[Report] "Seongsu-dong Everywhere Is a Beauty Playground"... 6,000 Tickets Sold Out for 'Musinsa Festa'

Musinsa Beauty's First Offline Event from 6th to 8th
80% of Booths Opened by Small and Medium Beauty Brands
Pre-sale Tickets Sold Out in 1 Minute

"Except for one, I don't know any of these brands."

The front view of the Musinsa Beauty Festa venue on the 6th. People are lining up to enter the store even before the 10 a.m. opening.
[Photo by Minji Lee]

At 9:50 a.m. on the 6th, a visitor in their late 20s whom we met at the entrance of the first day of the 'Musinsa Beauty Festa IN Seongsu' event held in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, organized by the online fashion platform Musinsa for a beauty-related event, expressed amazement, saying, "There seem to be many brands that I haven't seen on other beauty channels."

Despite the drizzling autumn rain on a weekday morning, a long line of people waiting for their turn to enter formed in front of the entrance to the venue. Some people were even seen running to the venue without umbrellas to get in line as quickly as possible.

The Musinsa Beauty Festa IN Seongsu, held over three days until the 8th, is Musinsa's first offline event related to beauty. Previously, Musinsa had opened an online beauty specialty section in November 2021 and had mainly conducted its business online. The first Beauty Festa held last year was also operated only online.

Recently, Musinsa has been expanding its business offline, such as launching 'Musinsa Beauty Space 1.' The Beauty Space is a beauty specialty store converted from 'Musinsa Square,' a small popup space for fashion brands hosted on Musinsa. After combining online and offline operations, Musinsa's beauty business division has been growing rapidly. From January to August this year, the transaction volume in this division increased by more than 94% compared to the same period last year. The number of brands listed currently reaches about 1,700.

Musansa Beauty Festa Point Zone. A total of 11 brands set up booths in the Point Zone.
[Photo by Minji Lee]

For this event, Musinsa did not designate a specific building but utilized the entire Seongsu-dong area, which spans 200,000 pyeong (approximately 661,157 square meters), as the venue. Since their headquarters are located in Seongsu-dong, they judged it to be the best space to showcase their unique identity. A total of 41 brands participated in the event.

The venue was broadly divided into the main popup zones (Total Zone, Point Zone, Men's Zone), brand partnership spaces, and event zones. The entire Seongsu-dong was turned into a beauty playground so that consumers could enjoy the event throughout the streets. The main popup spaces, Total Zone and Event Zone, were the farthest apart, taking about 25 minutes on foot.

Additionally, partnerships with nearby cafes, nail salons, hair salons, and beauty stores were established so that consumers could enjoy other benefits in Seongsu-dong. News that products worth about 400,000 KRW would be provided led to all 6,000 tickets (priced at 15,000 KRW) sold on Musinsa within one minute during the three days starting from the 16th of last month.

Brand Etude collaborates with fashion brand aeae for a joint product
Photo by Minji Lee

Another feature of this event is the large participation of small and medium-sized brands. A Musinsa official explained, "80% of the participating brands are small and medium-sized," adding, "This reflects our strategy to discover and nurture emerging brands, which is Musinsa's strength, now extended to the beauty sector."

In fact, most brands located in the Total Zone and Point Zone are listed on domestic H&B online malls but have not entered offline stores or operate only on Naver and their own malls. Participating brands attracted consumer attention by offering samples when consumers followed their social media accounts or participated in games.

A brand representative met on the second floor of the Total Zone said, "Emerging brands have fewer opportunities to enter large channels and face high commission fees. This opportunity to showcase offline stores made us feel that both the brand and Musinsa's channel are growing together."

Visitors are carrying bags to collect samples as they walk around each booth on the first floor of the Total Zone at the Musinsa Beauty Festa.
[Photo by Minji Lee]

Products collaborated with Musinsa fashion brands were also on display here. The brand 'Etude' showcased hats and beauty products in collaboration with the fashion brand 'aeae,' which is popular among consumers in their teens and twenties. Musinsa has previously contributed to raising brand awareness through collaborations with Laneige and T1. These planned products were exclusively released on Musinsa and sold out the first and second batches within a day.

Some brands unveiled new products through Musinsa. 'Begins by Jung Saem Mool,' the second brand launched by makeup artist Jung Saem Mool, focuses on vegan skincare. This brand held a popup at the Beauty Space from the 23rd of last month to the 2nd of this month, attracting over 6,000 visitors in 11 days.

A Musinsa official said, "Musinsa's main customers have no resistance to new products, making it a good opportunity for emerging brands," adding, "We plan to increase brand awareness by exclusively launching planned products that combine Musinsa's fashion content with beauty."