Last year, the amount of direct purchases of Korean cosmetics and perfumes by foreigners approached $1 billion (approximately 1.4 trillion won).
On the 6th, according to data submitted by the Korea Customs Service to People Power Party lawmaker Park Seong-hoon, the amount of overseas direct purchases of fragrances and cosmetics last year was $973 million. This is double the amount of the previous year in 2023 ($523 million).
Riding the K-beauty wave, the size of product direct purchases grew more than 17 times from $55 million (approximately 763 million won) in 2019 to last year. K-beauty accounted for one-third of the total amount of overseas direct purchases (approximately $2.9 billion) last year. Since surpassing clothing in 2018 to become number one, K-beauty items have consistently maintained their position.
Last year's cosmetics export amount reached $6.8 billion (approximately 9.4384 trillion won), marking an all-time high. The first quarter performance of this year also recorded approximately $1.84 billion (approximately 2.5539 trillion won), an increase of about 20% compared to the same period last year, breaking the record for the highest first quarter. The size of direct purchases of cosmetics in the first quarter is about 414.5 billion won.
This trend is interpreted as due to locals preparing to buy products in advance after the United States declared it would impose tariffs of up to several hundred percent on various countries. The Washington Post reported that among eight items Americans are hoarding in anticipation of price increases, South Korean sunscreen has been noted.