At Mary&May, a Korean skincare brand sold in more than 60 countries, employees from 15 nationalities sit inside the machinery of K-beauty's global expansion — choosing products, creators, words and images for markets thousands of miles from Seoul.
Among them are a Kenyan former beauty influencer working on Europe, an Ecuadorian K-pop fan turned Latin America marketer, an American overseeing North America and an Indonesian shaping the brand's global voice.
Together, they offer a glimpse of how far K-beauty's reach has stretched.
What began as an export story about creams, serums and sheet masks is increasingly becoming a talent story, drawing young professionals to Korea not simply to consume its culture but to build careers inside it.
South Korea's cosmetics exports topped the $10 billion mark last year, cementing the country as a global beauty powerhouse second only to France. Stores such as Olive Young have become fixtures on foreign visitors' itineraries.
Now some of those consumers are crossing a different threshold — from fan to professional.
Maria Cristina Guayasamín Urquizo, an Ecuadorian in her 20s, traces her route into the industry back about 15 years to Girls' Generation.
Korean cosmetics were difficult to find in Ecuador then. Through K-pop and the internet, she discovered brands including Tony Moly and Etude House, first drawn to their packaging and later to the rituals and products of Korean skincare.
“I started as a K-Pop fan, then became a skincare fan, and eventually it became part of my career,” Guayasamín said.
Her route to Korea took a more unexpected turn at university. While studying TV production and digital media in Ecuador, she made a documentary about a Korean woman who had lived there for about two decades.
“At that time, I had only just started learning Korean, so editing the documentary was quite difficult. That experience motivated me to apply for a scholarship to study Korean in Korea,” she said.
She arrived in 2020, later received the Global Korea Scholarship and eventually encountered Mary&May at an event for foreign K-beauty creators. She now handles creator and partner communications, regional campaigns and content across Latin America.
Rutto also arrived in 2020 to study Korean and later pursued a master's degree in anthropology at Seoul National University. Along the way, she joined Korean skincare projects and built the experience that eventually took her from promoting K-beauty to helping shape how it is marketed.
Octavia Grace VanHecke, an American in her 20s who handles North America, first came to Korea as a student in 2021. While studying media and communication at Korea University, she became interested in cross-border advertising and marketing. Korean YouTube makeup tutorials had already introduced her to the industry.
“The K-beauty industry is growing at a rapid pace, and to drive that global growth from the source you must be here in Korea,” she said. “Being a part of this growth and shift in the beauty market is exciting.”
Claire Lee, an Indonesian in her 20s, took yet another route into the business.
Her work spans newsletters, advertising content and brand development. What appealed to her was the chance to move upstream — to see how a product and its identity are built before they are repackaged for consumers overseas.
“Working in the country itself allows me to understand the intention behind product development and the brand philosophy up close, and to think from the planning stage about how to express that through language and visuals,” Lee said.
Proximity matters because beauty does not travel as neatly as a bottle in a shipping box.
A toner can be routine in Seoul and unfamiliar in another market. An ingredient that excites U.S. consumers may require explanation elsewhere. An advertisement that looks polished in Korea may feel distant, overly controlled or simply off-key abroad.
And that is where Mary&May's international staff come in.
“We were looking for colleagues who could see the market through the eyes of local consumers and build the business together with us,” said Kim Sue-min, the company's co-founder and chief marketing officer.
The structure grew out of the company's early overseas expansion. Good formulas alone were not enough, Kim said. Consumers in different countries respond to different ingredients, creators, aesthetics and shopping habits.
Guayasamín sees that gap every day in Latin America.
“In Korea, concepts like toner, serum, and sunscreen are already very familiar, while in many Latin American markets, consumers are still learning about different skincare steps and why they need them,” she said.
“That’s why we can't just translate Korean content into Spanish. Sometimes we need to educate consumers first and explain K-Beauty in a way that fits their culture and familiarity.”
For Rutto, cultural translation can begin with a single phrase or campaign concept. Part of her job is to flag language or ideas that could be misunderstood or considered inappropriate elsewhere.
“My perspective is taken into account when we decide how to word messages or present products to international audiences,” she said.
VanHecke has pushed Mary&May's U.S. marketing in a looser, more candid direction.
She manages influencers and TikTok Shop affiliate marketing, where creators earn commissions on sales generated through their content. In the U.S., she said, audiences increasingly respond to unvarnished product opinions rather than carefully staged brand films.
“Candid content and honest brand opinions are becoming more popular than aesthetic brand videos in the U.S.,” VanHecke said.
She adjusted Mary&May's guidelines for U.S. TikTok affiliates, giving creators more room to use products in their own style and show real results. Several videos subsequently went viral, she said.
“What works in Korea doesn't always translate across borders,” VanHecke said. “I know what kind of messages will and won't work for my region, because I grew up seeing what kind of advertising gets praised and which gets backlash.”
The publication had largely concentrated on products and company news. She proposed adding a section on trends unfolding inside Korea, reasoning that overseas K-beauty followers were interested in the culture surrounding the products as much as the products themselves.
“I thought overseas subscribers who are interested in K-beauty would be curious not only about products, but also about what trends are attracting attention in Korea,” she said.
The company adopted the idea.
International staff are also reaching deeper into the business, influencing not only how Mary&May talks about products but which products it pushes.
“They understand what part of a product should be emphasized, which influencers consumers genuinely trust and what kinds of promotions feel natural in that market,” Kim said.
In the Middle East, local staff highlighted demand around the eye area among women who wear hijab, leading Mary&May to put its eye cream forward.
In Turkey, a colleague pointed to the cultural familiarity of roses, encouraging the company to make its rose wash-off pack a key product.
Staff covering North America and Southeast Asia pushed for greater emphasis on retinol, the vitamin A derivative widely used in anti-aging skincare, reflecting demand for ingredients associated with more visible results.
“Ultimately, foreign talent helps determine which products to sell in each market,” Kim said.
It is a notable shift for an industry whose first wave of globalization largely meant making products in Korea and finding ways to sell them abroad.
At Mary&May, overseas markets are now represented inside the Seoul office before a campaign reaches a screen or a product reaches a shelf.
The shift is also visible in job applicants, Kim said.
“More applicants now see K-beauty itself as a professional field, seeking experience in global marketing, overseas sales, e-commerce and brand operations,” she said.
“They want to become active participants in growing the brands, not just consumers.”
The transition from foreign consumer to industry insider is not always seamless.
“One challenge is finding your place and making sure your perspective is understood as a foreigner,” Rutto said. “Even when you understand the language, cultural differences can affect how people communicate and work together.”
Lee described a subtler layer of adjustment: learning the unspoken language of a Korean workplace.
“You have to understand what is expected, how an idea should be presented and what someone means beyond what they literally say,” she said.
Those frictions will matter more if Korea wants global talent not merely to arrive but to remain, gain authority and build long-term careers.
Kim said international employees should not be treated simply as translators or support staff assigned to their home markets.
“We should not limit them to language-support roles for a particular market,” she said. “They should be able to develop market strategies, take responsibility for budgets and performance, and eventually grow into leaders.”
Guayasamín hopes to remain in Korea for the next several years and move deeper into visual storytelling, content production and eventually creative direction.
Rutto wants to expand her expertise in influencer marketing and partnerships. VanHecke hopes to continue introducing Korean products to North American consumers, whether in beauty or another Korean industry.
Lee plans to build further expertise in K-beauty brand marketing.
Their ambitions mirror the industry's own evolution.
For years, K-beauty's defining movement was outward Korean formulas, packaging and beauty rituals traveling from Seoul into shopping carts around the globe.
Now, in one office in southern Seoul, the world is being pulled into the room.
“K-beauty’s next step is not simply to export Korean cosmetics,” Kim said. “It is to bring global talent to Korea and build global brands together.”
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