Chungcheongbuk-do Gov. Lee Si-jong and Chairman Kim Hwa-joong of the 

Organizing Committee of the Osong Cosmetics Beauty World Exposition participate in the 

D-200 event to promote the expo in Gwanghwamun Plaza in downtown Seoul. 

The Osong Cosmetics Beauty World Exposition will be held in front of the KTX Osong Station in Osong, North Chungcheong Province, from May 3-26, dedicated to show the past, present and future of beauty. Chairman Kim Hwa-joong of the event’s organizing committee said it is “a festival of K-Beauty, emerging as a new form of Hallyu.”

On March 3, he was officially named to take over the position and organize the event by Gov. Lee Shi-jong of North Chungcheong Province. The chairman expects 2,000 buyers from both at home and abroad at the international beauty event where some 300 cosmetics makers, making Osong an advanced base of K-Beauty.

Putting a make-up on “friendship ambassadors” 

with traditional costumes, who are charged with publicizing the Osong expo.

In an interview with a local paper following his official appointment as chairman of the organizing committee of the international event, he said “healthy life and beautiful livelihood” will be the main theme of the beauty event, which is made up of five sections: the World Beauty Hall showing beauty in ages and regions; the Healing Experience Hall for relief of minds through music; the Experiencing Beauty Hall for showing off hairstyles and makeup; the Hallyu Cultural Hall to experience Korean beauty; and the Life Beauty Hall to show the fusion of cosmetics and the beauty industry with science and technology.  

Also, there will be the Cosmetics Industry Hall where new products and leading products of major cosmetics makers will be on display; the Beauty Industry Hall for beauty equipment makers, related organizations, and research institutes; and the Beauty Market where famous cosmetics brands will be sold at discount prices to attendees. There will be 430 booths operated by 300 cosmetics makers.

As a special feature at the beauty event, the World Beauty Hall will have on display the history of the development of the cosmetics industry tracing back to the times of Queen Cleopatra, who used antimony mineral powders to make up her eyes, used roses to make cosmetics, and oils of animals and plants to protect the skin. The hall will also feature the beauty care secrets of famous ancient women such as Hwang Jin, the well known Joseon Dynasty hostess and poetess. Additionally, there will be information and displays on cosmetics, skin care, and the raw materials used for cosmetics throughout history.

The Life Beauty Hall is the “must see” hall among all five halls with the organizing committee paying such much attention to it. Visitors will see what cosmetics products will be like in the future made with a mix of biotechnologies. They will be able to see what they might look like when they get old by using a machine that can estimate how their skin will look and what the proper cosmetics and skin care products they should use according to their skin type.

The Cosmetics Industry Hall and the Beauty Market should attract a lot of visitors since they will sell popular cosmetics at a discount.

The chairman of the organizing committee said the committee has already secured more than 300 domestic cosmetics makers to display their products at the expo, including 49 foreign cosmetics makers from 17 countries.

The committee plans to secure some 1,500 domestic buyers and 500 foreign buyers to the expo

by launching its task force to work closely with KOTRA and the Korea International Trade Association.

The expo will also take advantage of the dramas on K-Beauty as a moving force for further popularizing Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, the chairman said.

The committee expects some 1 million viewers to visit the expo including around 70,000 foreign visitors from such countries as Japan, China, and Southeast Asia and they expect to sell many tourism products to them during their visit to the expo. When the event is over, Osong is expected to be a center of the cosmetics and beauty industries in Korea, especially for skin care products worth 97.3 billion won annually and 140 billion won in economic effects.