K-beauty reached 28.7% of U.S. homes. Half of Korea's top 20 is already on that shelf.

NielsenIQ put K-beauty in 28.7% of U.S. households in 2025. That is a category-level consumer measurement. Our number measures something much narrower: whether the exact products topping Olive Young Korea also top Olive Young Global's U.S. list in the same week.

In our frozen 2026-W30 sample, 10 of 20 crossed. Fifty percent.

The half that doesn't cross doesn't send anything

Of the 10 Korean top-20 products with no U.S. counterpart, all 10 belong to brands with no product anywhere on the U.S. top 100. Not a different SKU, not a smaller size — nothing. MEDIHEAL's mask sheets and toner pads, BIODANCE's collagen mask: enormous in Korea, absent from that American list.

So the shelf does not thin out gradually as you move from Seoul to the U.S. It splits. A brand is on that list or its whole catalogue is off it.

Two numbers that do not share a denominator

We put 28.7% and 50% side by side because the pairing is useful, not because they are comparable. NIQ counts households that bought any K-beauty product in a year. We count product IDs shared between two weekly ranking samples. Neither is market share, and a higher overlap does not mean a bigger market.

What we cannot see

Twenty products is a small window, and Olive Young Global's U.S. list is one retailer's, not the country's. A Korean best-seller could be selling well at Amazon, Ulta or a specialist and still count as ‘not crossed’ here. This measures one specific shelf, in one week, by product ID.