Mirror skin, PDRN treatment, spicules and sleeping masks are just some of the more esoteric beauty trends of 2025. All owe their popularity to the rise and rise of the Korean beauty industry.
The Korean beauty industry is estimated to be worth $11.2 billion in 2025 and demand for its products continues to grow rapidly.
The industry is also affecting a culture shift in global beauty consumption. Korean brands like Beauty of Joseon, Klairs, and Purito are overturning the idea that synthetic formulations perform better when it comes to skin and beauty.
Many Korean beauty products have a glowing reputation worldwide for minimally processed, often plant-based, ingredients that get luminous results.
This emphasis on natural skincare means that Korean brands are a growing source of demand for high-value biobased chemicals. Big Korean beauty producers are not just buyers of biobased ingredients – they are also key innovators responsible for developing and commercialising new biochemicals for use in skin and hair.
We explore how key Korean manufacturers and brands are drawing on advanced biological materials to replace (and surpass) synthetic chemicals in cosmetics and skincare.
More natural ingredients
Looming tariffs have US cosmetics consumers and influencers worried. Many are scrambling to get their hands on cherished Korean beauty imports they have been loyal to for years.
The rush to stockpile Korean beauty goods in the US is a brilliant example of how cosmetics have become one of the country’s most powerful exports.
Fans of Korean beauty products have become enamoured with toners, moisturisers, and cleansers that use gentler, natural ingredients to achieve results – often at a lower price point compared to Western equivalents.
Innovating with Korean botanics
Cosmetics company Kolmar Korea is building on its biobased range, led by the growth in global demand for Korean products.
The company announced this year that it would be developing a skincare range containing natural Korean ingredients, with products aimed squarely at the international market.
The company’s new business strategy will foreground biobased ingredients associated with traditional skincare practices in Korea.
Kolmar is leaning into the mystique that has built up around Korean skincare on platforms TikTok and Instagram, where influencers post daily skincare routines incorporating their favourite brands.
Products coming out of the country are strongly associated with natural ingredients that are minimally processed.
This emphasis on natural ingredients dovetails nicely with growing consumer concern for eco-friendly products. Biobased ingredients tend to be less environmentally toxic as well as less irritating to the skin.
Another key selling point of Korean beauty is how biobased ingredient use goes hand in hand with product innovation.
At Kolmar, a third of its workforce is dedicated to research while around 6 percent of annual sales is invested back into R&D.
One beauty problem that Kolmar is currently trying to tackle is how to add fragrances to products without synthetic chemicals that damage sensitive skin. Here, native plants like Rose of Sharon and lotus are proving useful.
Korean botanicals are a burgeoning area of biotech research. CoSeedBioPharm is an important player here, providing functional ingredients derived from biodiversity hotspot Jeju, while Smile Company sources herbs from the Mediterranean for cosmetics compounds.
Western firms snap up Korean ceramides
The Korean beauty industry is scaling the use of precision fermentation to create biobased ingredients. This is where microbes reproduce complex molecules at scale.
Western companies have taken note. British speciality chemicals company Croda purchased Korea’s Solus Advanced Materials in 2023 for their ceramide fermentation technology.
Solus had developed a way to ferment ceramides for lotions, cosmetics, and hair care. It already had a supply agreement with L’Oréal for its ceramides.
Ceramides are a fundamental beauty ingredient. They are the fats that are naturally found in skill cells, making up 30-40% of the outer layer.
Fermented ceramides was at the heart of another deal in 2024 when specialist Korean cosmetics ingredients supplier Jin Young Bio was snapped up by Belgium’s Solvay spin-off Syensqo in 2024. Again, Jin Young Bio company specialises in creating ceramides through a fermentation process that uses genetically engineered yeast. The acquisition aligned with Syensqo’s push to expand their renewable materials portfolio.
Fermentation is not just a convenient method for mass-producing biochemicals. It also allows cosmetics manufacturers to enhance the skincare benefits of plants while keeping synthetic chemicals in the production process to a minimum.
Labio is a Korean beauty company that has been pushing the performance limits of all-natural ingredients using fermentation. Their range includes chemicals derived from fermenting blueberries designed to strengthen overall skin resilience and a fermented antioxidant carotenoid for wrinkle reduction.
Mushroom biocosmetics
Korean companies are leading the way in developing mushroom cosmetics, a relatively new biobased beauty trend.
Fungi is everywhere these days in new renewable materials and chemicals, including those used for cosmetics and skincare. Nowhere in the world is this trend more pronounced than in Korea.
Luxury Korean cosmetics brand Amorepacific – owner of trendy Korean brands Laneige and Innisfree – have peppered their products with mushrooms that hold skin-rejuvenating properties.
Its luxury label Sienu for example features anti-ageing skin care products with lingzhi mushroom, among other high-end ingredients like diamond and gold.
Korean skincare brand Mary and May have incorporated another species, the Tremella fuciformis – or the snow mushroom – into a serum designed to ‘brighten, hydrate, and revitalize’ skin.
This mushroom has been used in traditional Chinese medicine as a bodily tonic. Modern scientific studies have supported the idea that the species can help skin antiaging and UV protection.
Clearer skin with biobased ingredients
Two powerful Korean companies agreed to join forces in 2024, in a deal to capitalise on the natural beauty trend.
Korean cosmetics manufacturer Daebong LS and chemicals giant LG Chem agreed to develop and commercialise cosmetics with LG Chem’s 100% biobased 3HP (3-hydroxypropionic acid).
Biobased 3HP an active ingredient that can be used in various skincare products. A major selling point is that it can replace the popular salicylic acid in cosmetics and skincare.
Salicylic acid is a staple ingredient in Western skincare. The chemical exfoliates dead cells, unclogs pores, and helps prevent acne. However, the chemical is harsh and can remove too much of the skin’s natural oils, causing irritation and dryness.
3HP is attractive to cosmetics manufacturers seeking natural ingredients with the same functionality as salicylic acid but with fewer drawbacks.
LG Chem is one of the world’s most recognisable industrial chemicals companies. Yet it has a lot to gain from the collaboration with Daebong thanks to the latter’s intensive expertise in cosmetics.
Daebong is one of the companies that has made Korea a world class innovator when it comes to beauty biotech. It operates facilities right the way through the value chain, from material development to production, and sales. It also enjoys partnerships with approximately 1000 cosmetics companies around the world.
Daebong’s capabilities and contacts should allow LG Chem’s biobased 3HP to reach consumers more efficiently.
Biobased preservatives
One of the biggest technical hurdles to all-natural skincare is formulating cost-effective biobased preservatives.
Cosmetics use fossil-based preservative chemicals to extend the shelf-life of a product by combating mould, bacteria, and oxidation. The majority of preservatives in cosmetics are still made from fossil chemicals.
One company tackling the problem is GS Caltex whose chemical GreenDiol is antibacterial, antiseptic, and made from cassava and sugar cane. The multifunctional green chemical also adds moisture to the skin and can be used to extract active ingredients from plants.
GS Caltex is the only company to be mass producing the chemical using a 100 percent biobased process, one that does not involve harmful chemical additives.
This Korean manufacturer signed an MoU with L’Oréal Group in 2023 to develop biobased cosmetics ingredients. GS Caltex exemplifies the biobased innovations drawing the European beauty giant to expand into Asia Pacific.
The surge in demand for Korean skincare throughout Asia, Europe, and the US reflects a simple fact: consumers are reacting against the petrochemicals and non-biodegradable ingredients found in most cosmetics.
Mainstream cosmetics still contain compounds that are harmful to the environment, our bodies, or both. Korean beauty offers an alternative, replacing these with potent functional ingredients found in nature.