K-beauty has revolutionised how we approach skincare, with South Korea becoming the world's beauty hub and producing some of the most exciting innovations of the past decade.
So, what happens when a more advanced category of ingredients and brands enters the global stage? Meet: K-pharmacy, the booming concept that's set to ramp up skincare in the Western world this coming year.
“K-pharmacy is Korean skincare shaped at the pharmacy counter rather than on a social media feed," says Junho Jung, Licensed Pharmacist, Founder & CEO of Dr.Reju-All. "K-beauty taught the world to love texture, ritual and discovery; K-pharmacy adds another dimension: evidence and trust. It starts with a different question: not ‘What’s trending?’ but ‘What does my skin actually need, and why?’”
"It encompasses products and brands with strong pharmaceutical, dermatological or pharmacist-led roots, often at affordable prices, and which you won’t find on the high street," adds Dr Christine Hall, aesthetic doctor and K-beauty expert.
Hall explains there's a relevant difference between the two countries (the UK and Korea) to understand here, in terms of how we approach the distinction between healthcare and skincare. "It's not quite as rigid in Korea as it is in the UK. You can walk into a Korean pharmacy and find products for acne, pigmentation, sensitive skin, barrier repair, scarring and post-treatment care alongside medicines and other healthcare products," she says.
The skincare brands reflecting the K-pharmacy approach are, however, now quickly becoming popularised (and more accessible generally) in the West, despite being nothing new in South Korea. "It isn’t a new concept by any means – but it is only recently that the rest of the world is hearing about it," says Hall.
This popularity boom here, Jung notes, is mostly because our skincare education as consumers has evolved significantly in recent years. “Western consumers have become remarkably fluent in active ingredients. They no longer just want to know what is in a product, but why it is there and why they should trust it. As K-beauty matures, I believe its next phase will pair Korean innovation with greater evidence and expertise. Trends fade, but trust compounds.”
Social media (and beauty tourism) has a huge role here, too. "Someone goes to Korea, walks into a pharmacy and discovers a product they’ve never seen in Boots or Space NK. They try it, post about it, and suddenly consumers in the UK are asking, 'Why can’t I get this here?'" says Dr Hall. "Korean pharmacists themselves are seeing the value of this and many are creating social media pages where their posts often go viral."
Brands helping popularise the movement here, Hall says, include AESTURA, OneThera and Dr.Reju-All. Of the former, she says: "It's a really good example of how this category developed. Its Atobarrier Cream was launched almost 20 years ago through dermatology clinics and hospitals, where it gained recognition before eventually becoming available more widely through health and beauty retail."
Dr.Reju-All, she notes, is also "a brand whose formulations are grounded in the clinical experience of pharmacists." Known for its PDRN range, it also heavily features ceramides, retinoid-focused products and PDLLA formulations, which harness the power of injectable clinic biostimulators. PDLLA is "an ingredient that hasn’t yet really made its way over to the UK as a topical skincare product," says Hall.
"And then you have pharmaceutical companies such as Dong-A Pharmaceutical, which has products including Noscarna Gel for scarring and acne-focused products such as Aclean within its dermatological portfolio," she concludes.
The K-pharmacy category—and Korean beauty more broadly—does a great job of playing with how we formulate the ingredients we love and how we deliver them. In other words, it's great at rethinking "how ingredients with roots in dermatology can be formulated for everyday skincare," says Jung. PDRN (a topical 'alternative' to injectable polynucleotides) is a good example. PDLLA (used in aesthetics as a skin booster) is another, which we may start to see more of topically in the UK.
The beauty industry in Korea is particularly impressive for "taking ingredients that address similar concerns and finding ways of making them more tolerable and cosmetically elegant," explains Hall. For example, "it was Korea that brought microspicules into the skincare world, and this is an area of growth. There is interest in whether microspicules can increase the absorption or delivery of active ingredients, so the use of these for the delivery of other ingredients is going to be an interesting focus."
Whatever is next will no doubt be just as fascinating.
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