Sephora Accelerate participant Oliviaumma launched into 268 Sephora doors nationwide this March with just one product: its Milky Resurfacing Brightening Toner Pads. Three weeks later, the product went viral, sending shoppers racing from store to store in search of it and putting the brand on track for 300% growth this year.
In a TikTok video posted last week that drew more than 23,000 likes, creator Michelle Shen calls the pads the “ultimate glass skin product” and recounts visiting three different Sephora stores over three days trying to find them. “Whenever it is in stock, I literally buy all of them,” she says.
Oliviaumma founder Hye Kim attributes the pads’ virality to a combination of efficacy and scarcity. She estimates that roughly 80% of the videos about the product feature consumers discussing the results they achieved, while many of the rest document their search for the sold-out pads at Sephora stores. “You can visually see the difference,” she says, adding that videos of shoppers searching multiple Sephora stores for the sold-out product “got people talking.”
Oliviaumma moved quickly to capitalize on the viral moment. The brand tapped creators like Lauren Ashley, who helped it go viral, to continue posting about its products on their own accounts, then repurposed that content in its advertising. On top of the digital efforts, the brand hosts weekly community gatherings for creators based in Miami, where Kim is based, to produce content, share products and work out together.
“We’re constantly testing to see what works and what doesn’t work,” says Kim. “Our models on our social pages and even our website are all community people. They’ve become the face of our brand.”
@michelleshen sharing bc I’m stocked up rn lol Ily @OLIVIAUMMA #glassskinproducts #bestskincareproducts #tonerpad #koreanskincare
Oliviaumma’s early momentum at Sephora provides a strong foundation as the brand expands its footprint at the retailer. The expansion could reveal whether it can translate the success of its breakout toner pads into demand for a broader assortment.
Oliviaumma’s Milky Resurfacing Brightening Toner Pads debuted in Sephora’s K-Beauty skincare section alongside brands like Innisfree, Torriden and Hanyul. On Aug. 28, four products—Foam Hydrating Cleanser, Jelly Vitamin Brightening Serum, Velvety Rich Barrier Cream and Candy Glow Lip Balm in Guava—will join the toner pads in 82 Sephora stores as part of the beauty specialty retailer’s Next Big Thing display. Online, Sephora carries eight Oliviaumma products priced from $15 to $68. By the end of the year, the lineup will grow again with the addition of another Sephora-exclusive product.
Oliviaumma, which means “Olivia’s mom” in Korean, is named after Kim’s almost 16-year-old daughter. Kim repurposed the name from her previous business distributing and selling fashion designers from North and South America to Korea. When she launched the skincare brand in 2023, she drew inspiration from the art deco architecture and bright color palette of Miami, where she has lived for more than a decade.
“I wanted to present Oliviaumma as the second generation of Korean beauty and show that we understand U.S. customers better than other Korean beauty brands.”
“I couldn’t find great K-Beauty brands that delivered on the aesthetic side plus included the great research that I wanted,” she says. “I wanted to build something that people could be excited about.”
Oliviaumma premiered at Sephora as K-Beauty is surging. K-Beauty sales in the United States increased 23% in dollars and 24% in units sold during the first quarter of 2026, according to market research firm Circana, with skincare accounting for the majority of sales and all net gains.
Still, K-Beauty represents just 3% of the prestige beauty market and 6% of the mass beauty market. While the category’s earlier wave in 2015 was driven by products such as BB creams and sheet masks and ingredients like snail mucin and ginseng, Circana notes a new generation of brands is taking a more clinical approach by “emphasizing biotech-powered ingredients, dermatological validation, and an intentional focus on skin barrier health.” Oliviaumma reflects that shift with formulations featuring ingredients such as PDRN, bakuchiol, niacinamide, ceramides and multiple forms of hyaluronic acid.
Kim believes launching in the United States before South Korea differentiates Oliviaumma in the increasingly crowded market for PDRN-based skincare. One of Oliviaumma’s taglines is “Born in Korea and raised in Miami.”
“Since I had a business in Korea, I could have launched there first, but I knew that when you launch in Korea, you have to try to get into Olive Young,” says Kim. “I wanted to be cooler than Olive Young and embed the Miami component into the brand.”
After Oliviaumma gains greater visibility in the U.S., Kim plans to launch it in South Korea. She says, “I wanted to present Oliviaumma as the second generation of Korean beauty and show that we understand U.S. customers better than other Korean beauty brands.”
