Table of Contents
The most popular Korean makeup products right now include rom&nd Juicy Lasting Tint, Jung Saem Mool Skin Nuder Cushion, Clio Kill Cover Founwear Cushion, TIRTIR Mask Fit Red Cushion, the Saem Cover Perfection concealer, Too Cool For School Frottage Pencil, Wakemake Soft Blurring Eye Palette and fwee Blurry Pudding Pot. Most were named in the Olive Young Awards 2025.
This is the makeup companion to our most popular Korean skincare products list, built the same way. Olive Young is Korea's largest beauty retailer and its yearly awards reflect what Korean shoppers actually bought. We took the makeup winners from the Olive Young Awards 2025, kept the ones available in the Daebak shop, and added one cushion that is famous outside Korea. It is a list, not a ranking, and descriptions come from the brands.
At Daebak, a Seoul-based Korean culture and product company, these are the makeup products people ask us about most. For the brand picture, see Best K-Beauty Brands to Know.
Those awards are a purchase ranking rather than an editors' pick. CJ Olive Young says the 2025 list was drawn from 180 million customer purchases between July 2024 and June 2025, across 40 categories and 166 products, and the Korea JoongAng Daily has described the winners as the products that ranked first, second and third by sales in each category, reporting in 2022 that 82 percent of the winners came from small businesses. That is also why the list is a fair guide to what works for ordinary shoppers: it is what Korea bought, not what a panel liked.
The list at a glance
| Product | Category | Why it is here |
|---|---|---|
| Jung Saem Mool Essential Skin Nuder Cushion | Cushion | Olive Young Awards 2025, cushion, 1st |
| Clio Kill Cover Founwear Cushion | Cushion | Olive Young Awards 2025, cushion, 2nd |
| TIRTIR Mask Fit Red Cushion | Cushion | Global favorite |
| the Saem Cover Perfection Triple Pot Concealer | Concealer | Olive Young Awards 2025, base makeup, 2nd |
| Too Cool For School Frottage Pencil | Eye pencil | Olive Young Awards 2025, eye makeup, 1st |
| Etude Curl Fix Mascara | Mascara | Olive Young Awards 2025, eye makeup, 2nd |
| Clio Kill Brow Auto Hard Brow Pencil | Brow | Olive Young Awards 2025, eye makeup, 3rd |
| Wakemake Soft Blurring Eye Palette | Eyeshadow | Olive Young Awards 2025, eyeshadow, 1st |
| dasique Shadow Palette | Eyeshadow | Olive Young Awards 2025, eyeshadow, 2nd |
| Clio Pro Eye Palette Air | Eyeshadow | Olive Young Awards 2025, eyeshadow, 3rd |
| fwee Lip & Cheek Blurry Pudding Pot | Blush | Olive Young Awards 2025, contouring and blush, 1st |
| Too Cool For School Artclass By Rodin Shading | Contour | Olive Young Awards 2025, contouring and blush, 3rd |
| rom&nd The Juicy Lasting Tint | Lip tint | Olive Young Awards 2025, lip makeup, 1st |
| colorgram Nude Blur Tint | Lip tint | Olive Young Awards 2025, lip makeup, 2nd |
| peripera Ink Mood Glowy Tint | Lip tint | Olive Young Awards 2025, lip makeup, 3rd |
| Torriden Solid In Ceramide Lip Essence | Lip care | Olive Young Awards 2025, lip care, 1st |
Cushions and base
Jung Saem Mool Essential Skin Nuder Cushion comes from the brand of one of Korea's best-known makeup artists and is the cushion Korean shoppers bought most in 2025: a natural, skin-like finish rather than full coverage. Clio Kill Cover Founwear Cushion is the higher-coverage, long-wear option; the brand's cushions, palettes and peripera tints are sorted in our CLIO and peripera guide. TIRTIR Mask Fit Red Cushion is the one that went viral outside Korea, partly because of its wide shade range: after a creator's 2023 review found its darkest shade too light, the brand added more than 20 deeper shades, and The Korea Herald reports it became the first Korean cushion to top Amazon's foundation category in 2024, now in 40 shades worldwide. The brand's cushions are compared in the TIRTIR Cushion Guide. How cushions work and how to pick one is covered in How to Choose a Korean Cushion Foundation.
Jung Saem Mool Essential Skin Nuder Cushion. See details.
the Saem Cover Perfection Triple Pot Concealer is the pot version of the Cover Perfection line, which has been a Korean concealer staple for years. Three shades in one compact let you mix for spots, dark circles and redness.
Eyes
Too Cool For School Frottage Pencil was the top eye product of the year: a soft, smudgeable pencil used for liner, shadow and the under-eye "aegyo sal" highlight that is a signature of Korean eye makeup. Etude Curl Fix Mascara is Etude's long-running curl-holding mascara, sold in our shop as a set with the brand's lash curler. Clio Kill Brow Auto Hard Brow Pencil is a fine, hard pencil for drawing brow hairs one at a time.
For palettes, Wakemake Soft Blurring Eye Palette, dasique Shadow Palette and Clio Pro Eye Palette Air took the top three places. All three are nine-pan palettes built around soft, wearable neutrals, which is the dominant Korean eye look right now.
Wakemake Soft Blurring Eye Palette. See details.
Cheeks
fwee Lip & Cheek Blurry Pudding Pot is a bouncy, pudding-textured cream that works as both blush and lip color, and it was the top cheek product of the year. Too Cool For School Artclass By Rodin Shading is the contour powder that has been a Korean standard for a decade, with two or three shades to blend.
fwee Lip & Cheek Blurry Pudding Pot. See details.
Lips
Lip tints are the Korean makeup category that travels best, and the 2025 podium shows the three finishes people choose between. rom&nd The Juicy Lasting Tint is the glossy, long-wearing tint that took first place for lip makeup in the 2025 awards; Maeil Business Newspaper reported in 2023 that it is a fixture of Japanese beauty rankings and that Korean lip-product exports hit a record that year. The brand's other finishes are sorted in the rom&nd Lip Tint Guide. colorgram Nude Blur Tint is the soft-matte, blurred option. peripera Ink Mood Glowy Tint sits in between with a glowy finish. For how a tint differs from a balm, see Lip Tint vs Lip Balm.
rom&nd The Juicy Lasting Tint. See details.
For lip care, Torriden Solid In Ceramide Lip Essence took first place: a thick, clear lip essence used under tint or on its own at night.
How to choose from this list
- Starting a Korean makeup kit from zero: one cushion, one tint, the Frottage pencil. That covers the everyday Korean look.
- Natural, skin-like base: Jung Saem Mool. More coverage: Clio or TIRTIR.
- Glossy lips: rom&nd. Matte lips: colorgram.
- Soft, everyday eyes: any of the three palettes; Wakemake is the most neutral.
Brand products in the Daebak shop are shipped by the brands. If you would rather have skincare and makeup chosen for you each season, the Daebak K-Beauty Box is a separate, curated option that covers both; rom&nd and TIRTIR are among the brands it draws from.
FAQ
What is the most popular Korean makeup product?
By Korean sales in 2025, rom&nd The Juicy Lasting Tint took first place for lip makeup and Jung Saem Mool Essential Skin Nuder Cushion for cushions at the Olive Young Awards. Outside Korea, TIRTIR Mask Fit Red Cushion is the name that comes up most.
What makeup is Korea known for?
Cushion foundations, lip tints and soft, blurred eye and cheek products. The look is natural skin, a flush of color and a stained lip rather than heavy contour.
Are these products available in many shades?
It varies. TIRTIR is known for a wide cushion shade range; most Korean cushions and concealers have fewer shades. Check each product page for the shades offered.
How often does this list change?
Olive Young announces awards once a year. We update this page when the list changes.
Sources
- CJ Olive Young announces the 2025 Olive Young Awards: 166 products in 40 categories (CJ Group Newsroom, November 2025, Korean)
- Olive Young holds annual beauty convention, highlights small businesses (Korea JoongAng Daily, December 2022)
- [K-Trendsetters] Beyond the pale: How shade diversity put TirTir on the global map (The Korea Herald, January 2026)
- Korean beauty products regain popularity, lipstick sales hit record high (Maeil Business Newspaper, September 2023)
