By Tim Alper

What comes after K-food, K-pop and K-drama? The answer, it would seem, appears to be K-beauty!

The Korean makeup industry is booming. Cosmetics producer Amore Pacific, for example, has seen the price of its shares increase fourfold in the space of just two years. Now worth an estimated USD 22 billion, Amore Pacific has overtaken some of the country’s traditional business conglomerates to become one of Korea’s largest companies.

Overseas investors have taken note, too, and now want a piece of the K-beauty pie. Goldman Sachs last year took part in a USD 675 million deal to buy a controlling stake in the Korean skincare company that owns the brand A.H.C.

The world’s largest luxury brand group, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, also decided to take a dip into the Korean cosmetics market last year, acquiring a USD 50 million minority stake in Clio, another cosmetics maker.

Cosmetics giants have realized that the competition from Korea is now very real and have sprung into action. France’s L’Occitane and Estée Lauder from the U.S. have both bought stakes in up-and-coming K-beauty companies. Rumor has it that others are considering similar deals, too.

Korean companies, meanwhile, have spent the past few years trying to turn domestic success into international growth. Between 2012 and 2015, the Korea Customs Service reported that cosmetics exports increased by over 160 percent. Even the government is involved, recently signing free trade pacts with half a dozen Central American countries. The agreements will see Korean cosmetics companies ramp up their activities in the region.

So how has Korea come from nowhere to become such a big player on the international beauty stage? The simple answer is that there is no single factor. Rather, Korean makeup companies found themselves in the eye of a perfect storm.

Firstly, Korean pop music has caught the world’s attention, with Korean music releases now breaking into the Billboard and U.K. Top 40 charts. Korean television shows are now drawing major audiences in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America. Korea’s music and TV stars have found themselves in the global media spotlight and are setting new international beauty standards.

As many of these music and TV celebrities are employed as models for cosmetics companies, their brands cannot help but catch the attention of young people everywhere. Every time the likes of actor Kim Soo-hyun or singer Bae Suzy appears in a new cosmetics campaign, the attention of millions of fans is automatically piqued.

Another reason behind the sudden popularity of Korean makeup can be traced to the success of a few key cosmetic products that first found widespread success here in the domestic makeup market. The first to make it big on the global stage was "BB cream," an all-in-one beauty product that functions as a moisturizer, a primer, a foundation and as sunscreen.

There is nothing intrinsically Korean about BB cream. It was actually formulated by a German dermatologist back in the 1960s. However, in the 1980s, Korean companies began experimenting with the original formula and then commercializing BB cream products, with great success. BB cream now accounts for almost 15 percent of the entire Korean beauty market. When domestic producers started exporting the cream, they experienced instant success.

BB cream was introduced to the U.S. market in 2011 and became an overnight hit. Most cosmetics makers now offer their own line of BB cream products, but beauty experts remember that the early movers in the BB cream movement were all Korean.

Korean companies registered a second and more recent triumph with products made with so-called snail "mucin," the mucus that gastropods release along their trails. This mucin has anti-aging effects, it is believed: it encourages the formation of collagen and elastin, repairs damaged skin and hydrates. Snail mucin products have been all the rage in the U.S. and Europe over the past two years, and, again, beauticians have noticed that Korean companies were the first to arrive on the scene.

These two big success stories have meant that many now look to Korea for the newest beauty trends and innovations. The web is now awash with blog posts about “Korean beauty secrets,” with every beauty writer worth their salt trying to preempt the next big beauty trend to come out of Korea.

As the world’s appetite for makeup continues to broaden, Korean companies are hopeful there will be a power shift in the global skincare industry. They want to build upon their momentum and turn Korea into Asia’s skincare powerhouse. Only time will tell if their wish will come true. If nothing else, they are off to a very good start.

Tim Alper is a writer and columnist, originally from the U.K., who has lived in Korea for the past ten years.