture has its own, often problematic, beauty standards, for Korean Americans this can mean being caught between worlds.

“Even though I am Korean American,’ Grace Choi says. “And I appreciate my Korean background, I find myself way more Americanized. I do sometimes feel like I’m not conforming to Korean beauty ideals.”

Professor Shim wonders if the focus on skincare, in both Korea and America, is creating a new and oppressive standard.

“Are you getting good grades, and do you have small enough pores?” Shim says. “I see a lot of people feeling alienated, or feeling under extreme pressure, even more so if you are Korean American or Asian American.”

“No one likes seeing their culture repackaged,” Kim says. “I think one of the more problematic aspects of it has been rather than taking the rise K-beauty as an opportunity to increase representation in media, it has been something presented as Americans found this. I saw a Nordstrom pop up for Korean beauty, and on the website, there were no Asian or Asian-American models. That is reminiscent of yellow-face – I’m not saying that it is yellow-face, but I think that it is a missed opportunity.”

Even the word, K-beauty, minimizes its cultural connotations. It is possible to say it, and even use these products, without thinking about South Korea at all. The marketing of K-beauty represents how a culture has been commodified and commercialized to broadly appeal to the Western consumer. But it is worth remembering where these products come from, what they mean, and how they ended up here. Beauty is more complicated than ten simple steps.

“I remember in middle school, my mother would give me Dr. Jart masks,” Grace Choi says. “And I didn’t want them, I would throw them away. Now they are everywhere.”