[Global Hit Item] Candy Stone, Hallyu in Nail Art... "Captured Women's Hearts"

Over 4,000 Products Sold Monthly
Popular In-House Made Items Like Stone and Parts
Plans for Global Supply Chain and Overseas Corporations

Kim Hyunji, CEO of Candystone.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] "Although the birthplace of nail art is Japan, Korea is leading the trends. Japanese customers have also become completely captivated by Koreans' nail art skills."

Kim Hyun-ji, CEO of Candystone, said in an interview with Asia Economy on the 23rd, "More than 4,000 nail art products are sold monthly overseas, including Japan," adding, "The overseas share, which currently accounts for more than 20% of sales, is continuously increasing."

Before founding Candystone, CEO Kim worked at a major clothing company and enjoyed self-nail art as a hobby. She turned ideas from this experience into a startup item and has grown the business since. Established in 2016, Candystone produces key materials needed for nail art based on its in-house design capabilities. The company has introduced three-dimensional stones, parts, and clay crafted with the skills of CEO Kim and her staff. Particularly, nail parts using various jewelry stones have gained popularity. CEO Kim explained, "About five years ago, when most nail art supplies were simple nail polishes, I was already conceptualizing aesthetically pleasing three-dimensional materials," adding, "Our design capabilities have been recognized in the market, and currently, more than 50,000 nail salons nationwide receive Candystone nail art products."

Candystone handles about 10,000 products and has increased sales by bundling appropriate materials according to the nail art designs customers want to create. CEO Kim emphasized, "After communicating with Japanese customers, the term K-Nail has emerged, reflecting the high popularity of Korean nail art," and added, "It seems to be a trend to attach various accessories to nail art in Candystone’s style." She also noted, "Korean online shopping malls have strong capabilities to present trend guides ahead of customers," and "Even if the products are somewhat more expensive than Chinese goods, customers purchase without hesitation, leave many reviews, and attract other customers."

Candystone plans to prepare a global supply chain and overseas subsidiaries targeting not only Japan but various countries. They are closely monitoring customer responses through English and Japanese shopping malls built on the global e-commerce platform Cafe24. CEO Kim stated, "While running the business, I myself release more than one nail art design every week," and added, "I believe that even the CEO must continuously develop design planning skills to respond more quickly to global trends."