Innisfree expands in Japan: Amorepacific and istyle extend partnership to launch K-beauty brand with @cosme

Founded in 2000, Innisfree is one of Amorepacific’s most globally recognised brands and is best-known for features ingredients from the South Korean island of Jeju.

In 2018, Innisfree opened its first Japanese store in the Omotesando neighbourhood in Tokyo. Since then it has steadily been expanding its presence in the country.

Over the last few years, the brand has been unveiling new standalone outlets and counters across Japan, including Fukuoka, Sapporo, Osaka and Yokohama. In September 2021, it hit the shelves with 71 Loft stores, furthering its goal of expanding its store presence from “Hokkaido to Kyushu”.​

Starting October 26, Innisfree will be available at @cosme TOKYO, the retailer’s experiential flagship store in the Harajuku district.

The company said the motivation for expanding the brand with one of the most popular beauty retailers in Japan was to make Innisfree even more accessible for local consumers.

The brand will launch in @cosmeTOKYO with a limited range of products, including Innisfree’s best-selling Green Tea Seed Serum. This product has been in such high demand in Japan that at one point, it was sold out for three months.

In addition, Retinol Cica Repair Serum, one of Innisfree’s newest products will be available at the flagship, as will the stalwart No Sebum Mineral Powder.

The company said it is considering adding more products to the available line-up, emphasising that its goal was to make the brand widely accessible in Japan.

The @cosme TOKYO launch will be kicked off with a pop-up campaign from the launch day to November 1.

Accelerating into Japan

This news follows Amorepacific’s announcement in September that it was partnering with istyle to officially launch Laniege in @cosme TOKYO and on the @cosme website.

The company said it was leveraging this omnichannel strategy to accelerate the brand’s introduction in Japan.

At the time, Amorepacific said one of the motivations for increasing its presence locally in Japan was the challenge of international travel, even between the two neighbouring countries.

This was coming at a time when K-beauty products were growing in popularity in Japan, said Amorepacific, citing that it has observed increasing exports of Korean cosmetic products to Japan.

It decided to finally launch Laniege in Japan as the brand and its products are already well-known and appreciated in Japan.

In fact, Laniege’s Lip Sleeping Mask was one of the top products in the lip care category long before it officially launched in Japan.

“Laneige’s flagship products have been receiving love calls from local distributors through word-of-mouth in Japan and we will introduce more representative products of the brand in the future. As a leading K-beauty brand, Laneige will continue to grow and we will continue our efforts to introduce the best products to more Japanese customers,”​ said Noh Eun-seok, division manager, Laniege.