With $10bn in beauty exports in 2025, Korea overtook the United States to become the world’s second largest beauty exporter, according to ITC Trademap data covering skincare, makeup, fragrance and haircare. The US fell to third at $9.6 billion, down 4% year-on-year, while Korea grew 10% a contrast that reflects both the strength of Korean brands in export markets and a softening in US brand demand abroad. France remains in a league of its own at €23.3 billion, 2.3 times Korea’s total.
The top ten total ranking is a mix of established Western exporters and newer entrants. The UAE and Poland are the most structurally interesting newer entrants with the UAE as a fragrance superpower re-export hub for Gulf and African markets and Poland as an increasingly significant manufacturing base for European mass beauty.
France dominates Korea in fragrance as it exports €9.1 billion in fragrance alone, 163 times Korea’s €56 million in the same category and leads skincare and makeup at €12.5 billion. Korea is second in skincare and makeup at €9.4 billion, 25% behind France but growing four times faster in 2025. APR Corporation, parent of Medicube, exemplifies the trajectory: its sales doubled between 2024 and 2025 to over $1 billion, built almost entirely on skincare exported through digital-first channels. Korea also became the top beauty exporter to the US in 2025, ahead of France, a striking reversal in what has historically been a French-dominated prestige market.
For me whether Korea can eventually overtake France in skincare and makeup is a genuine mid-term question given the growth differential.