Local consumers browse and purchase K-beauty products at Olive Young's Pasadena store in the United States on its opening day, May 29 (local time). / Photo via CJ Olive Young

"It was not K-beauty that was sold, but Olive Young itself."

The first CJ Olive Young store in Pasadena, California, drew open-run crowds for three consecutive days, with the number of transactions surpassing 1,000 on opening day alone. Interestingly, American consumers swarmed not just the cosmetics shelves, but the "Skin Scan" skin-diagnostic service and "The Beauty Lab," a personalized consultation space. Industry insiders view this massive success as a prime case demonstrating the viability of the "Olive Young model" perfected in South Korea, rather than just another byproduct of the broader K-beauty craze.

According to CJ Olive Young on June 1, lines started forming a day before the official grand opening of its inaugural U.S. brick-and-mortar location in Pasadena, California, on May 29 (local time). A queue stretching nearly 400 meters wrapped around Colorado Boulevard where the store is situated, drawing coverage from prominent local media outlets including CNN, The Wall Street Journal, KTLA, and ABC.

The driving force behind this phenomenal turnout is the uniquely Korean shopping experience. The spaces that attracted the heaviest foot traffic from American consumers were Skin Scan and The Beauty Lab, services that analyze skin conditions and seamlessly guide customers toward tailored product recommendations and expert consultations.

In a U.S. beauty market heavily dominated by Sephora and Ulta Beauty, Olive Young charted a completely different course. Instead of adapting to local conventions, the company transplanted its domestic playbook entirely: multi-brand curation, curated K-beauty routine proposals, and hands-on, experiential services. Even the employees greeting customers with traditional Korean hospitality became a viral talking point. One shopper who traveled all the way from San Diego remarked, "It felt like being at Disneyland."

Market analysts note that the consumption of Korean culture, which initially ignited through K-pop and K-dramas, is now expanding into beauty and lifestyle experiences. While global consumers previously sought out individual K-beauty products, they have now begun consuming the K-beauty experience itself.

What Olive Young has imported to the United States extends far beyond the physical storefront. The company has effectively replicated its platform ecosystem, which centers on discovering and scaling domestic small and medium-sized indie brands. The Pasadena location houses roughly 400 brands and over 5,000 unique items, a significant portion of which consists of mid-and-small-scale Korean indie cosmetics.

The runaway success of the Pasadena branch is fueling high expectations for the company's second U.S. location, the Century City store, slated to open later this month. Located in a premier premium commercial district in Los Angeles, Century City boasts a high influx of affluent consumers and tourists. While Pasadena served as a stage to gauge reactions from K-culture enthusiasts, Century City will function as the ultimate litmus test to validate the brand’s appeal within the mainstream American consumer market.

If the momentum carries over to Century City, Olive Young’s success is highly likely to be evaluated not merely as a temporary K-beauty fad, but as a landmark case of exporting a Korean-style retail model. This would also add significant leverage to the company's future expansion strategies into the East Coast and South-Central regions of the United States.

An industry insider remarked, "In the past, the core of overseas expansion was localization, but Olive Young leveraged the Korean shopping experience itself as its primary competitive edge," adding, "What was sold in America was not simply cosmetics, but the curation and experiential service system built by Olive Young."

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Local consumers queue outside the store, waiting to enter on the opening day of Olive Young's first U.S. branch in Pasadena, California, on May 29 (local time). / Photo via CJ Olive Young