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Hello, everyone! K-Beauty fans or those interested in skin care, I've come today with a special topic. As we welcome the new year of 2025, Korea continues to hold its position as the 'mecca of beauty' leading global beauty trends. Especially curious about why overseas tourists make dermatology visits a must-do during their trips to Korea? Today, based on recent data, I'll kindly explain the popular treatments from 2024, the key trends for 2025, and the future of the global beauty market.
Read it comfortably, like chatting with a friend!
Why Do Tourists Consider Korean Dermatology a Must-Do?
Korea's K-Beauty is famous for non-surgical treatments. You can naturally enhance your beauty without surgery, and the short recovery time makes it easy to do during travel. In particular, tourists from Japan, China, and surprisingly Vietnam visit a lot, and preferences vary by nationality. According to the data, based on 2024, it's divided like this.
- Japanese Tourists: They prefer treatments like Potenza or JuveLook. These are effective for skin regeneration, pore reduction, and pigmentation improvement. They're popular because recovery is quick and they provide skin regeneration effects. Especially, Potenza Juve Pumping treatments are sought after, with all-around benefits like whitening, pore shrinking, and reduced sebum production. Japanese tourists tend to combine Potenza with toning laser treatments to address basic pigmentation issues.
- Chinese Tourists: They favor Juvederm fillers. The appeal is the clear volume change in a short time. Since they can't visit often, they prefer filler treatments that provide a definite facial transformation at once, and among them, Juvederm is particularly popular.
- Vietnamese Tourists: They seek whitening (toning) and contour injections. They aim to remove blemishes and freckles for whitening. They want to treat everything from blemishes to melasma at once using devices like PicoSure toning or Revlite toning.
Overall, tourists prefer 'filling' and 'lifting'. Both tourists and Koreans like fillers to naturally fill sunken areas, and concerns about sagging due to aging are similar across all nationalities!
Rising Lifting Trends in 2025: More Natural and Effective!
In 2025, lifting treatments will be the big trend. The demand that exploded in 2024 is expected to continue. From the data, these treatments are getting attention:
- ONDA Lifting: Optimal for solving bulldog cheeks (jawline sagging) or marionette lines (lines above the mouth corners). Demand surged noticeably in 2024, and it's expected to gain interest in 2025 as well. Recommended for those who want to lift sagging lines and look younger!
- Sofwave Lifting: A 4th-generation lifting device that precisely targets only the 1.5mm dermal layer. It pulls up fine wrinkles around the face (file creases) and sagging under the chin, creating a smooth, egg-shaped face. It's newly emerging with advanced technology, so word-of-mouth will spread!
These treatments are minimally invasive, with low side effects, allowing immediate return to daily life. From a tourist's perspective, they're perfect to get during a trip!
Global Beauty Market: Explosive Growth!
The reason K-Beauty captivates the world is thanks to the rapid growth of the non-surgical beauty market. It's popular because it improves appearance without surgery, with short recovery and low risk. According to the data:
- 2024 Market Size: 25.81 billion USD (about 35 trillion KRW!).
- 2025 Forecast: Growth to 28.63 billion USD, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.9%.
- 2029 Outlook: Explosive growth to 42.9 billion USD! (CAGR of 10.6% from 2024 to 2029).
Why this growth? Increased demand for aesthetic improvements, aging population, rising health awareness, and growing trends in self-care and grooming. Key treatments include botulinum toxin (Botox) and hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers. In the future, technological advancements, injection techniques, and emphasis on personalized treatments will be major trends. Korean companies are leading this market!
Korea’s Growing Influence in the Global Injectables Market
The power of Korean K-Beauty comes from companies' global expansions. In particular, Hugel received U.S. FDA approval in March 2024 for its botulinum toxin product Letybo (50 units and 100 units). This is seen as a strong recognition of Hugel's product quality and reliability! With this, Hugel became the first and only Korean company to gain market approvals in the world's top three beauty markets: the U.S., China, and Europe. The U.S. market was 2.5 billion USD in 2023, the largest and fastest-growing globally, expected to nearly double to 4.9 billion USD by 2031. Hugel aims for commercial launch in the U.S. by mid-2024.
Safety in botulinum toxin treatments is also important. It's non-invasive, simple, and affordable, making it very popular. However, repeated high-dose, frequent treatments can lead to resistance, making it hard to achieve desired effects for both cosmetic and therapeutic purposes.
- Key to Preventing Resistance: Choose pure toxin products that purify complex proteins—the main cause of resistance—and contain only activated neurotoxins to reduce worries.
- Products and Know-How: Some Korean dermatologies select verified products like Botulax or German Xeomin, emphasizing personalized dosages and precise injection techniques. Liztox, developed by Korean company Huons, has proven efficacy and safety in clinical trials on Koreans, boasting strong effects and long duration.
Now, let's look at the development history of Botulax®:
| Year | Major Milestone |
| 2001 | Hugel Inc. founded |
| 2003 | Successful purification of botulinum toxin type A protein |
| 2009 | Hugel Pharma established as a subsidiary, Phase 3 clinical trial for blepharospasm completed, Botulax® launched in Japan |
| 2010 | Botulax® launched in Korea |
| 2012 | Phase 3 clinical trial for glabellar wrinkles completed |
Botulax® features a 900kDa complex size, over 99% purity, and is available in 50U/100U/200U units. Clinical studies compared it to Botox® and proved non-inferiority. For example, it showed effective and safe results in treating blepharospasm (eyelid spasms). It's reasonably priced and offers good service, so it's loved globally!
Wrapping Up: Have a More Beautiful 2025 with K-Beauty!
Today, we've summarized the 2025 K-Beauty trends. The reason tourists love Korean dermatology is due to innovative treatments and global market leadership. If you're planning a trip to Korea, stop by a dermatology clinic—you won't regret it! If you have skin care tips or more questions, leave a comment. Have a healthy and beautiful day!
