Seoul Beauty Week 2026 ran from 22 to 25 August 2026 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul, and its fifth edition was the largest yet: 152 exhibiting beauty companies, 116 overseas buyers from 48 countries and about 48,000 visitors. Organised by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, it is not a classic hall-and-booth trade fair. It is a city-run export engine that puts Seoul's small and mid-sized K-beauty brands in the same building as foreign distributors for four days, then adds a consumer festival on top. For anyone sourcing K-beauty products or benchmarking K-beauty manufacturing, the B2B half is the part worth reading closely.
Seoul Beauty Week 2026 in short
Seoul Beauty Week 2026 was a four-day K-beauty trade and consumer event held 22–25 August 2026 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul, South Korea, organised by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. It combined an exhibition of 152 beauty companies (cosmetics, beauty tech, medical aesthetics, beauty services and inner beauty) with a Beauty Trade Show where 116 overseas buyers from 48 countries met 175 Seoul-based SMEs for one-on-one export consultations. Around 48,000 people attended, up about 14.6 percent on 2025. The key limitation for sourcing teams: this is a finished-brand showcase, not a manufacturing or ingredients fair, so it suits distributors and brand scouts better than buyers looking for an OEM factory. Check the official site for 2027 dates before planning a trip.
Key takeaways
- Dates and venue: 22–25 August 2026 at DDP, Seoul — consumer days 22–23 August, business days 23–25 August (organiser schedule, Seoul Metropolitan Government, checked September 2026).
- Record scale for a young event: 152 exhibitors, up from 52 at the first edition in 2022, now filling every zone of DDP (organiser, via The Herald Business, 26 Aug 2026).
- The B2B core is buyer matching, not booth traffic: 116 overseas buyers from 48 countries met 175 Seoul SMEs in pre-arranged export consultations run by the Seoul Business Agency.
- Policy context matters: Korea exported USD 11.4 billion of cosmetics in 2025, and SMEs now account for 72.5 percent of that (USD 8.3 billion), up from 63.6 percent in 2023 (Seoul Metropolitan Government, citing national export data).
- Compliance was on the programme: the first Seoul Beauty Forum put global regulation and certification alongside AI, distribution strategy and consumer-trend sessions.
Who this recap is for
This recap is for distributors, retailers and brand owners outside Korea — particularly in Southeast Asia — who are deciding whether to source finished K-beauty products, license a Korean brand, or use Korean manufacturing as a benchmark for their own line. It is also useful for sourcing managers comparing Asian beauty events on a single calendar. If you are looking specifically for a Korean contract manufacturer, start with our shortlist of OEM/ODM skincare manufacturers in South Korea, then use events like this one to meet the brands those factories supply.
What is Seoul Beauty Week?
Seoul Beauty Week is an annual beauty industry event organised by the Seoul Metropolitan Government since 2022 to help Seoul-based beauty SMEs find domestic and export sales channels. It is held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), the Zaha Hadid-designed venue in central Seoul. The 2026 edition was rebranded “Beautiful Life in Seoul (BLS) – Seoul Beauty Week” and widened beyond cosmetics into fashion, wellness and lifestyle programming for the public, while keeping its business core: the Beauty Trade Show, a business pitching competition and a new industry forum. Admission to all programmes was free with registration on the official Seoul Beauty Week site.
Inside the 2026 edition: the numbers
The 2026 edition was the biggest in the event's five-year history on every published measure. The table below separates pre-show projections from post-show results, because the two are not the same thing.
| Metric | 2026 figure | Status | Source (checked Sep 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exhibiting companies | 152 (vs 52 in 2022) | Organiser-stated, post-show | Herald Business |
| Overseas buyers | 116 from 48 countries (115 announced pre-show) | Organiser-stated, post-show | Herald Business; SMG |
| Seoul SMEs in the Beauty Trade Show | 175 | Organiser-stated, post-show | Herald Business |
| Total visitors | ~48,000 (2025: ~41,000; +14.6%) | Organiser-stated, post-show | Herald Business |
| Pitch competition | 9 finalists from 72 applicants | Organiser-stated, pre-show | SMG |
| 2025 export contracts signed at the event | ~KRW 17.7 billion | Organiser-stated, prior year | SMG |
| 2026 contract value | Not disclosed at time of writing | — | — |
Named exhibitors ranged from contract-manufacturing heavyweight Kolmar Korea and brand house Power Player to aesthetic-device makers Classys and H2Medi, alongside a long tail of indie labels. The Seoul Metropolitan Government points to Power Player's Ongredients brand, which took a USD 5 million Export Tower award in 2025 after four consecutive Seoul Beauty Week appearances, as the kind of trajectory the event is designed to produce.
How the Beauty Trade Show buyer matching works
The Beauty Trade Show is a pre-scheduled matchmaking programme, run by the Seoul Business Agency (SBA), that pairs Seoul-based beauty SMEs with vetted overseas buyers for one-on-one export consultations. It ran 23–25 August, 10:00–18:00, alongside export-consulting and investment-advisory desks. Over 2023–2025, the Seoul Metropolitan Government reports cumulative consultation value of about KRW 120 billion (roughly USD 86.9 million) and contract value of about KRW 36 billion — roughly 30 percent of consultation value converting to signed business, which is a useful benchmark for any buyer judging how serious these meetings are. Details of the format are on the Beauty Trade Show page.
For foreign buyers the practical point is that meetings are the product. Walking the public floor on 22–23 August shows you what Korean consumers are queuing for; the business days are where a distributor can get samples, price lists and export documentation on the table.
What the first Seoul Beauty Forum covered
The inaugural Seoul Beauty Forum was a two-session conference (23–24 August) covering global regulation and certification, AI and beauty technology, platform and distribution strategy, and consumer-trend sessions billed as “Idol Beauty Codes” and “Viral Beauty Codes”, according to the forum programme. The mix is telling. A city government putting certification on the same stage as idol-driven marketing is an acknowledgement that export growth for small K-beauty brands now depends as much on passing foreign regulatory checks as on social virality.
How Seoul Beauty Week compares with other 2026 Asian beauty shows
Seoul Beauty Week is best understood as a finished-brand export showcase, which makes it a different tool from the sourcing-heavy ASEAN fairs covered earlier this year.
| Event (2026) | Dates & venue | Format | Published scale | Supply-chain / OEM zone | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seoul Beauty Week | 22–25 Aug, DDP Seoul | City-run B2B matching + consumer festival | 152 exhibitors, 116 buyers, ~48,000 visitors | Not a dedicated zone (exhibitors incl. Kolmar Korea) | Distributors and brand scouts sourcing finished K-beauty |
| Cosmoprof CBE ASEAN | 24–26 Jun, QSNCC Bangkok | International B2B trade fair | 730+ exhibitors, ~25,000 visitors | Yes — new Cosmopack CBE ASEAN floor | Brand owners sourcing OEM/ODM, packaging and ingredients |
| Vietbeauty & Cosmobeauté Vietnam | 23–25 Jul, SECC Ho Chi Minh City | International B2B trade fair | 750+ exhibitors, 3,500+ brands | Yes — Beautycare Plus zone | Companies entering or manufacturing for Vietnam |
Figures are each organiser's own published numbers, as recorded in our recaps; formats differ, so visitor totals are not directly comparable.
What this means for buyers and brand owners
The clearest signal from Seoul Beauty Week 2026 is that K-beauty's export growth is now SME-led, and the Korean public sector is actively funding the matchmaking. That changes the calculus for Southeast Asian buyers in three ways:
- Finished-brand sourcing is getting easier. With 175 SMEs actively seeking export partners, distributors can negotiate exclusivity for smaller brands that are not yet represented in their market.
- Private label is a different conversation. Most exhibitors are brand owners, not factories. If you want your own formula under your own label, the relevant counterpart is the manufacturer behind those brands — see our guide to the differences between OEM, ODM and private label before you start those talks.
- Regulatory fit is on you. Korean cosmetics are regulated domestically by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), but a product compliant in Korea still needs notification or registration in each destination market. Ask exhibitors for full ingredient lists (INCI), stability data and the documents your own regulator requires before agreeing volumes.
Buyers focused on a single high-demand category may get more from a targeted shortlist than from a show floor; for sun care, for example, our comparison of sunscreen contract manufacturers in South Korea covers the factories directly.
Useful links and resources
- Official event site (organiser): seoulbeautyweek.or.kr
- Beauty Trade Show (B2B matching) programme: seoulbeautyweek.or.kr – Beauty Trade Show
- Seoul Beauty Forum programme: seoulbeautyweek.or.kr – Seoul Beauty Forum
- Organiser press release (Seoul Metropolitan Government, 14 Aug 2026): K-Beauty ranks second globally
- Post-show report with official photos: The Herald Business, 26 Aug 2026
- Pre-show coverage: 152 K-beauty firms to gather at DDP
- Official Instagram (event photos): @seoulbeautyweek
Frequently asked questions
When and where was Seoul Beauty Week 2026 held?
Seoul Beauty Week 2026 took place from 22 to 25 August 2026 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul. Consumer programmes ran on 22–23 August and business programmes on 23–25 August. Dates for 2027 had not been announced when this recap was written, so check the official site.
Is Seoul Beauty Week a B2B or a consumer event?
Seoul Beauty Week is both. Its business core is the Beauty Trade Show, where 116 overseas buyers held pre-arranged export consultations with 175 Seoul SMEs, but it also runs free public programmes. Buyers should register for the business matching in advance rather than rely on walking the floor.
Can I find a K-beauty OEM or ODM manufacturer at Seoul Beauty Week?
Occasionally, but it is not the event's focus. Most exhibitors are finished brands, although manufacturers such as Kolmar Korea took part in 2026. If manufacturing is the goal, shortlist factories directly and use a supply-chain fair such as Cosmoprof CBE ASEAN's Cosmopack floor for side-by-side comparison.
How much business does Seoul Beauty Week generate?
The organiser reports about KRW 17.7 billion in export contracts from the 2025 edition, and roughly KRW 36 billion in contracts from KRW 120 billion of consultations over 2023–2025. The 2026 contract total had not been published at the time of writing.
Who regulates cosmetics in South Korea?
Cosmetics in South Korea are regulated by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) under the Cosmetics Act. Korean compliance does not transfer automatically to other markets, so importers must still complete their own country's notification or registration process.
Sources, scope and limitations
Scope: this recap covers the 2026 edition only. It is compiled from the Seoul Metropolitan Government's published announcement, the official event site and post-show reporting by The Herald Business that quotes organiser figures. It does not evaluate or rank any exhibitor.
Limitations: visitor, buyer and exhibitor numbers are organiser-stated and not independently audited. The organiser's pre-show release gives the event dates as 22–25 August; one translated news report gives slightly different dates, and we have followed the organiser. The 2026 contract value had not been published at the time of writing. Export statistics are as cited by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The photographs are official organiser images, reproduced with credit and a link to their source.
Update history
Recap of the 22–25 August 2026 edition at DDP, Seoul. Figures and links last checked September 2026.
Written and researched by Chutinun Krisnakupt, Product & Commercial Strategy, for OEMHallmark. Photos courtesy of the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Always confirm current dates and registration on the official site.