K-beauty brand Laneige bets on experiential retail with a mix-and-match lip mask station
Laneige, a Korean beauty brand known for its lip masks and moisturizers, is stepping up its experiential retail efforts as it targets global growth.
The company, which is sold on its direct website and via retailers like Sephora and Amazon, is bringing a new retail concept to the U.S. for the first time this week. The activation, held at Laneige’s permanent location at the Grove in Los Angeles, allows customers to mix and match their favorite flavors of Laneige’s best-selling Lip Sleeping Mask to create a custom product. Laneige first brought the concept to its flagship store in Seoul this summer.
Laneige is focusing more on physical retail and pop-ups as it looks to introduce its products to more consumers, grow global reach and educate people about its skin-care technology. This summer, it reopened its Seoul store after an 18-month renovation, with dedicated made-for-you beauty services. In August, it partnered with Sephora on a Wonder Lab activation around its hydration products. Laneige brought the experience to seven U.S. cities, timed to tentpole moments. For example, it stopped in Chicago during Lollapalooza and New York City during the U.S. Open.
With physical retail, customers can “engage [and] understand Laneige, more than what they’re seeing virtually,” Allison Pollack, vp of marketing at Laneige, told GNReport. “We wanted to create a place where consumers could really interact with our brand, ask questions [and] discover something that was personalized to them. … That’s where you really start creating brand affinity.”
Laneige first established a physical presence at the Grove in 2023. Back then, it showed off products within “The Glass Box,” a shipping-container-like structure brands can occupy for a month at a time. Laneige then returned to the Grove in 2024 with a three-month holiday pop-up. That activation was meant to be temporary, but after seeing “extreme engagement,” Laneige signed a long-term contract for the space, Pollack said. The Grove is now home to Laneige’s first permanent location in the U.S.
The Lip Sleeping Mask is Laneige’s top-selling product and debuted in 2015. At its focused concept in Los Angeles, shoppers can choose from 45 different combinations of flavors, like gummy bear and champagne, as well as special-edition flavors. The bespoke product is then whipped up on the spot in a machine and sold to the customer for $32. “It’s almost like an ice cream shop,” Pollack said. Customers can also add 3D-printed designs to further personalize their products.
In Seoul, the dedicated concept had “so much consumer demand” — even among American tourists — that Laneige decided to bring it to the U.S., Pollack said. “Consumers are looking for more from experiential activations,” she added. “They want the personalization. They want the education. … They don’t want to just come in and have a quick stop and get a free sample and be on their way.”
Laneige is making some tweaks to the concept this time around. While customers wait for their Lip Sleeping Mask to be mixed, they can get a custom skin analysis to receive personalized product recommendations. Customers can also use the 3D-printing capabilities for other products, including the Cream Skin Milky Toner and Neo Blurring Powder.
To market the experience, Laneige is installing out-of-home ads across Los Angeles and working with influencers on social media content. On a more consistent basis, it uses its Los Angeles store to work with creators via bi-monthly or monthly meetups. Laneige closes down the store for a night and holds master classes and product sneak peeks. It also uses the store as a meeting point for run clubs and walk clubs. These community activities help Laneige offer something beyond commerce from a retail partner, Pollack said.
While Laneige’s Los Angeles Lip Sleeping Mask concept is launching around the holidays, it isn’t being marketed as such. That said, the brand will look to bring in holiday shoppers, as “traffic is very present within the Grove during the holiday timeframe,” Pollack said. “We’re already seeing a ton of demand as we begin to tease the experience online.”
Laneige is investing more in physical retail in other ways as it looks to capture market share. Its Seoul store allows shoppers to get a color consultation and personalized Neo Blurring Powder, as well as an AI-based skin read, followed by a custom Cream Skin Milky Toner. Laneige also holds pop-ups in states like Florida and Texas to educate consumers about products and get samples in hands.
“We’ve seen from all of our research that once a consumer tries our product, they are much more amenable to converting later on,” Pollack said.