Korean Daiso, which is also favored by European flight attendants

A Dutch airline flight attendant, who met at a Daiso store in Hongdae, Mapo-gu, Seoul at 2 p.m. on the 11th, said, “I visited Korea as a flight attendant and came across Korean beauty, and Korean makeup is considered beautiful in Europe,” adding, “I’m going to give cosmetics purchased at Daiso to my friends and daughters.”

A store employee who worked here for a year also said, “Recently, the number of female customers asking where the Daiso cosmetics section is has increased, and in particular, the number of foreigners coming to the tour in groups has increased significantly.” Sales of Daiso color cosmetics are soaring as they are popular not only with Koreans but also with foreigners. According to Daiso, sales of Daiso color cosmetics grew by about 80% last year compared to the previous year. During the same period, overseas card payments increased by about 50% and the number of overseas card payments also increased by about 42%.

On the second floor of the store, which was visited on the same day, there were upcoming Valentine’s Day-related products, nail care, and hair products, but the most crowded place was by far the color cosmetics stand.

Exhibited with a variety of cosmetics such as eyeliner, eyebrow, tint, cushion pact, blusher, and highlighter, the place resembled a beauty store. The low price of any kind, which does not exceed up to 5,000 won, also attracted attention.

Customers tried various types of color cosmetics on the back of their hands at the sales stand and compared their colors, and it was also noticeable that mothers and daughters stood together in the color corner and selected cosmetics to share.

Some customers packed a basket of color products that looked well over 10 types. An office worker who posted beauty contents on Instagram said, “Even if you put this much, it is worth about 40,000 won to 50,000 won. It only costs one to two cosmetics products from a department store brand,” he said. “I bought them a few times out of curiosity, but I’m buying them often because I’m very satisfied.”

A graduate student who is already repurchasing Daiso cosmetics for several times said, “I got interested in Daiso color makeup contents on Instagram and YouTube, and I especially like Daiso Son & Park color balm,” he said. “I think I will continue to use it in the future because the quality is good for the price and the color is good.” Daiso began to introduce its products in 2023 through collaboration with various color brands. In collaboration with ‘Ipken’, it launched color cosmetics with the theme of personal color, and since then, it has been introducing a line of color cosmetics with high cost-effectiveness along with ‘Apure’ and ‘Son & Park’.

Recently, in collaboration with the vegan beauty brand “Dinto,” it launched the “Frillude Dinto” line, which included six types of eye makeup and base makeup. Daiso color cosmetics are actively shared with reviews on social networking services (SNS) and YouTube, and naturally gained viral effects.

When I searched “Daiso Makeup” on YouTube, related contents such as “Daiso Recommended Item,” “Daiso New Review,” and “Daiso Full Makeup” were poured out. Videos related to Daiso color cosmetics are attracting a lot of attention, with more than 22,000 to 2.5 million views based on YouTube short videos (shorts) recommendations. In particular, the product of “Son & Park” went viral as a cheap version of Chanel Red Camelier Lip App Cheek Balm, which was tested by a reporter on the back of his hand, and it was applied with a soft texture and clearly occurred. The product was also reviewed through 1.29 million YouTubers’ “office workers.”

In addition, one of the popular factors is that you can try a variety of products without burdening the price. A job applicant explained, “I bought it because I thought it would be good to try a tint because it was cheap, but of course, the design and package were disappointing compared to the expensive cosmetics I originally used, but I thought it was not bad at this price.”

Cost reduction through mass production, minimal packaging, peeling, and minimizing marketing costs are the reasons Daiso can sell various color cosmetics at low prices. Based on this strategy, Daiso continues to increase the number of affordable color cosmetics lines and receives a lot of attention from consumers.

Daiso is trying to maintain a good quality product condition by minimizing unnecessary parts such as design and packaging, a Daiso official said. “We are manufacturing so that there is no significant difference in ingredients from brand color cosmetics because low prices do not mean that quality is bad.”

SALLY LEE

US ASIA JOURNAL