Olive Young Best Sellers: What Korea's Top Skincare Reveals for Global Brands

Olive Young describes itself as one of Korea's largest beauty and health platforms, which makes its rankings a useful barometer of Korean demand. For brands launching elsewhere, Olive Young best sellers are a practical guide to the skincare formats, ingredients and price points shoppers are buying.

Two data sets are worth reading. The first is Olive Young's 2025 Awards, based on about 180 million customer purchase records from July 2024 to June 2025. The second is the current best-seller ranking on Olive Young's global online store, quoted here as of October 2026. Live rankings change constantly, so treat them as a snapshot.

This guide reads both for formats, ingredients and price bands, and for what each signal means when you develop products for the US, Japan, Southeast Asia and beyond.

The 2025 Olive Young Awards: Category Winners

The 2025 Awards cover 40 categories and 166 products. In skincare, the category winners were simple, everyday formats:

• Toner: Round Lab 1025 Dokdo Toner, a light, watery daily toner
• Serum: Torriden Dive-In Low Molecular Hyaluronic Acid Serum
• Cream: Aestura Atobarrier 365 Cream, a barrier-care moisturizer
• Pad: a Mediheal toner pad with madecassoside, a centella-derived ingredient
• Sun care: Round Lab Birch Juice Moisturizing Sun Cream, a hydrating sun cream
• Cleansing: ma:nyo Pure Cleansing Oil

A Rejuran mask featuring c-PDRN was among the winners in the "Slow Aging" trend category. Formats matter as much as ingredients: in 2025, Mediheal became the first brand to pass KRW 200 billion in annual Olive Young sales, driven by mask packs and toner pads, and 116 K-beauty brands passed KRW 10 billion, up from 36 in 2020, according to CJ Olive Young.

What Olive Young Best Sellers Look Like Now

As of October 2026, the "Top in Korea" skincare ranking on Olive Young Global, which Olive Young says is based on online and offline sales data from Olive Young in Korea, showed five patterns:

• Barrier creams lead. A barrier-care cream ranked first and a squalane cream third, with more barrier creams and lotions further down.
• PDRN is widespread. PDRN appeared in 10 of the top 100 product names, across serums, creams, mists and an eye patch.
• Hydration stays central. Hyaluronic acid appeared in 15 of the top 100 product names, in serums, creams, ampoules, mists and toners.
• Cleansers sell on texture. Mung bean foams, rice-cake-style "mochi" cleansers, clay-to-foam cleansers, pack cleansers, oils and balms all ranked. During Olive Young's August–September 2025 sale, searches for pack cleansers rose about 1,700% year on year, alongside PDRN (+695%), peptides (+72%) and niacinamide (+65%), CJ Olive Young reported.
• Vitamin C and niacinamide serums sell by ingredient. Serums named for vitamin C, or for niacinamide with tranexamic acid, ranked highly. In Korea, whitening (brightening) is a functional cosmetic claim requiring MFDS review or reporting product by product, so describe such products by ingredient, not outcome.

Korea vs. International Shoppers

Olive Young Global also publishes a "Top Orders" ranking for its global online store. As of October 2026, the two skincare lists shared 38 of their top 100 listings but differed in emphasis:

• The international skincare list was led by a face cream and a PDRN serum; the Korea list by the barrier cream and the hyaluronic acid serum.
• PDRN appeared in 13 of the top 100 international skincare product names, versus 10 in Korea.

Visitors matter too: foreign customers' offline purchases at Olive Young passed KRW 1 trillion in 2025, according to CJ. International demand is not a copy of Korean demand, so look for products that rank on both lists.

Sun Care, Korean Style

As of October 2026, Olive Young Global's Top in Korea sun care ranking, its list of best-selling sunscreens, was led by the same hydrating sun cream that won its 2025 Awards category, followed by a sun serum. The top 20 also included tone-up sun creams in purple and pink shades, a sun stick and a mineral sunscreen.

Formats travel more easily than claims, because sunscreen is regulated differently in each market. In Korea, UV protection is a functional cosmetic, reviewed or reported product by product. In the US, sunscreens are regulated as over-the-counter drugs, and their active ingredients must be ones the FDA permits. In the EU, they are cosmetics whose SPF claims should follow a European Commission recommendation. Permitted UV filters differ between markets, so a Korean sun cream may need reformulating and retesting before export. Confirm current rules with each market's regulator or a regulatory consultant.

Price Bands

As of October 2026, most of the top 40 listings in Olive Young Global's Top in Korea skincare ranking were priced at roughly US$20 to US$45, many of them sets. For example, the top-ranked barrier cream was listed at US$44 for 80 mL.

These are global-store dollar prices, often discounted, and not comparable with Korean shelf prices. Set the retail price for your own channel first, then work back to formula, packaging cost and order quantity.

Turning Korean Best Sellers into Product Ideas

Copying a best seller is risky: the original brand already owns that story. Use the rankings to choose a direction, then make it your own.

1. Start with the format. Toner pads, mists, textured cleansers and barrier creams show that a format can carry a brand. For example, a two-phase cleansing oil answers the cleansing-oil category with a texture of its own.
2. Choose one ingredient you can explain. Squalane, panthenol, centella, hyaluronic acid or PDRN give shoppers a clear reason to look. A squalane cream fits the barrier-cream lead.
3. Plan price and quantity together. Begin with one hero product and a realistic MOQ.
4. Differentiate. Add a distinctive texture, fragrance, pack size or packaging detail.
5. Check claims per market. Hydration and comfort language is generally cosmetic. Brightening, anti-wrinkle, acne and SPF claims require testing, registration or both, depending on the market.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the Olive Young Awards based on?

According to CJ Olive Young, the 2025 Awards drew on about 180 million customer purchase records from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, combined with category trend analysis. New global sub-categories also used data from its global online store, available in 150 countries.

Do Olive Young best sellers work outside Korea?

Olive Young is testing that in the US. It opened its first US store in Pasadena in May 2026 and brought a K-Beauty Edit, organized around needs such as barrier care, hydration, elasticity and soothing, to more than 580 Sephora locations from August 20, 2026, according to CJ. Results still depend on price, channel and the claims each market allows.

Can I sell in Olive Young?

Listing decisions are made by the retailer, so confirm current requirements directly with Olive Young. Newer brands do scale there: CJ named indie brands such as Arencia and Whipped as pioneers of the pack-cleanser category. Products sold in Korea must also meet Korean cosmetics rules, including functional cosmetic requirements for whitening or UV claims.

Final Thoughts

Korean skincare best sellers show where shoppers are heading: barrier care, hydration, PDRN and textures that make a routine feel new. They do not tell you what you may claim in the US, Europe, Japan or Southeast Asia. Let Korean retail set the direction, and let your target market decide the claims and the price.