Available At CVS, Look Beauty’s New Face Mask Brand Hallyu Puts The Korean In K-Beauty

Hallyu is cresting at retail.

The new brand named for a term for the global Korean pop culture wave is entering 3,000 CVS stores in the United States and 800 Superdrug stores in United Kingdom before launching at 1,200 Shoppers Drug Mart stores in Canada later this month. Hallyu rounds out a brand portfolio at the face mask specialist Look Beauty that includes benefit-driven MasqueBar, ingredient authority iN.Gredients, Instagram bait Pretty Animalz, men’s line Bandito and value proposition OM! Only Me.

“Everything about it, from the designs to the formulas, is authentically Korean,” says Look Beauty founder Allan Lever. “When you go to Korea, the brands are played down in the design. You don’t see Innisfree or Tony Moly in big letters. It’s really about the product more than the brand, and the packaging is totally disjointed. Nothing looks the same. That’s what we did with Hallyu.”

In terms of products, Hallyu’s initial assortment centers upon a Watermelon Jelly Mask and Watermelon Sheet Mask. Additional items are a Lip Mask in strawberry, black cherry and blueberry varieties, and an Eggstra collection containing a Bubble Sheet Mask, All-In-One Trip Mask and Two Step Nose Patch. Prices run from $3.99 to $4.99. Jeju tangerine merchandise is in the product pipeline for Hallyu.

“We take Korean trends and make them more mainstream,” says Lever. “Watermelon, for example, is an ingredient that’s really trending right now. There are watermelon-flavored waters, and watermelons are everywhere in candy and fashion. Charcoal has been our hottest ingredient, and we say watermelon is our next charcoal.” He notes Hallyu is addressing the watermelon trend early in the beauty category with mask products that are less expensive than Glow Recipe’s popular $45 Watermelon Glow Sleeping Mask. He predicts pineapple is a food trend on tap to follow watermelon.

“Charcoal has been our hottest ingredient, and we say watermelon is our next charcoal.”

As Look Beauty raises Hallyu’s retail profile, it’s refreshing its main brand MasqueBar. Lever details MasqueBar is moving away from a model on its packaging demonstrating mask usage. He explains the model made sense to educate consumers as masks began to infiltrate the North America, but is no longer needed because beauty consumers today largely comprehend masks. MasqueBar’s updated graphic packaging will be introduced in two to three months.

There’s been a ton of talk about the rise of J-Beauty of late, but Lever isn’t convinced it will nudge out K-Beauty. “Korea is leading the trends. There is a lot of really cool stuff coming out in cleanser technologies and skincare treatments,” he says. “It’s anchored by masks because masks are an easy way to do skincare and have a lot of appeal to U.S. consumers. They’re affordable impulse purchases.”

Although sales in the face mask segment continue to climb, it’s incredibly crowded, and Lever forecasts a shakeout. “I’m hearing feedback from retailers that they have too many masks, and they are starting to cut back,” he says. “We were one of the first to jump into the market eight years ago, and we’ve established a presence, but you are going to start to see fallout from some of the Korean brands that jumped into the U.S. market, and the brands that mostly aren’t in the mask business, but thought they had to have masks.”

While smaller brands may subside, Lever is confident Look Beauty will remain strong. He describes the company as extremely nimble in a rapidly evolving category. “We don’t patent any of our formulas because somebody can change one, two or three ingredients and put out a similar product, so we just try to stay ahead, and be first to market and fast to market,” says Lever. “That’s been our success story. We will do curated collections for retailers, too.”

“We can be the biggest player in the mask world because we are everything masks unlike most of our competitors that do other things.”

Look Beauty’s diversified retail distribution reaches 25,000-plus U.S. doors, and crosses fashion destinations (e.g., Urban Outfitters and American Eagle Outfitters), off-price outlets (Marshalls and T.J. Maxx), grocery (HEB, Albertsons and Meijer), big-box chains (Target and Walmart) and specialty beauty stores (Ulta Beauty and Ricky’s NYC). Private-label offerings are responsible for roughly 20% of Look Beauty’s revenues. The company’s selection spans about 200 stockkeeping units, and Lever says retailers have picked up anywhere from six to 50 of them. Look Beauty’s items extend to four areas inside Target stores. In June, its neon masks will be situated in the apparel sections at the retailer.

The company’s international footprint is expanding. Its products are currently available in almost 50 countries, up from 28 last year, and Look Beauty is headed soon to Australia, India, Hong Kong, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Oman, among an extensive list of countries. Buoyed by worldwide growth, Look Beauty’s retail sales are expected to increase 70% this year to $75 million. In 2020, they’re projected to surpass $100 million.

To support its growth, Look Beauty is searching for an investment partner and has hired Duff & Phelps to guide its search, as reported by Women’s Wear Daily. “I love this and want to continue to do this. We just have to find the right strategic partner that understands the vision I have for where I want to take the company,” says Lever. “We can be the biggest player in the mask world because we are everything masks unlike most of our competitors that do other things.”