kbeautytmi › Issues › 2026-W30
The 2026-W30 issue.
Every story we published from the 2026-W30 snapshot, in one place. 12 stories so far — more open through the week. The raw data is in the 2026-W30 archive →
LabSun2026-08-06
Anua vs COSRX: AI calls it even. The shelf doesn't.
Ask four AI assistants sixty skincare questions and the two most-cited K-beauty brands come back nearly tied: Anua 36, COSRX 34. But that near-tie hides two different brands. Anua reaches 13 of our ch
Not Here YetTue2026-08-05
Korea's makeup chart and America's share almost no brands.
Skincare crosses the Pacific; makeup, so far, does not. Among the top 20 makeup brands on each of our charts, Korea's is led by CLIO and rom&nd — the tint-and-cushion names that define the home market
StockedMon2026-08-04
America buys Korean collagen. Korea buys probiotics and slimming.
We started archiving the ingestibles chart this month, and the first read is a clean split. On the US side, one brand — BB LAB — holds 6 of the top 20 slots with collagen and PDRN beauty supplements.
StockedMon2026-08-03
One brand owns Korea's face-mask shelf. In America, no one does.
Sheet masks are the most fragmented-looking category in K-beauty — hundreds of brands, dozens of formats. But on Korea's chart it isn't fragmented at all: MEDIHEAL holds 7 of the top 20 slots, includi
LabSun2026-08-02
YesStyle and iHerb share 58% of their K-beauty brands. They're the same starter pack.
Two weeks ago we found the loneliest pair on our board: Sephora and Ulta, two prestige giants that share almost no K-beauty brands. This week, the opposite pole. Of the K-beauty brands iHerb carries i
HypedSat2026-08-01
Two of AI's favorite K-beauty brands are everywhere. Dr.Jart+ is barely stocked.
When we put sixty skincare questions to four AI assistants, the two most-cited K-beauty brands are Anua (36 mentions) and COSRX (34) — and both are widely stocked, on 13 and 9 of our channels. Dr.Jart
IngredientsThu2026-07-30
Niacinamide is the ingredient America ranks more than Korea does.
Most ingredients we track lean the same way: Korea stocks them and the US hasn't caught up. Hyaluronic acid and centella both run 9 to 3 in Korea's favor this week. Niacinamide breaks the pattern hard
MoversWed2026-07-29
For the first time we can measure movement — and HERA just climbed 38 ranks.
We have said from the start that rankings can't be recovered retroactively. This week the payoff arrives: with two archived weeks, we can finally measure movement. Between W29 and W30, 16 products cli
Not Here YetTue2026-07-28
Eight of K-beauty's most widely stocked brands still aren't in Sephora or Ulta.
We track 248 K-beauty brands across our live retail channels. Fourteen of them reach five channels or more — the proven, widely stocked tier. Eight of those fourteen appear on neither Sephora nor Ulta
StockedMon2026-07-27
Nine K-beauty brands reach eight or more shelves. 171 reach exactly one.
We track 248 K-beauty brands across 18 live retail channels. Anua reaches 13 of them — the widest distribution on our board — followed by medicube at 12 and Dr. Althea at 11. But the top is thin: only
Buzz2026-07-26
The K-beauty brands Reddit can't stop naming are already on the shelf.
We read 173 posts across nine skincare subreddits this week and counted which K-beauty brands people actually name. The top of that list — Beauty of Joseon, medicube, SKIN1004 — is not a set of hidden
Just LandedFri2026-07-20
K-beauty reached 28.7% of U.S. homes. Half of Korea's top 20 is already on that shelf.
NielsenIQ reports that K-beauty reached 28.7% of U.S. households in 2025. In our frozen 2026-W30 sample, 10 of Olive Young Korea's top 20 products also appear in Olive Young Global's U.S. top 100 — 50