The tube is pink and white, a little stubby, and by now you’ve probably squeezed some of it onto the back of your hand in at least one skincare video without even registering the brand name. Sunscreen this unremarkable-looking shouldn’t be the thing everyone’s morning routine has converged on — and yet there it is, the same bottle, propped on bathroom shelves and gym bags from Seoul to Los Angeles, blending into skin with no white residue and a faint rice-water smell that’s become its own kind of signature.
That tube belongs to Beauty of Joseon’s Relief Sun, and as of this month, the resemblance-everywhere isn’t just a feeling — it’s a number. Global market intelligence firm Euromonitor International has named Beauty of Joseon the “Global No.1 K-Beauty Suncare Brand in Online Sales,” based on 2025 global online retail value sales, according to a June 9, 2026 release from the brand and a June 13, 2026 report in Premium Beauty News. The ranking covers brands Euromonitor classifies as Korean-origin, measured by retail value sales (RSP, excluding VAT) across the sun care category worldwide.
The “why now” has less to do with Beauty of Joseon doing anything dramatically new and more to do with where the broader sun care market has been drifting. “Sun care category growth is being driven by climate changes and the move toward lighter, breathable makeup. The standout is texture innovation — sunscreens that are serum-like, transparent, with no white cast are well-received by global consumers,” said Kayla Villena, Global Insight Manager for Beauty and Personal Care at Euromonitor, in the same release. That’s a fairly precise description of what’s been showing up in those skincare videos: the appeal was never really about K-beauty as a category, it was about a specific texture problem — chalky, heavy sunscreen — that this tube happened to solve early and loudly.
Relief Sun has carried most of that growth, per Premium Beauty News’ reporting, with organic reviews on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube doing more of the marketing than the brand itself. But the portfolio behind it has quietly widened — Beauty of Joseon now also sells a lighter Relief Sun Aqua-Fresh version and a Matte Sun Stick, both of which the brand says have shown steady sales growth in their own right. “We have continuously expanded our suncare lineup — from a single sunscreen to sun sticks, body sunscreens, and tone-up sunscreens — driven by a deep understanding of consumer needs across global markets. Euromonitor International’s recognition as the Global No.1 reaffirms our commitment to leading the Hanbang beauty category on the world stage,” the brand said in its release.
Zoom out and the category itself is having a moment well beyond any one brand: Euromonitor pegs the global sun care market at roughly $18 billion in retail value sales in 2025, growing at an 11% compound annual rate between 2020 and 2025. So if the same pink tube keeps showing up in your feed, it’s not an algorithm fluke — it’s one brand’s slice of a sun care market that’s been quietly compounding for half a decade, with the receipts now attached. And if you’re standing in front of a K-beauty shelf trying to pick one sunscreen out of a dozen nearly identical tubes, the lineup itself is worth a second look — the stick and the Aqua-Fresh version exist precisely because the original isn’t the only texture worth keeping around.
Sources: “Beauty of Joseon Named ‘Global No.1 K-Beauty Suncare Brand in Online Sales’ by Euromonitor International,” PR Newswire UK, June 9, 2026. “How Beauty of Joseon became a leader in K-Beauty sun care e-commerce,” Premium Beauty News, June 13, 2026.
