Korea Times: K-beauty shopping diversifies beyond Olive Young as new platforms open
The Korea Times reported on 13 July that Musinsa, Coupang, Kurly, Off Beauty and department stores are building beauty platforms as new brands seek routes.
Published
2 November 2026 — The Korea Times reported on 13 July that Korean beauty shopping is spreading beyond Olive Young as other retailers open beauty platforms. Musinsa Beauty was adding the luxury brand NARS to a lineup that already included MAC and Miu Miu, and planned new stores in Hongdae in September and Seongsu in November.
The platforms named
- Coupang's R.LUX platform, which grew out of a 2023 luxury beauty business and offered 40 domestic and foreign brands.
- Beauty Kurly, launched in 2022, with about 1,000 brands.
- Off Beauty, which buys surplus products from manufacturers and had grown to 45 stores since 2024.
- Department-store platforms, including Hyundai's Coasis, Shinsegae's Chicor at 22 locations and a Lotte Department Store venue called The Cast that opened in April.
A Musinsa Beauty official said Olive Young has dominated domestic beauty retail since Lalavla and LOHB exited in 2021, and that new brands often struggle to get in or face steep commission fees, so they look for other channels. Foreign tourists at Musinsa Megastore Seongsu said they had found Korean brands they could not find through traditional channels.
THE CAST shopping perspective
The Lotte Department Store venue called The Cast named in the report belongs to the same business as THE CAST online store at thecastshop.com, so the store you read about in Seoul and this website are one and the same operator. As for the wider point, tourists in the report said they found brands the usual channels did not show them, and that is the job we think a curated English-language store does best. We would add one caution: more platforms also mean more differences in delivery terms, so read the final total for your destination before you confirm any order.