Should a New K-Beauty Product Launch on TikTok Shop US First?
By
Yong Suk Choi
Yes, a new K-beauty product can launch on US TikTok Shop first, as long as creator videos are already live when sales open. On day one, those videos are the first thing shoppers see. Work back from the first day of sales. Lock the label and facility paperwork six weeks out so the packaging that creators film is final, then start seeding three to four weeks out.
Two recent brands took opposite routes. One had creator videos live before sales opened, and the other found the videos that sold only after launch. On October 26, Korea time, Goodai Global, the company behind Beauty of Joseon, announced Depthi, a new skincare brand launching with US TikTok Shop and Shopify-based digital retail as its main channels. That reverses the usual order. Most new K-beauty products still prove themselves in Korea, often at Olive Young, before they cross the Pacific.
Depthi is not the first newcomer to skip the Korea-first route. Dr. Melaxin, a skincare brand launched in 2023, put TikTok Shop ahead of conventional retail when it entered the US. In the third quarter of 2026, it was the platform's second-biggest US beauty brand.
The two brands started from very different places. Depthi had teasers led by pop star Zara Larsson and the team that took Beauty of Joseon global. Dr. Melaxin had neither and began by tracking down creators one at a time. For both, shoppers first met the product in videos on other people's accounts.
For a new brand that skips Korea, creator videos carry more weight on TikTok Shop, because there are no Korean reviews or store shelves to lean on. Most new brands have no pop star or proven team behind them, which puts them closer to Dr. Melaxin's starting point.
Creator videos seeded in the four weeks before launch give a brand something to show on the first day of sales. Without them, a brand opens sales to an empty feed and has to find the videos that sell after launch. That search took Dr. Melaxin seven months from its first TikTok Shop listing to steady sales.
In short
Within a day of sales opening, Depthi's own TikTok account had 59 followers. The attention before launch came from Zara Larsson and creators who had posted its dolphin eye patch weeks earlier.
Dr. Melaxin, with no head start, absorbed early losses to recruit creators. Affiliates drove 82% of its TikTok Shop GMV through August 2025, and it ranked second in US TikTok Shop beauty in the third quarter of 2026.
TikTok Shop sold $992.9 million in US beauty and personal care that quarter, but sales per active beauty video fell to $96, about a quarter of the 2024 level. A new brand has to learn fast which creators drive orders.
How did Depthi launch?
Goodai Global has spent years finding K-beauty brands with room to grow, such as Beauty of Joseon, TIRTIR and Round Lab, and taking them abroad. Depthi is the first brand Goodai built itself. According to The Herald Business, Goodai designed the brand for global audiences from the outset.
Depthi opens with two products: the Bonding Barrier Cream, a moisturizer for the skin barrier, and the Blue Peptide Eye Patch, which is shaped like a dolphin. On Depthi's own site, the cream costs $27 for 50ml and the eye patch $15 for three pairs. The two come together as the Off Duty Set for $37.80.
Goodai says the team behind these products includes key members of the group that took Beauty of Joseon global. A Goodai Global official said it is now time to "use that capability to create new growth opportunities ourselves." The plan is to build Depthi into "a brand with the freedom of a true indie label, one that is not confined to a formulaic K-beauty playbook."
Goodai has also sold on TikTok Shop before, so Depthi starts with a team that already knows the platform. Beauty of Joseon began selling on TikTok Shop UK on January 30, 2026. At the platform's first K-Beauty Super Brand Week on September 12 and 13, it posted its best single-day sales, according to The Korea Herald. Sales that day were four times its daily average for the year through August.
Most new brands will not have a team with that TikTok Shop record on day one, so their creator videos have to do more of the work.
@beautyofjoseon_official · Watch on TikTok
Beyond the team, Depthi had attention on TikTok before it had anything to sell. Swedish pop star Zara Larsson introduced the eye patch on her own TikTok account before it went on sale. Business of Fashion wrote that the launch followed several weeks of teaser content led by Larsson.
The Herald Business says the eye patch went viral and that its dolphin shape nods to a motif in Larsson's makeup looks. The motif goes back to August 2024, when TikTok users started pairing "Symphony," a song she sings with Clean Bandit, with dolphin imagery. Larsson has since brought the meme into her performances and public image, as Nyota Magazine has documented. The shape Depthi chose was one TikTok users had already attached to her, so the attention was in place before the product was.
The Business of Beauty introduces Depthi, October 20, 2026. View on Instagram
What did Depthi do before launch?
Larsson's teasers drew the attention, while Depthi's own accounts stayed small. As of October 26, its TikTok account had 59 followers and its Instagram about 1,300, and the TikTok videos it posted before launch had drawn between about 200 and 1,400 views each.
Creators were posting the patches before Depthi said it was behind them. On October 4, a TikTok creator with about 81,000 followers posted "HOW CUTE are these eye masks 🐬" over Larsson's song "Blue Moon" and tagged her. That one video has about 4,900 views, more than three times the best-performing video on Depthi's own account.
After that video, Depthi's own accounts took these steps (US dates):
October 13: the waitlist opens on depthiskin.com.
October 16: "The BIGGEST mystery reveal… it's US!" goes up on TikTok and Instagram, tagging nine creators, including the one above.
October 25, 6 p.m. Pacific: sales open. Depthi's own posts call this the "pre-launch," but it is the first day of sales. In Korea it is already the morning of October 26, when Goodai announced the brand and Newsis reported its products going up on US TikTok Shop and Shopify.
Depthi’s reveal reel, October 16, 2026. View on Instagram
Creator posts kept coming after the reveal. On October 19, a creator with about 913,000 TikTok followers posted "look how cute these dolphin eye patches are #bluemoon" over the same song and tagged Larsson. It has about 24,900 views, roughly 18 times the brand's own best video. Depthi's biggest pre-launch audience sat on other people's accounts.
How did a brand without a head start do it?
Dr. Melaxin had none of Depthi's borrowed audience: no famous parent company and no pop star teaser. Brand501 launched the skincare brand in 2023, and in an October 2025 profile, MK Economy described it as a brand that had been almost unknown two years earlier.
In late 2024, preparing to enter the US, Dr. Melaxin put TikTok Shop ahead of conventional retail. Brand501 CEO Yoo Kyung-hwa told MK Economy that she saw TikTok Shop as a winner-takes-all platform. She chose to absorb early losses to get creators selling the product and build a sales record first.
Brand501's own staff found the creators, contacting them one by one and taking introductions from local agencies. Of every 100 creators they approached, about ten agreed to meet, and three or four went on to sell the product. Then one or two of them sold several hundred thousand dollars' worth of product in a short time, and other creators started asking for it.
The product gave them reasons to ask. Peel Shot, the brand's exfoliating serum, grew out of complaints that a popular global exfoliant was too harsh, and Brand501 developed it to exfoliate without irritation. Yoo said the brand benchmarked against the world's top-selling products, not other K-beauty brands. It aimed to beat them on function at a reasonable price, and creators told her the price left room for their commission and gave them a reason to recommend it.
Tramicheck, a TikTok Shop analytics firm, traces the first spike in that demand back to a January 2025 video demonstrating Peel Shot. Even so, sales did not hold steady until July 2025, seven months after the first listing in December 2024. For about six months after the first hit, revenue came in bursts.
By Tramicheck's count, affiliate creators drove 82% of Dr. Melaxin's TikTok Shop GMV through August 2025. About 16,600 creators had promoted its products, on commissions of up to 30%. In the third quarter of 2026 it was the second-biggest beauty brand on TikTok Shop US, with $31.2 million.
TikTok Shop rewarded that creator network twice in 2026. In April 2026, Dr. Melaxin won Seller of the Year at TikTok Shop's Seller Day Summit. Brand501 said the award goes to the platform's top 10 sellers and also weighs affiliate networks and creator collaboration. In September, the brand posted that it had also won TikTok Shop's K-Beauty Seller of the Year award at the Beauty Besties event in New York.
Dr. Melaxin’s K-Beauty Seller of the Year post, September 14, 2026. View on Instagram
Days later it posted that it had held its first Creator Summit at TikTok's New York office. The brand used it to thank the creators behind those numbers in person. Until then, it had known most of them only through messages and comments.
Dr. Melaxin’s Creator Summit at TikTok’s New York office, September 18, 2026. View on Instagram
Side by side, the two brands worked in opposite order. Depthi built attention before sales opened. Dr. Melaxin opened sales first and ran at a loss until it found the videos that sold.
A brand without a head start should seed before launch as Depthi did. Seeding early gives a brand videos on day one and starts the search for the ones that sell, but it cannot promise that the first round sells. Even after Dr. Melaxin's first hit, sales took about six more months to settle. Early seeding can shorten that search, but no one can say in advance by how much, so the budget should still cover seven months from the first listing.
How big is TikTok Shop beauty right now?
Depthi arrives in a big market where each video now sells less. TikTok Shop's US beauty and personal care sales hit $992.9 million in the third quarter of 2026, according to Beauty Independent, which cites e-commerce intelligence firm Charm.io. The first quarter brought $928.5 million and the second about $980 million, so the category has sat near $1 billion for three straight quarters.
Beauty Independent's second-quarter story gives a sense of scale. It put that quarter's roughly $980 million at about one-third of Ulta Beauty's quarterly net sales. BAZZAAL's K-beauty TikTok Shop data roundup covers the second-quarter numbers in detail.
The total is holding, but growth is slowing. Year-over-year growth went from 96% in the first quarter to 82% in the second and 39.1% in the third. Meanwhile, active beauty product videos rose 76% year over year to 10.4 million in the third quarter, faster than sales.
As a result, Charm.io's quarterly GMV per active video fell from about $379 in the third quarter of 2024 to $121 a year later and $96 this year. In two years, the figure fell nearly 75%. Bryan Wood, a senior e-commerce insights research analyst at Charm.io, told Beauty Independent that brands should focus on "partnering with creators to produce high-quality videos that are more likely to convert."
Even as per-video sales fell, K-beauty brands stayed on top. Medicube led third-quarter beauty sales with $57.1 million and Dr. Melaxin followed with $31.2 million. Both fell from the second quarter, while Tarte, in third place, edged up to $24.8 million.
Medicube got to the top with volume. Z MEDIA, a TikTok Shop marketing agency, counts nearly 34,000 creators who have worked with the brand on TikTok Shop US and credits its reach to that scale. With the average video now bringing in about a quarter of what it did in 2024, volume alone is less likely to repeat Medicube's result. Seeding before launch helps here. When a brand opens with creator videos already live, its first week of sales shows which creators drive orders, and the next round can go to them.
A shopper who taps a product in a creator video lands on its listing, and K-beauty leads there too. Charm.io grouped the top 1,000 bestselling beauty products by the claims on their listings. The 121 that explicitly called themselves Korean or K-beauty formed the largest group, with $82.7 million in third-quarter sales, or 17.6% of the top 1,000's total.
That $82.7 million covers only listings that use those words, so it will not match the brand totals above. Since those claims formed the largest group, a new brand launching on TikTok Shop first has reason to put "Korean" on its listing and in its creator brief.
The same list also points to a launch format. Three of the ten bestselling beauty products were multi-product sets, the same format as Depthi's $37.80 Off Duty Set, so a launch bundle is worth settling before seeding starts.
How many TikTok Shop stores actually make sales?
Those figures describe the bestsellers, and across all stores the gap is wide. More than half of TikTok Shop's roughly 803,500 US stores made no sales in 2025, according to a Momentum Works and Tabcut report cited in Beauty Independent's second-quarter story. Only 2,143 passed $1 million in GMV. Of about 851,000 affiliates, around 291 sold more than $1 million, and most made under $10,000.
That skew is the point brand strategist Camille Moore, president of Third Eye Insights, made on LinkedIn. She argued that TikTok Shop rewards brands that already have consumer interest and can sustain hefty creator commissions, discounts and paid media. She does not see it as a lifeline for brands struggling elsewhere, or as a place to build awareness from scratch.
"The success story you keep seeing on your feed represents about a quarter of one percent of the platform," she wrote. The report above lands close to that: 2,143 of about 803,500 stores, or 0.27%, passed $1 million.
A new brand launching on TikTok Shop first is close to the from-scratch case Moore warns about. Depthi had no sales record, but Larsson's teasers and the Beauty of Joseon team gave it a head start. Dr. Melaxin came closer to starting from scratch, and it took early losses and offered commissions of up to 30%.
For everyone else, the consumer interest Moore describes has to come from creator videos seeded in the four weeks before launch. The launch budget has to cover creator commissions and ads from the start.
What does a brand gain by launching on US TikTok Shop first?
The route is harder than it was in 2024, but it still gives a new brand four advantages.
The first is feedback from the right customers. Launch in the US and the early reviews come from US shoppers, so the complaints a brand hears are the ones US buyers care about.
In the reviews BAZZAAL counted for its Ulta analysis, K-beauty cushions drew oxidation complaints about four times as often as established-brand foundations. A brand that launches in Korea first hears that complaint only once the product reaches US shoppers. On a US launch, it can show up in first-buyer reviews and creator-video comments during the first week. That leaves time to fix the copy, shade guide or bundle before the next round of videos.
The second advantage is that a new brand does not need a track record to get seen. On TikTok Shop, people buy from the video they are watching, so a creator using the product is usually the first thing they see, before the product page. A dolphin-shaped eye patch makes its case in a single shot, which suits that format.
The same videos bring a third advantage, because a new brand's first impression forms in the US. A brand already known in Korea arrives with an image Korean shoppers built. A new brand's image is built by US shoppers from the first video they see, and the brand gets to choose what that video shows. That is why the D-28 step below ends with picking the one shot every video should include.
Finally, those videos keep working after launch. NielsenIQ's 2025 report on K-beauty in the US names Medicube and Anua as brands that turned viral TikTok content into sales at Amazon, Sephora and Ulta. Creator videos built for a TikTok Shop launch can carry over when the product later reaches those channels. Dr. Melaxin keeps TikTok Shop as its core channel while expanding into Ulta in the US and Boots in the UK.
Dr. Melaxin asks an Ulta Beauty advisor for picks, September 9, 2026. View on Instagram
Which products suit a TikTok Shop-first launch?
Not every product gets all four advantages. The route fits best when a product meets three conditions.
The product can be shown in use in a single shot. Eye patches, pads and lip products are good examples.
US shoppers understand the product without a Korean sales record, because the ingredient, texture or method comes across on camera.
Label and formula are already US-compliant. Late paperwork pushes back seeding and every video planned around it.
Products that sell on a Korean track record rather than on camera, such as premium lines, are better off proving themselves in Korea before they cross to the US. So are ranges heavy in OTC products such as sunscreen, because each one needs its own Drug Facts label before seeding can start.
What does a Korean company need to register and list?
For a product that clears that bar, the six-week countdown starts with the store and its paperwork. Korean companies can sell on TikTok Shop US without a US entity, through TikTok's Korea-US cross-border route. BAZZAAL's How to Sell K-Beauty on TikTok Shop US walks through the sign-up requirements, FDA facility registration and label rules step by step. A TikTok Shop-first launch adds two things to that list.
First, the FDA itself issues no registration certificate. It said on September 9 that it does not issue certificates or other documents confirming cosmetic facility registration, so a third-party "FDA registration certificate" is not an FDA document.
TikTok Shop Academy's Beauty and Personal Care requirements, updated September 1, 2026, accept two kinds of proof. One is a verification letter from a third party that names itself and gives its contact details. The other is a screenshot from the FDA registration portal. Either way, the proof must show the facility name, address, operation type and registration number, and the name has to match the manufacturer, importer or repacker on the label.
Second, lock the label six weeks out. Once seeding starts, the label is on camera. If it changes afterward, the packaging in your creators' videos no longer matches what shoppers receive. Finalize the label copy and ingredient list, and confirm the facility name matches, before the four-week plan below begins.
What happens in the four weeks before launch?
The plan below follows BAZZAAL's seeding process and TikTok Shop's own rules. D-day is the first day of sales, and the plan assumes the paperwork is done. Depthi ran about a week ahead of this plan. Its first creator videos were already live by D-21, the day this plan first ships product, and the brand revealed itself at D-9.
D-28: Lock the product story. Write the product description in the plain words a US shopper uses for the skin concern, and decide the scene that shows the product in use. Keep efficacy claims in that copy within what the US label can say. For a product with a clear visual, such as a dolphin eye patch, pick the one shot every video should include.
D-21: Start seeding, no later than this date. This plan assumes gifted seeding as BAZZAAL runs it. Creators apply, BAZZAAL screens them, the brand approves the list, and product ships only to creators who confirm they want it. Most participants are nano creators, so one round can test many videos. The point of a wide round is to find, in the first week of sales, the scenes and creators that drive orders.
Check each account's TikTok Shop status while you build the list. According to TikTok Shop Academy, affiliate creators need at least 1,000 followers to join. Accounts under 5,000 followers enter a 30-day pilot program that caps them at three shoppable videos a day. A creator below 1,000 followers can still post a review, but that video will not carry an affiliate product link.
When the product ships, put a disclosure request in the note. The FTC treats free product as a material connection that should be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, and that includes teaser posts made before the brand reveals itself.
D-14: Read the first videos. Compare views across the first videos to see which opening scenes travel, and list the questions that repeat in the comments. Rewrite the product copy and thumbnail options to answer the questions that come up most.
D-7: Update the product page. Move the questions that keep coming up in comments to the top of the product page. To run a creator's video as an ad, request usage rights separately; BAZZAAL's post on what usage rights cost covers how to ask and what it costs.
After launch. Sort the videos into those that drove orders and those that did not. Build the next round around the creators whose videos converted, and adjust bundles and price as first-buyer reviews come in.
What goes into a creator brief?
The D-21 seeding round only works if each creator knows what to film. Z MEDIA's TikTok Shop playbook for K-beauty recommends building routine-step content and ingredient stories before launch. A six-step routine of cleanser, toner, essence, serum, moisturizer and SPF, it points out, gives you six pieces of content.
Use those routine and ingredient stories as raw material, and keep each brief to three lines. Name the one skin concern the product solves and the one shot the video must include, then ask the creator to say it in their own words. A script makes the video look like an ad. Set the scene and the concern, and leave the talking to the creator.
How should you decide?
The decision comes down to five checks, in the order the launch calendar runs.
Check the product against the three conditions above.
Confirm that label, ingredient and facility registration paperwork will be ready six weeks before launch.
Set the sample budget, creator commission and paid media budget before seeding starts.
Open the seeding pool wide, mostly to nano creators, at least three weeks before sales open so videos are already live on day one. In the first two weeks after seeding starts, sort the posted videos by which scenes and creators draw views and questions.
Rewrite the product page around the questions the videos keep raising.
FAQ
Do we have to sell in Korea first?
No. Depthi launched in the US first, and Dr. Melaxin grew by putting US TikTok Shop ahead of conventional retail. The route suits products that explain themselves on camera and already meet US labeling rules.
When should seeding start?
Three to four weeks before sales open. Creators need time to receive the product, film and post, and Depthi's creator videos were already up three weeks out.
Are nano creators enough?
For the first month, mostly yes. That month is a search for the videos and creators that convert, and seeding nano creators widely suits it. Accounts under 1,000 followers cannot add a product link. On TikTok Shop people buy from the video they are watching, so make sure part of the seeding pool sits above that line.
How long should a brand starting from scratch plan to wait?
Seed before launch, but budget for up to about seven months from your first listing. According to Tramicheck, Dr. Melaxin first listed on TikTok Shop in December 2024 and its first breakout video came a month later, but sales did not hold steady until July 2025.
Who prepares the paperwork?
The manufacturer, importer or repacker named on the label, per TikTok Shop's requirements. Check that the facility registration and the label match about six weeks before launch.
What do the two launches mean for other brands?
New brands can open on US TikTok Shop if creator videos are already running when sales start. Count six weeks back from your first sales date and have the paperwork done by then, so the last four weeks before sales open go to the plan above. Without a head start like Depthi's, budget for the commissions, samples and paid media it takes to keep going until you find the videos that convert, as Dr. Melaxin did.
BAZZAAL runs US seeding from LA with a network of 100,000+ creators. If you are planning a TikTok Shop-first launch, BAZZAAL can build that calendar with you from six weeks out.
Related reading: How to Sell K-Beauty on TikTok Shop US: 5-Step 2026 Setup Guide · K-Beauty on TikTok Shop US: Q2 2026 data · TikTok Shop Commission: What the Number Actually Buys
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Written by
Yong Suk Choi
Chief Business Officer
Chief Business Officer at BAZZAAL. 15+ years of zero-to-one go-to-market execution across Korean and US markets, now leading growth for K-beauty brands entering the US from Los Angeles and Seoul.
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BAZZAAL runs creator seeding, TikTok Shop, and paid campaigns for K-beauty brands entering the US — from Los Angeles, in Korean-company workflows.
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