Korea’s vegan beauty market quadruples in 10 years

Amorepacific Corp.’s customized vegan makeup brand Tonework foundations (liquid, left, and cushion) [Photo provided by Amorepacific]

Vegan makeup products that do not contain any ingredients derived from animals are gaining traction, triggering South Korean companies to launch their own vegan beauty brands to grab the hearts of environmentally-savvy consumers.

According to the Vegan Certification and Services on Tuesday, the Korean vegan cosmetics market has quadrupled to 570 billion won ($449.55 million) last year from 160 billion won in 2013. It is estimated to reach 1 trillion won by 2025.

Korean companies including LF Corp., LG Household & Health Care Ltd., and Amorepacific Corp., are striving to ride on the trend.

LF is at the forefront.

The company entered the vegan cosmetics market in October 2019 for the first time in the industry, and its vegan beauty brand ATHE has been steadily growing, with annual average sales rising by about 204 percent over the past two years.

In the first five months this year, sales have doubled on year, already exceeding last year’s annual sales.

“When the brand was launched in 2019, the vegan beauty sector was more unfamiliar than now,” said an unnamed official from LF. “We positioned ATHE as a premium vegan beauty brand in the early stages of its launch, but as vegan cosmetics are gradually becoming popular, we are changing our marketing strategy this year to promote the brand as a trendier and more contemporary brand to expand our target consumers.”

Earlier, in addition to the keyword vegan, ATHE attracted the attention of young female consumers with a differentiated package design containing the sensibility of a fashion company.

A case in point is its lip balm.

ATHE made a handle at the end of the lip balm container and made it possible for consumers to attach various accessories, such as key rings and ribbons.

Sales of sunscreen products are also standing out as the summer season sets in. Sales in May increased by about three times from a year ago, with its most popular Vegan Relief Sun Essence gaining by about six times during the same period.

LG Household & Health Care launched its vegan beauty brand Freshian in May last year. Since its launch, Freshian has seen an average 56 percent increase in sales every quarter from the previous quarter.

Its flagship Egg Like Cushion Vegan features a sugar cane-based bio-pet box and a puff made of natural fermented corn ingredients in a neat egg-shaped container.

Amorepacific, the largest beauty company in Korea, launched a customized vegan makeup brand Tonework last month. What is unique is that the company has applied artificial intelligence (AI) robots to Tonework.

AI robots propose and manufacture base makeup products, such as foundations and cushions, optimized for individual skin colors with as many as 600 options.