Medicube, Laneige Among Top 5 K-beauty Brands by U.S. Spend

2025 was a landmark year for Korean beauty brands Stateside.

According to NIQ, U.S. K-beauty sales rose to $2 billion in the 12 months ending Aug. 9, up 37 percent from the year prior, when sales were $1.5 billion. (The year before that, sales hadn’t yet cracked $1 billion, for reference.)

This growth comes as K-beauty brands grow increasingly popular on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and TikTok Shop, and are subsequently being snapped up by U.S. retailers at a competitive clip.

Panel data from Attain tracking online consumer spending shows that Medicube was the number-one K-beauty brand by online spend in the U.S. in 2025. The viral brand, known for its sensorial skin care products and facial devices, was also the only top five brand to grow its share during the year while others either held steady or saw slight dips.

While Korean makeup and hair care brands are making nascent inroads in the U.S., skin care is still the dominant K-beauty category in the market, representing all five of the top brands by share. Those brands include next-gen K-beauty players (Beauty of Joseon and Medicube) as well as category OGs (Laneige and CosRX), which came to the U.S. in the 2010s and have maintained popularity thanks to cult-favorite lip and snail mucin product, respectively.

Glow Recipe, which is based in the U.S. but whose founders, Sarah Lee and Christine Chang, are of Korean heritage, also made the list. The brand has increasingly leaned into Korean-inspired innovation as K-beauty has boomed all over again, most recently launching toner pads and a fruit-powered serum alternative to snail mucin.

The top five K-beauty brands by estimated share of online U.S. spend in 2025, per Attain panel data.

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