K-Beauty Targets $150 Billion Fragrance Market with Sensory Lounge
Creatrip Team
20 days ago
KOLMAR (한국콜마) opened a 'Sensory Lounge' in Seoul to create distraction-free spaces for testing scents in shampoos, body wash, perfumes and other products. The facility blocks outside noise and odors, adjusts lighting and ventilation, and provides hair and fabric samples to measure how fragrances behave on different materials. Faster feedback cycles now allow same-day sample revisions, speeding product development. KOLMAR’s fragrance research focuses on consistent scent delivery across formulations and controlled release technologies. Demand for branded signature scents is rising from cosmetics to hotels and retailers (e.g., Lululemon), and international clients are commissioning Korean-made fragrances. The company is also building a database of scents from native Korean plants (자생식물). Global perfume market value is projected to reach about $939 billion next year, and KOLMAR reported an 85% increase in new perfume sales this year; South Korea’s perfume exports have quintupled in four years.
