August is turning out to be kind of a bummer of a month for fans of K-Beauty, and you can blame the federal government for raining on your glass skin parade. No, I’m not just talking tariffs (although those are going to be a major hit to your wallet at the register). Starting this month, two new initiatives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) are set to disrupt the status quo of what beauty lovers have come to expect from Korean beauty.
There are many reasons why fans of K-Beauty love the products that make their way here. Not only are they on the cutting edge of beauty science with textures that feel better on the skin (if you’ve ever used a Korean SPF, you know exactly what I’m talking about), but they are usually much cheaper than products available in the U.S. That’s because K-beauty ingredients and manufacturing tend to be locally sourced and competitive, which is able to keep prices affordable and quality high.
It’s helped fuel a second wave of K-Beauty in the U.S. as American consumers clamor for more. According to statistics compiled by the U.S. International Trade Commission, an independent federal agency, the U.S. imported $1.7 billion worth of cosmetics and personal care from South Korea in 2024, a 54 percent increase from the year prior. It’s no wonder Ulta has made a big bet on K-Beauty, bringing in a host of popular brands this summer as part of their partnership with online retailer K-Beauty World, and Olive Young (basically the Korean version of Sephora) is rumored to be opening a U.S. store sometime next year.
But, just as K-Beauty’s momentum has started to build to a fever pitch, it seems the federal government has decided the party is over. While you’ve probably been inundated with news of the new 15 percent tariff rate for South Korea that locked into place on August 7, you haven’t felt the squeeze yet. That’s because there is currently a policy called a de minimis tariff exemption. It means that any imported goods under the value of $800 coming into the U.S. are exempt from tariff duties. Retailers, who order in bulk to sell in store, are the ones who have been stung the most by tariffs—some are passing the increased prices on to consumers and some still have not made any price hikes. But, if you, like many K-Beauty stans, placed orders from legit Asian beauty e-tailers like YesStyle, Stylevana, or Olive Young to be shipped into the U.S. and you didn’t go absolutely HAM and buy over $800 worth of goods, you weren’t going to be affected by those tariffs that everyone has been freaking out about. Until now.
The Next Phase of Federal Regulations
On July 31, President Trump signed an executive order ending the de minimis exemption. The reasoning, according to the official statement by Homeland Security, was with the de minimis exemption, “countries exploited this system to flood the American market with cheap goods that undercut American manufacturers and cost American jobs.” Ok, show me an American beauty company that can create a PDRN collagen mask of the same quality and efficacy at the same price point as a Korean brand and I will happily give them my money. Unfortunately, in my 20+ years as a beauty reporter, I have yet to see it. Hope springs eternal.
What this means for you, is that starting on August 29, all packages entering the U.S. from Korea, no matter the value of the goods inside, are said to be charged either that 15 percent tariff rate or a flat sum between $80 to $200 per item, according to recent reports. Exact pricing is said to be determined by the contents of the package and after six months everything will shift to that 15 percent tariff rate. This goes for any products coming in from other countries, so if you’re a fan of French pharmacy buys or Japanese denim, the duty rates apply on those imports as well. No item is safe from the de minimis exception ending. The administration has said that products coming in via foreign travel are not subject to this order, so if you travel abroad and bring home some duty-free souvenirs, they apparently will remain duty- and tariff-free. So, there’s that, I guess.
Starting on August 29, all packages entering the U.S. from Korea are said to be charged either a 15 percent tariff rate or a flat sum between $80 to $200 per item.
It’s also unclear who exactly will be paying these fees — I reached out to a K-Beauty retailer for comment but they were rightfully hesitant to go on the record about the end of the exemption and how it will affect them and their customers. The big question as August 29 looms is if Korean retailers that ship to the US are going to eat these massive tariff rates, if the customer is going to now be responsible for them, or if prices will rise to offset what retailers will now have to pay. There is a lot of confusion and not a lot of solid answers because no one knows what to expect.
How the FDA Is Impacting Foreign Beauty Imports
If that wasn’t bad enough, the FDA has decided to get in on the fun with the announcement on August 4 of a new Nationalized Entry Review Program (NER). Touted as a new system by which the FDA can “identify and interdict dangerous products more quickly,” the system is meant to “explore automation opportunities” and move the FDA away from a port-by-port system of finding and identifying high-risk products that they deem should not be in the U.S.
This all sounds fine and dandy until you remember that one of those “dangerous” products is sunscreen. Yes, that’s right, any SPF that is not FDA-approved, i.e. those lovely sheer and silky filters from Korea—and Japan, all of the European ones, and even Australia—are not legal to be sold in the U.S. because they do not contain filters that the FDA have approved.
This is because the FDA considers sunscreen a drug, while the rest of the world classifies it as a cosmetic. It’s one of the many reasons why we haven’t approved a new chemical filter since the '90s. I could write you a dissertation on this topic, but suffice to say, that, as someone who recently returned from a fact-finding trip in Seoul and has tried a smorgasbord of internationally accredited sunscreens, there’s no comparison—dermatologists always say the best SPF is the one you will use, and non-U.S. sunscreens are the easiest and most enjoyable to wear on your skin for many.
The FDA doesn’t seem to be as big a fan of Korean SPF. When asked for comment on the NER program and if sunscreen was considered one of the dangerous and high-risk products mentioned in the program’s announcement, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services responded, “Many currently marketed and widely available sunscreen products in the U.S. provide excellent broad-spectrum coverage and are effective in preventing sunburn and reducing the risk of skin cancer and early skin aging caused by the sun, when used as directed with other sun protection measures. The fact that sunscreen ingredients are available in other countries does not mean that the important safety questions about these ingredients are well understood, or that they provide greater efficacy or safety than sunscreens lawfully sold in the U.S. In many other countries, sunscreens are regulated differently and may not be required to have the data that FDA, and other experts, consider necessary to fully evaluate the safety of sunscreen ingredients.”
Anyone who continues to order from Asian retailers and ship to the U.S. may face the risk of their products being confiscated.
Well, to borrow a phrase from Stephen Colbert, there’s some truthiness to that. Sunscreens are regulated differently in other countries and don’t require the same data as the FDA does. For one, they don’t require animal testing, which the FDA requires for any new filters that are introduced into the market. While there are no comparative studies that say definitively that international SPFs are more effective than those found in the U.S., there is no clinical evidence saying that those SPFs are unsafe or ineffective. Some dermatologists believe that access to more ingredients allow international brands to provide higher efficacy—because U.S. sunscreens are so limited, they often have to combine or have additional ingredients added to the formula in order to provide the type of broad-spectrum protection that filters like Tinosorb or Mexoryl provide. They also jack up the SPF rating in an effort to make up for the lack of filter variety, which isn’t necessarily providing better protection—just a chalkier, greasier feel.
Is the Age of Buying Korean SPF Over?
Earlier this year, the FDA cracked down on Korean brands that were selling non-FDA compliant SPF in the U.S. (via Amazon, TikTok, and their own U.S. e-commerce sites). Some, like the viral and beloved Beauty of Joseon, chose to reformulate and create FDA-compliant versions with approved filters for the U.S. market. (Hint: If it uses avobenzone, odds are good it’s the U.S. version, as that is an FDA-approved filter. Weirdly enough, there are only two SPF ingredients considered safe and effective by the FDA: titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. All of the previously approved chemical filters still need to provide additional data to the FDA to prove their safety and efficacy. So the FDA has approved chemical filters but doesn’t consider them safe and effective under its new monograph. Yeah, it’s confusing.)
You could still get the original Korean versions via the loophole of heading to Korean e-tailers, however the new NER system looks to be the FDA’s way of closing that loophole. While the FDA did not confirm that sunscreens will be on the list of products targeted in the NER program, they also did not deny it, which leads to the assumption that anyone who continues to order from Asian retailers and ship to the U.S. may face the risk of their products being confiscated by CBP.
It does all sound very doom and gloom, but there are some bright spots—the current interest in K-Beauty means that there are now more brands being sold in U.S. stores than ever before, creating access opportunities that didn’t exist mere months ago. While SPF continues to be the proverbial thorn in every beauty lover’s side, it is a unifying issue that many lawmakers agree needs revision. In June, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the House called the Supporting Accessible, Flexible and Effective (SAFE) Sunscreen Standards Act, which seeks to modernize the FDA’s regulation of over-the-counter sunscreen regulations. Now might be a great time to let your representatives know just how you feel about SPF regulations in the U.S. and show your support for the SAFE Act. And, if you have certain K-Beauty (or any international) faves that aren’t yet available Stateside, now is also an excellent time to stock up before the de minimis exceptions expire on the 29th. You might want to spring for the express shipping, though, just in case…
