K-beauty brands shine among Amazon’s 2025 Prime Day bestsellers

Cosmetics and beauty devices made by South Korean companies dominated Amazon’s biggest summer shopping event this year, Prime Day, underscoring the unfazed K-beauty sensation.

Medicube, the beauty tech brand under fast-growing Korean beauty company APR Co., led the pack, topping the 2025 Prime Day top 10 bestselling beauty brands list during this year’s event held from July 8-11, according to Navigo Marketing, a US beauty and wellness e-commerce agency.

The Korean brand captured 9.3% of total beauty sales shares among the top 100 bestselling products during the four-day event, with its Zero Pore Pads particularly propelling growth.

The product was sold at $14.9 during the event, a 52% discount from its original price.

The company’s personal skincare device, the AGE-R Booster Pro, also ranked as the second bestseller in the skincare category.

Brisk sales of Medicube products have increased the overall overseas sales of APR, the brand owner.

APR’s foreign sales hit 188.8 billion won ($136 million) in the January-March period this year, making up 71% of the company’s total sales. Its foreign sales in the quarter nearly tripled from a year ago.

“Its US sales are projected to exceed 100 billion won in the third quarter, driven by robust sales of beauty products and devices,” said Cho Kyung-jin, an analyst at IBK Securities Co.

Next month, the company will start selling its products through both the online and offline stores of Ulta Beauty, the largest beauty retailer in the US, marking one of the most extensive US retail entries for a Korean skincare label.

Kospi-listed APR shares rose 1.2% to end at 172,100 won on Monday.

LAINEIGE AND BIODANCE ALSO MAKE THE LIST

Other Korean makeup brands also fared well.

Laneige, a cosmetics brand under Amorepacific Corp., ranked ninth with a 3% share, thanks to strong demand for its steady-selling lip care products.

Laneige’s Lip Sleeping Mask and Lip Glowy Balm were the most-sold products in the lip care and lip gloss categories, respectively, with the lip mask priced at $17 and the lip gloss at $13. Both products were 30% off from their original prices.

Their popularity was largely attributed to their proven efficacy, affordable prices and global marketing campaigns, which cater to younger-generation consumers, said market analysts.

Biodance ranked 10th on the summer sale's top 10 beauty brand list with 2.9%, driven by strong sales of its flagship product, the Bio-Collagen Real Deep Mask, a hydrating overnight mask.

But not every K-beauty company succeeded in drawing attention during Prime Day.

Cosrx, the Korean skincare brand famous for its Snail Mucin Essence, saw sales tumble during the Amazon shopping event and fell out of the top 10 bestsellers list this year.

The Snail Mucin Essence was the No. 1-selling beauty product during Prime Day last year.

An industry official blamed repetitive marketing campaigns and lower-than-expected discounts for Cosrx’s decline this year.

Prime Day is an annual online summer shopping extravaganza hosted by Amazon.com for its Prime Members, featuring sharply discounted prices of top brands. 

Write to Hyun-jin Ra at raraland@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.