Korea Herald correspondent

PASADENA, Calif. — "Annyeonghaseyo, welcome to Olive Young!" a staff member called out as customers ambled through the door at the K-beauty retailer's first US store on Friday.

The store, launched in May and situated on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, is designed to resemble its Korean counterparts, save for small touches like a long corridor running from the entrance to the back wall and a customer with her dog on a leash.

Spanning 803 square meters, it sits across from a Sephora store. At a glance, it is a sign of an open rivalry, though K-beauty's reach has made that beside the point. This month, Sephora will launch a K-beauty section curated by Olive Young.

"Korean beauty has become a main current in the global beauty market," said Kwon Ga-eun, head of CJ Olive Young USA. "A proven retail platform like Olive Young building a solid foothold in the US gives individual brands a far steadier springboard into the market."

Echoing what the retailer has refined at home over more than a decade, the store carries more than 400 brands and roughly 5,000 products, grouped by ingredient, skin concern and routine rather than by brand alone.

For a new generation raised on endless online options, its value comes as much from what it lets you do there as from what it stocks. There is a cleansing bar where customers can try facial foams and a Do-It-Yourself station for building keychains that hold miniature cosmetics. There are also places to test beauty devices.

The store's most popular service is Skin Scan, which reads a customer's skin condition through photos and sends the results straight to their phone.

“I get to see everything about my skin, the dryness, redness, temperature and wrinkles,” said Leticia, a 27-year-old American who tried Skin Scan for the first time. “It's like it's really digging deep into my skin.”

The scan results can be used at a curtained space called the Beauty Lab, where experts offer free one-on-one skin care lessons.

"On weekends, people line up early for the free service, and it usually leads to them buying what we recommend," said a consultant at the store. "Most of our customers are women, but we do see teens and men in their 20s worried about acne.”

The store is not built with K-beauty insiders alone in mind, but is accessible enough to pull in customers who walk in cold.

One customer who came in after spotting the grand opening a few months ago said she hadn't tried K-beauty before. "Walking in today, I found the store surprisingly versatile, and nothing like a typical American retailer," she noted.

Once inside, newcomers find plenty to lean on. Curated tables spell out what products like PDRN, cica or collagen actually do and why a given skin concern calls for them, while staff walk customers through new formulas and skin care routines.

The retailer welcomes both K-beauty veterans and newcomers alike in its drive to expand its US footprint.

Less than a month after its first store opening, it opened a second US store in June at the Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles. Olive Young intends to open five stores across California by the first half of 2027, backed by a west coast distribution center that opened in Bloomington this March, with east coast and midwest facilities to follow.

"For 27 years, we've served as a showcase, discovering promising brands in Korea and helping them grow. Now we're widening that stage, starting with the US, to serve as a global gateway for our brands," Kwon said.

By No Kyung-min (minmin@heraldcorp.com)