'A cultural brand': How did K-beauty become a dominant force in global skincare?

South Korean beauty products on display at Bloomingdales in New York. Once a niche segment, K-beauty is now thoroughly a mainstream. Photo: The New York Times

In 1991, four years after joining Amorepacific, his family’s South Korean beauty conglomerate, Suh Kyungbae travelled to France to figure out why the company’s skincare line was selling so poorly there.

He found the products collecting dust at run-down French drugstores.