IMCD strengthens K-beauty footprint with new lab in South Korea
Key takeaways
- IMCD has strengthened its local presence in South Korea with the opening of a Beauty & Personal Care Laboratory and Beauty Studio in Seoul.
- The new facilities accelerate cosmetic R&D, enabling faster formulation development through hands-on collaboration and pre-developed chassis formulations.
- The move reinforces IMCD’s commitment to the K-beauty market, expanding its global technical network while supporting local innovation and customer partnerships.
Global chemicals and ingredient supplier Internatio-Müller Chemical Distribution (IMCD) Group has opened its first technical expert facilities in South Korea. With the opening of the Beauty & Personal Care Application Laboratory and the IMCD Beauty Studio Seoul, the company has taken a step toward reinforcing local expertise for customers and suppliers in South Korea’s prominent and expanding K-beauty market.
The new facilities provide space for technical workshops, trend seminars, and targeted training, highlighting IMCD’s role as a long-term partner to the beauty and personal care industry in the country.
The facilities aim to create an end-to-end domain for formulation developments. They will also incorporate trend insights and regulatory requirements to remain ahead of the curve and drive innovative ingredient formulations that meet consumer demands.
“South Korea is a fast-moving and demanding beauty market, and our teams here understand what it takes to succeed. The lab and Beauty Studio give our supplier and customer partners a place to test, learn, and create together,” says Dongjoon Lee, managing director at IMCD South Korea.
The move is part of IMCD’s investment in local knowledge, competence, and collaborations in South Korea. The Seoul facility adds to IMCD’s list of 78 technical centers across 28 countries as it aims to further diversify and strengthen its ingredient portfolio.
Slipstream cosmetics
The new facilities strengthen IMCD’s presence in South Korea.
Positioned next to the laboratory, the IMCD Beauty Studio is designed to accelerate product development by reducing R&D time and risk, while connecting customers with IMCD’s local and global technical specialists and broader laboratory infrastructure.
The laboratory focuses on close collaboration with customers, with hands-on, joint development processes as its priority. The potential cosmetic applications for the lab's ingredients include skin care, sun care, color cosmetics, hair care, oral care, and toiletries.
The Beauty Studio Seoul drives the research and product innovation of the new laboratories. It serves as a designated space where company experts collaborate with brands and equipment manufacturers on product development. By using IMCD’s chassis formulations and efficacy tested ingredients, the studio aims to streamline the process from idea to product.
Using chassis formulations allows customers to experiment with various textures and sensory profiles. The streamlined process enables customers to develop a tailored prototype in less than a day.
The company’s facility launches come as cosmetic developers increasingly value efficiency in product formulation. Kolmar Holdings, a K-beauty conglomerate, announced this week that it is launching an AI-powered platform which promises to cut the cosmetics R&D timeline from months to minutes. With efficiency stressed as a major point of profit or loss, developers appear to be racing to the finished product.
