Amorepacific will launch a beauty device in the 1 million won range, an "LED (light-emitting diode) mask," next month. The move aims to make a mark in the growing beauty device market. Attention is focusing on the background as the company brings back an LED mask that briefly surged in popularity before fading.
According to the industry on the 30th, Amorepacific will launch the new product "On Face LED Mask" through the beauty device brand MakeON on Nov. 3. The price is 1,899,000 won. The device is a premium mask with 3,770 micro-LEDs that deliver light across the entire face. It said an EX-VIVO Model test on human skin tissue models confirmed that elastin production in the deeper skin layers increased by up to 1,795%. Amorepacific gave an advance unveiling of the product at the IFA 2025 consumer electronics show held in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 5.
An Amorepacific official said, "Recently, beauty devices are seen as substituting for dermatology procedures, but we focused on supporting the effects of procedures and boosting the skin's inherent resilience," adding, "It is a repair pack that can address various skin concerns with light alone, without ampoules or creams."
◇ The LED mask that flashed and vanished is back
In Korea's beauty device market, LED masks have a checkered past of rapid growth followed by exit. It began in Sept. 2017 when LG Electronics launched LG Pra.L (acquired by LG H&H this year) and introduced the "Derma LED Mask." The product was so popular the following year that supply could not keep up. Around the same time, Cellreturn and Neutrogena released LED masks, and top stars including Lee Na-young, Choi Ji-woo, and Lee Min-ho served as models, sparking an LED mask boom.
However, in Sept. 2019, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said the products were "promoted like medical devices with efficacy such as improving wrinkles and alleviating melasma and acne, despite being general consumer goods," and it caught 943 false or exaggerated ads across 48 LED mask products, causing popularity to wane. Some LED masks were also reported to have side effects such as deteriorating vision and retinal damage.
Wearing an LED mask on the face makes it hard to do other tasks, and the price—around 2 million won—was expensive, which analysts say failed to attract consumers in their 20s and 30s, the core buyers of cosmetics. A reason APR, a latecomer that launched beauty devices in 2021, became a market leader is credited to improving accessibility by releasing compact devices priced in the 200,000–300,000 won range. The company's beauty device sales topped 300 billion won last year. First-half sales this year were 180.9 billion won. LG Electronics completely halted LED mask production in Aug. 2023. Competing products also disappeared from the market.
◇ Will it shake up a market dominated by "mid- to low-priced, compact" devices
Amid this, with Amorepacific bringing an LED mask as a new product, market attention is intensifying. Amorepacific was the first in Korea's beauty industry to venture into beauty devices. It launched the beauty device brand MakeON in 2014 and promoted it using actor Song Hye-kyo, among others. However, it failed to deliver meaningful results. It did not release new products after 2021.
As the global beauty device market grew led by APR, the company unveiled the MakeON new product "Skin Light Therapy 3S" early this year. It collaborated with Samsung Electronics to equip it with artificial intelligence (AI). It exhibited the device at CES, the consumer electronics and IT show, in Las Vegas in Jan. Amorepacific Group Chairman Seo Kyung-bae also visited the booth at the time.
The next new product is the On Face LED Mask. Amore said the device is the result of focusing on securing core device technology during an approximately three-year lull. An Amorepacific official said, "We actively pursued open innovation with domestic and overseas tech corporations and worked to identify strategic partners with core technologies such as next-generation micro-LEDs and TEWL (transepidermal water loss) sensors and to establish technology alliances," adding, "As a result, we completed a product that naturally adheres to the facial curvature and delivers light uniformly."
Still, there are market concerns over selecting an LED mask—considered past its prime—as a new business. Some in the industry say Amorepacific's task is to dispel distrust of LED masks themselves through scientific verification of safety and efficacy.
An Amorepacific official said, "Safety issues with existing LED masks arose as heat and irritation increased when light intensity was boosted to achieve effects," adding, "Through conformal surface light emission, we minimized light loss and lowered the light intensity required for the same effect with low-power, high-efficiency operation." The official added, "With a see-through window (semitransparent window) structure, it secures visibility while providing protection from the outside."
Beauty devices are drawing attention as the next growth driver in the cosmetics industry. According to global market research firm P&S Intelligence, the global beauty device market is expected to grow from 19 trillion won ($14.0 billion) in 2022 to 125 trillion won ($89.8 billion) by 2030. LG Business Research Institute projected that Korea's beauty device market will expand from 1.6 trillion won in 2022 to 3.4 trillion won by 2030.
A beauty industry official said, "Competition is fiercer than when Amorepacific first launched beauty devices," adding, "In a market currently dominated by mid- to low-priced, compact devices, the key will be how customers evaluate a high-priced, large LED mask."