For a lot of visitors, Olive Young is a planned stop: a list on the phone, a free afternoon, room left in the suitcase. For a lot of Koreans, it is closer to a reflex. With more than 1,300 stores across the country, there is usually one near the subway exit, and people duck in on the way home for a hand cream, a quick swatch of a new lip tint or the sunscreen they ran out of last week. Most just call it 올영 (ol-yeong), the way you would shorten a friend's name.
So what do Koreans actually buy there? Mostly the everyday things that run out: toner, sunscreen, cleansing oil, sheet masks, toner pads, hand cream, lip care and hair treatment, with snacks and wellness products creeping into the basket. And how do they shop? They test before they buy, check the rankings, and save the big haul for a sale that comes around four times a year. Here is how the store works, from the inside.
A beauty store on every corner
Olive Young belongs to Korea's CJ Group and opened its first store in Seoul in 1999. It is what Koreans call a health-and-beauty store: skincare, makeup, hair and body care, beauty tools, supplements and even snacks under one roof, a bit like a drugstore without the pharmacy counter. Like the convenience stores on the same streets, its real selling point is that it is always close by.
That changes how people shop. Because the next store is a few minutes away, nobody has to decide everything in one trip. Testers line the shelves, and trying a texture on the back of your hand before buying is completely normal. Many Koreans also browse the app first and then walk in to see the product in person, or the other way around.
What Koreans actually put in the basket
The closest thing to a national shopping list is the Olive Young Awards. The 2025 edition, announced on November 28, 2025, reads like a bathroom shelf rather than a wish list. First place went to Round Lab 1025 Dokdo Toner for toner, Round Lab's birch moisturizing sunscreen for sun care, Torriden's Dive-In hyaluronic acid serum and its matching sheet mask, Aestura Atobarrier365 Cream, Mediheal's Madecassoside pads and Ma:nyo Pure Cleansing Oil, a cleansing winner for years.
The pattern is easy to spot: these are products you use every day and finish, not treats for a special night. The 2025 awards even added categories such as hand care, oral care and lifestyle goods to keep up with what people were buying. Brand names matter less than you might expect. Over its first ten years, the awards honored about 1,300 products from small independent brands, and a label nobody knew a few years ago can become the one everyone carries. At the other end of the scale, Mediheal won an award every single year from 2015 to 2024.
Visitors are adding their own twist. According to the company, foreign shoppers' purchases of wellness items and health foods in its Korean stores rose by more than 40% in the first ten months of 2025 compared with a year earlier, alongside skincare and makeup.
How the Olive Young Awards rankings work
The awards started in 2015 and work as a year-end tally, not a jury prize. For 2025, Olive Young analyzed about 180 million purchases made between July 2024 and June 2025 and named 166 products in 40 categories. The data came from its stores in Korea and from overseas orders on the Olive Young Global online mall, which also produced three global categories for products popular abroad.
Two things are worth knowing. First, a ranking tells you what sold the most, not what suits your skin, which is why many Koreans still read reviews and try the tester before trusting it. Second, the awards are tied to the December sale, when winning products get the spotlight in stores. The rest of the year, the Olive Young app and website show running best-seller rankings by category, the same lists many Koreans scroll through before walking in.
The Korean shopping calendar
Ask a Korean friend when to stock up and you will probably hear 올영세일 (ol-yeong seil, the Olive Young Sale). According to the company, it runs for a week four times a year, in March, June, September and December, as the seasons change, and covers around 30,000 products from more than 1,500 brands. Between sales there are smaller events: Olive Day, from the 25th to the 27th of each month, gives members tier-based benefits online and in stores, and 오특 (o-teuk, short for "today's special") is a one-day online deal.
Korean insider tip: Read the product name before you grab the plain version. 기획 (gihoek) on an Olive Young label means a promo set, often the full-size item bundled with a refill or a free extra, and 단독 (dandok) means it is sold only at Olive Young. A "1+1" or double set is not automatically the better deal, though, so check it against the single-item price first.
Then there is speed. Since 2018, Olive Young has run 오늘드림 (oneul-deurim, roughly "yours today"), a same-day delivery service. Order between 10:00 and 20:00 and it can arrive the same day, sometimes, the company says, in about an hour. It is ppalli-ppalli culture applied to sheet masks.
If you shop at Olive Young in Korea
- Tax refund: Non-Korean visitors staying under six months can get the VAT back on purchases of at least 15,000 won per receipt. Bring your physical passport. At stores with an immediate refund, the tax comes off at the register as long as one payment is under 1,000,000 won and your trip total stays within 5,000,000 won; otherwise you claim it at the airport. Goods must stay unused, and you must leave Korea within three months. In 2025 the Korea Tourism Organization listed 121 Olive Young stores offering instant refunds, so ask before you pay.
- Global membership: The Olive Young Global app and its points are for the Global online mall. Its membership policy excludes Olive Young stores in Korea, so those points will not work at a register in Seoul. In-store membership in Korea is a separate program.
- Myeongdong: Olive Young Myeongdong Town was the chain's top-selling store in 2025, with about 95% of its sales coming from foreign customers, Korean outlet Newspim reported. On March 26, 2026, the company opened an even bigger store in the neighborhood, Central Myeongdong Town: three floors, about 1,000 brands, a "Mask Library" of sheet masks, 22 staffed checkout counters, and staff wearing flag badges for English, Chinese and Japanese.
- Seongsu: The largest Olive Young of all is Olive Young N Seongsu near Seongsu Station, a five-floor store that opened in November 2024.
- The bag: Many visitors leave with Olive Young's reusable tote. Korea JoongAng Daily reported that the chain sold more than 300,000 of them from January to August 2025, mostly to foreign tourists.
That bag is a large tarpaulin tote that shoppers pick at the register instead of a paper bag, and it costs 3,000 won. From November 13, 2026, Olive Young will also sell it as a stand-alone product, so you can buy one as a souvenir without shopping for anything else, and it is adding a medium size for 2,000 won, The Korea Economic Daily reported on November 4, 2026. The medium bag will be sold at stores nationwide and the large one at about 150 stores in tourist areas.
Olive Young outside Korea
On May 29, 2026, Olive Young opened its first U.S. store, in Pasadena, California, and launched a U.S.-only online store the same day with about 400 brands and 5,000 products. The Global online mall now says it does not ship to the 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., and American members are being moved to the separate U.S. rewards program. Shoppers in many other countries still order through the Global mall, which the company says serves around 150 countries.
Inside Korea, visitors have become a big part of the story. The company says foreign visitors spent more than 1 trillion won in its Korean stores from January to November 2025, and shoppers from 190 countries claimed tax refunds there. If you go, do what Koreans do: walk in for one thing, test a few, and remember there will be another store around the corner.
Quick answers
Can tourists get a tax refund at Olive Young?
Yes. Show your physical passport and spend at least 15,000 won in one payment. At stores with instant refunds, the tax comes off at the register for payments under 1,000,000 won; otherwise you claim it at the airport.
Does the Olive Young Global membership work in Korean stores?
No. Global membership points are for the Olive Young Global online mall only, and its policy excludes Olive Young stores in Korea.
When is the Olive Young sale?
The big 올영세일 runs for about a week four times a year: in March, June, September and December. The members' Olive Day runs from the 25th to the 27th of each month.
