K-beauty retailer Skin Cupid tells Cosmetics Business that sales of Kahi’s Multi Balm grew by 500% last year and consistently sold out throughout the year. “With salmon collagen and Jeju fermented oil, Kahi’s product boosts collagen production in the skin, brightens, and minimises pores, all while creating a quick ‘glass skin’ look,” says Melody Yuan, CEO of Skin Cupid. “We think Korean brands will take this opportunity to release more products in stick form, especially multi balms and sun sticks,” she adds.


And with ‘dewy skin’ remaining at the forefront of skin care trends in 2023 – Google searches for the term are up by almost a quarter compared to last year – skin care sticks could become the latest K-beauty trend to take off in western markets too.


Multi balm sticks


MULTI-STEP TO MULTI-USE Could multitasking, minimalist skin care sticks be the next big K-beauty trend to hit the west?


K-BEAUTY: FROM W


elcome to a new era of stick care: skin care that can be used anywhere, any time. This is the premise of Korean brand Kahi’s


marketing for its famed Multi Balm, a product at the centre of the K-beauty trend for moisturising sticks, and also widely known for its frequent product placements in Korean dramas such as The King: Eternal Monarch and Extraordinary Attorney Woo.


The trend, led by Kahi’s pale pink Wrinkle Bounce Multi Balm – which sells three every second in Korea, according to the brand – has blown up over the past couple of years, taking the stick format and elevating its use within an all-day skin care routine, more in line with ‘skip-care’ than 10-step K-beauty skin care.


The idea is that, rather than using a face cream twice a day, morning and evening, the stick moisturiser can be used throughout the day to boost skin hydration as needed.


10 cosmetics business March 2023


Kahi sells three of its Multi Balm products every second in Korea


Waterless and multipurpose Although by no means a new format, sticks that offer multipurpose skin care benefits provide a timely solution to current consumer needs, while capitalising on the fact that consumers are becoming more receptive to waterless beauty. “Beauty consumers are now open to solid skin care as confidence grows in the ease of use of the format, and with more brands establishing credibility in this area like Sbtrct, solids are definitely here to stay,” says Sam Murton, founder and CEO of Be for Innovation. “At the same time, the need for multi-use products really resonates with consumers in times of economic uncertainty. Beauty customers don’t want to sacrifice the joy they get from buying beauty products but need to make sure they invest wisely, with brands like Jones Road building great brand stories around multi-use benefits.”


The Hippie Stick from Jones Road is a multipurpose balm stick with a rich blend of shea butter, coconut oil, and sunflower seed oil designed to nourish dry skin anywhere from chapped lips to dry elbows.


“Everyone is looking for multi-use products at the moment,” says Sascha Jackson, Lead Pro- Artist, Brand Ambassador and National Education Manager at Stila. The brand recently launched All About The Blur Instant Blurring Stick, a hybrid that can be used under as well as over make-up to improve skin texture and control shine, while also to minimise the look of pores, diffuse imperfections and hydrate the skin. “Now more than ever, you want to be getting enough bang for your buck, but it’s about time as well – we like things that are easy to use that are going to give maximum results in minimum time. “We developed the Blurring Stick because we wanted our customer to get instant gratification from a product. We always see the clean skin look in Fashion Week etc but in real life, it’s so hard to get that result because of imperfections or textured skin or breakouts,” says Jackson. “The Blurring Stick really helps you to achieve that, but it also contains rosemary extract to soothe the


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