10 Korean Brands Take K-Beauty Glow Week to Rome in Push for European Market

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) held K-Beauty GLOW WEEK in Rome on June 12-13 in the Italian capital, an event designed to support the European market entry of outstanding Korean consumer goods brands.
 
The Rome event is the latest installment in a global series promoting the international expansion of K-brands, following K-Beauty GLOW WEEK editions in Shanghai in January and Hanoi, Vietnam in April. This stop brought together ten Korean SME brands with strong export track records across the beauty, fashion, and lifestyle sectors.
 
Held at The St. Regis Rome over two days, the event gave each participating brand its own dedicated exhibition and experience space, allowing visitors to browse and try products firsthand.
 
To reach potential customers unable to attend in person, the organizers invited prominent local influencers to introduce each brand’s products and share their hands-on impressions in real time across social media channels – putting a concentrated spotlight on the quality of Korean SME products.
 
The event also drew major consumer goods buyers with distribution channels across Italy and the wider European market – including OVS, one of Italy’s largest beauty, fashion, and lifestyle retailers. These buyers visited the venue to examine the exhibited products, meet with participating companies, and discuss ways to bring Korean products into the European market through their own distribution networks and infrastructure.
 
Vice Minister Roh Yong-Seok visited the venue to experience the exhibited products firsthand and encourage the participating entrepreneurs. He also held a roundtable to hear their export-related challenges and suggestions for government support. Companies raised difficulties in responding to Europe’s increasingly stringent regulations, as well as logistics challenges, and called for active government support to help address them.
 
“Europe is an important market where the popularity of K-beauty has risen markedly in recent years – a foundation on which the growth of K-brands as a whole can be built,” said Vice Minister Roh Yong-Seok. “At the same time, the recent tightening of export regulations is adding to the burden on companies operating there. We will strengthen policy support so that our SMEs can ease these difficulties and expand their presence in the European market.”