New and Trending K-Beauty: What's Emerging, and What's Still Unproven

Cosmobeauty Seoul: an industry signal, not a consumer one

Cosmobeauty Seoul is one of Korea's leading beauty trade shows, running since 1987. Its 2026 edition -- the 40th -- ran May 27-29 at COEX in Seoul, with 521 K-beauty companies participating and over 550 exhibitors overall. Its Rookie of the Year program is industry-facing recognition of newer brands and product concepts -- distinct from consumer-facing retail awards. One precision note: the program selects and awards products (14 in 2026), so entries below name the product and the verified tier, not a brand-level title.

• Sooo Lab: recognized in the 2026 Rookie of the Year program for its swim-care line (SOOO), built around a zeolite composite the brand calls Zeodualite, described as removing chlorine, salt-water, and hard-water residue -- aimed at frequent swimmers, a specific, non-obvious niche. That is the brand's own description, not something we've independently verified. We could not pin the specific award tier, so we don't claim one. In September 2026 the operator, MAKEMAKE, raised KRW 3 billion in pre-Series A funding including Amorepacific. We found no confirmed US consumer retail availability as of our research date -- a snapshot, not proof none exists.
• YTNING: the Elastic Slimming Gua Sha Cream -- a body cream with a hydrolyzed-collagen base (brand-described) and an integrated gua-sha applicator -- received the Grand Prize in the 2026 Rookie of the Year Awards, per TheKBS. An honesty flag: a separate Korean report credits WJ Cosmetics with the Minister of SMEs and Startups award (最优秀賞) in the same program, so the exact tier nomenclature is ambiguous.
• Feelody: the Day Supreme Multi Essence Sunscreen -- an essence-type, low-white-cast sunscreen -- was selected as a 2026 Rookie of the Year product after roughly a month of judging involving external reviewers from Olive Young, Chicor, and Hyundai Home Shopping alongside beauty creators. Sunscreen is one of our four core categories, so this one is directly in scope.

Mixsoon: distribution keeps compounding

Mixsoon is a Korean skincare brand built around minimalist, fermented-ingredient formulas. Its signature Bean Essence is built around fermented soybean. Why it's here and not on Awards or Popular in Korea: we have not verified an Olive Young Award win or a placement in the ranking programs we track -- but the retail-distribution signal keeps strengthening, which is exactly what "Emerging" means on this page.

Costco: ~570 stores across 12 markets (US, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, China, Spain, France, Iceland, Sweden, UK), per the brand's May 18, 2026 PR Newswire announcement and Happi coverage on May 19.

Japan: full-scale Costco Japan rollout of Bean Essence announced June 29, 2026 (PR TIMES, issued by Parket Inc.) and covered by the trade daily Yakuji Nippo on July 2.

Target: announced September 8, 2026 (PR Newswire) -- launch in Target Beauty Studio, opening September 10 in more than 600 US stores and on Target.com.

Two flags we owe you: the brand's PR describes Bean Essence as an "Olive Young bestseller" (a sales-ranking claim, not an award win) and cites 2.85 million cumulative units sold -- both brand-issued figures, not independently verified, and not treated as hard signals here. And product naming varies by market: the US store lists "Bean Sunscreen" and "Centella Hyal Sunscreen" where UK/DE stores list "Centella Sun Cream" -- so we don't assert one universal catalog name.

An ingredient trend beyond PDRN: NAD+ keeps showing up

Our Popular in Korea page covered PDRN as a major serum trend. The second signal worth naming is NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) -- and September 2026 is when it visibly crossed from niche to mainstream in K-beauty:

Mass: TONYMOLY's Daiso-exclusive sub-brand BONCEPT launched a 6-product NAD+/NMN skincare line on September 15, 2026 (per Daily Smart and Special Times) -- low-molecular NMN plus NAD+ (the brand describes it as 99% pure), with peptides, resveratrol, ferulic acid, and retinol -- all priced under ₩5,000, positioned around "slow aging," with early sellout buzz reported in Korean press.

Luxury: THE WHOO staged a "The Power of NAD" global event in Seoul in September 2026 around its NAD Power24™ line (per POPLADY and am730), and released 16th-anniversary editions of its NAD-positioned essence.

Our product-level exemplar remains numbuzin's No. 9 NAD Bio Lifting-sil Essence, which was picked by multiple consumer-press outlets through 2026 (Real Simple, Vogue UK, BuzzFeed, E! Online). To be precise about what we know and don't: NAD+ is a coenzyme involved in cellular redox reactions and energy metabolism; PDRN refers to DNA fragments studied in regenerative-medicine research. Neither term tells you how a specific topical product performs -- that depends on concentration, formulation, and stability. There are essentially no published human trials showing topical NAD+ delivers a skin anti-aging benefit. "Worth watching" is the honest level of confidence, not a recommendation.

New signals we're watching

REJURAN Cosmetics launched nationwide across Sephora Canada stores on September 1, 2026, per the brand's PR Newswire release (the brand-stated store count is not independently corroborated, so we do not repeat it) -- new North American distribution for a Korean derma-positioned brand. The signal is distribution reach, not product discovery.

Dr. Reju-All began a select Ulta Beauty launch on August 9, 2026. Per the brand's August 4, 2026 PR Newswire release, the launch assortment is five products: Advanced PDRN Rejuvenating Cream, Advanced LC-Ceramide Barrier Cream, Advanced Retino-Mela Serum, a PDRN lip serum, and a PDRN mask -- no cleanser or sunscreen. The next review will check whether the assortment expands.

Exosomes are described as a "next-generation core functional trend" (our translation) in Hwahae's 2026 beauty trend report, revised edition of February 23, 2026, and Global Cosmetic Industry reports that exosome-inspired innovation was spotlighted at the in-cosmetics Korea 2026 awards (the organizer's own winners list does not use the word "exosome"). Ingredient-level signal only -- no single product has earned an entry yet.

Spicules spread across K-beauty serums and masks through September 2026, with a doctor quoted by UK outlet indy100 (September 25, 2026) saying they are not equivalent to clinical microneedling and the research is still early. Cosmetics Business covers the trend as well, and an Amorepacific executive quoted by VITA Daily (September 17) cautions against presenting such products as equivalent to a procedure. That is more than one datapoint, but it is press commentary, not clinical evidence, so it stays at Watching.

YesStyle 2026 Awards ballots (September 15, 2026, per YesStyle's published ballot) surfaced two names: HEVEBLUE (Salmon Caring Newpair PDRN Booster 100,000 Shot Essence) on the "Hidden Gems" ballot -- YesStyle's brand page calls it a Korean brand, which we have not confirmed independently -- and PURCELL (24/7 Colostrum Pore Defence Ampoule; the 7,500 ppm colostrum figure comes from the ingredient listing on retailer pages and is not verified by us) on the "K-Idol Essential" ballot. A ballot appearance is a weak signal; both stay at Watching until retail or review data accumulates.

Pureseoul × Primark (launched September 1, 2026, in 22 UK stores at launch per Edinburgh Live; also covered by The Industry on September 4): a K-beauty Mini Mart inside Primark, bringing Korean beauty discovery into high-footfall value retail. A channel signal, not a brand signal -- we're watching whether any brand breaks out of it.

Cross-links

• Awards -- verified Korean skincare winners across four award programs, each checked against the product sold today.
• Popular in Korea -- what Korean shoppers are actually buying, versus what gets Western attention.