Signal in the noise: The K-beauty boom

Long popular in South Korea, “BB creams”—trendy, all-in-one products meant to replace serum, moisturizer, primer, foundation, and sunblock—are now a fixture of drugstore shelves in Asia and the rest of the world. An analysis by CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, reveals the intellectual property behind the explosion of this and other “K-beauty” products, which are a growing component of the more than $110 billion global skin care market. On a per capita basis during 2010–15, South Korea’s patenting in these areas was twice that of Japan, three times that of France, and five times that of the U.S.