Sephora Teams Up With Olive Young: What This Means for K-Beauty in the U.S.
Gloss Angeles
Kirbie Johnson and Sara Tan
4.6 • 772 Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2026
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Sephora vs. Ulta K-Beauty takeover is officially on. This week, we break down the biggest news yet: Sephora is teaming up with Olive Young to launch curated K-Beauty zones in ~650 stores across the U.S. and Canada (plus online) starting fall 2026—with a broader global rollout planned for 2027. We talk about why this is a smart “trust + awareness” play for Olive Young as it opens in L.A., what this means for existing K-Beauty brands already at Sephora, and which brands might get the merchandiser boot. Plus, Cover FX and Mally are shuttering, and introduce a new game: Beauty Quiz Show!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | G.M. Los Angeles. |
| 0:05.6 | Hi, Kirby. Hi, Sarah. |
| 0:08.4 | Welcome to Los Angeles. |
| 0:14.1 | The K-Beauty takeover continues. |
| 0:18.3 | It's a fight between Sephora and Ulta. |
| 0:21.2 | Who can acquire all of these K-Beauty brands? |
| 0:25.2 | We had Ulta with their K-Beautil marketplace. |
| 0:27.3 | We've started to see more brands enter Sephora. |
| 0:30.1 | All of Young, the hugest beauty retailer in Korea, |
| 0:34.6 | is going to make a footprint here in Los Angeles, first time state side. |
| 0:39.5 | Yep. And now we get this piece of news. Yes. Okay. So Sephora is officially teaming up with |
| 0:45.2 | Olive Young to bring more K-Beauty into its stores and online starting fall 2026. |
| 0:50.9 | Sephora will launch dedicated Olive Young curated zones at around 650 locations across the |
| 0:56.5 | U.S. and Canada with a broader global rollout to markets like Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, |
| 1:01.4 | the UK, Middle East, and Australia planned in 2027. So these spaces are going to feature a curated |
| 1:07.7 | assortment of popular and trend-driven Korean beauty and wellness products selected by Olive Young's merchandising team. And it's going to give Sephora customers easier |
| 1:15.5 | access to the latest K-Beauti innovations without needing to import them, buy them from these, |
| 1:20.9 | you know, third-party stores where we're like, are we even getting the real thing or, you know, |
| 1:25.9 | flying to Seoul yourself and shopping at Olive Young? |
| 1:29.6 | This is huge, huge news. |
| 1:32.1 | I mean, absolutely massive. |
| 1:33.5 | I did question what was going on, though, because I'm like, Olive Young has been making a huge impression, at least on L.A. |
... |
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