Korean Botox Industry and Popular Korean Botox Suppliers

David Fuller

Last Updated On: February 29, 2024

Introduction

The low-invasive plastic surgery is the popular choice because of its immediate and long-lasting effect, relatively low price, and rare side effects. Beauty injections can add volume to some face parts and make the skin wrinkles smoother. This effect can be reached with neurotoxin injections: small botulinum toxin doses injected just under the skin in the wrinkled face parts. 

Neurotoxin injections are so effective that the number of patients grows yearly. Many famous labs produce botox drugs all over the world. However, Korean botox brands are leading in this market segment due to high quality, affordable price, and successful marketing in Korean and international culture. This article discusses the background of Korean cosmetics’ popularity and reviews the most famous Korean botox brands.

What Is Botox and How It Differs from Botulinum Toxin

Botox™ is a registered trademark by Allergan and is not to be confused with the botulinum toxin. While Botox was the first botulinum toxin drug officially used in aesthetic medicine, this brand name is often used for all drugs of this type.

Botulinum toxin is a product of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, one of the most toxic biological substances. This toxin belongs to the neurotoxins because it affects the peripheral nerves. A toxin blocks neural signals and causes the paralysis of muscles. The large quantity of botulinum toxin can paralyze the muscles that work as a part of the respiratory system. As a result, the lungs cannot inhale and exhale, and an intoxicated person can die from suffocation.

Naturally, botulinum toxin can enter the human body with food, and the most common products that can contain botulinum toxin are homemade canned meat, fish, and vegetables. Also, Clostridium botulinum can invade the body via the open wound with dust.

Clostridium botulinum in the human body provokes botulism, a severe disease that causes muscle paralysis and even death. However, small quantities of pure botulinum toxin can serve a drug because of its neuroparalytic effect. Thus, it is effective against muscle spasms or migraines.

In aesthetic medicine, many brands use various forms of botulinum toxin: OnabotulinumtoxinA (Botox), abobotulinumtoxinA (Dysport), rimabotulinumtoxinB (Myobloc), and incobotulinumtoxinA (Xeomin), and others.

How Does Botox Work to Smooth Wrinkles?

Wrinkles appear on the skin with time. Newborn babies have no wrinkles because of the high level of natural collagen. Age, stress, and some diseases reduce collagen production in the skin, it loses elasticity, and the first facial wrinkles appear. As a rule, they appear on the most active facial parts. For example, crow feet are the small wrinkles at the outer eye corner, and a wisdom wrinkle is a long horizontal line along the forehead.

The wrinkles on active face parts are known as mimic wrinkles. When a patient communicates with the surrounding world, the facial muscles move to reflect emotions. Emotional people with rich face mimics can notice the first mimic wrinkles earlier than their less emotional peers.

Cosmetologists use botulinum toxin injections to prevent the appearance of new wrinkles and smooth the existing ones, and cosmetologists use botulinum toxin injections. An injector delivers a small dose of neurotoxin directly into small underskin face muscles. The paralyzed muscles cannot move for some time, the existing wrinkles are smooth, and new wrinkles do not appear.

The body reacts to neurotoxin injections in a usual way, so that a patient can feel flu-like symptoms: high body temperature, headache, pain in the injection site, weakness, and so on. However, with time the body utilizes the toxin, and the intoxication symptoms disappear in one-two days. The aesthetic effect on the face can last for months, but it also goes away with time. So the patient can request the new botox injections.

Korean Beauty Industry in 2023

Modern Korean culture’s popularity has roots in the TV series dorama and K-pop, Korean pop music. Initially, these products were targeted at a local audience and neighboring Asian countries. However, they spread to Latin America and Western countries.

Looking at their new Korean idols, many people are interested in looking like them. Naturally, they search for Korean cosmetics and other beauty products. The Korean beauty market reacts to the growing demand. The unique proposition of the Korean beauty market combines traditional Korean ingredients like mucin or ginseng with high-tech technologies and affordable western market prices. 

The skincare segment is not limited to daycare and makeup; it also includes aesthetic cosmetology like dermal fillers and botulinum toxin injections. Modern Korean culture cultivates the cult of youth, so people want to look younger even without makeup.

Five Trends in Korean Botulinum Toxin Treatments for 2023

Unisex Treatment

A common opinion says that women use beauty products more than men. The percentage of female patients is higher in most of the beauty industry segments, and however, the number of male patients grows from year to year. Korean celebrities’ active use of beauty products creates role models for customers. 

From daily care, male customers quickly moved to makeup products and aesthetic medicine procedures. Men also want to look more attractive and younger. So, from women-marketed beauty products, the market shifted to unisex use.

Botulinum for Younger Patients

Botulinum toxin injections are effective against the sights of aging. So, the primary age group for this procedure is people after 40-50. However, the trend changes, and now people start using the injections in their thirties and even younger.

Many young people think it is easier to prevent early wrinkles with botulinum toxin injections that treat them later. The lower age threshold means a growing number of patients and demand for certified injectors. 

Longer Lasting Effects

It is impossible to predict how long the effect of Botulinum toxin will last for each patient, and it depends on individual metabolism, lifestyle, and many other factors. For example, if a patient feels pain after injection and takes a painkiller like ibuprofen, it can impact the neurotoxin effect. The producers usually declare an average effect time.

However, with the development of this technology, Botulinum toxin drugs became more effective. With the purer substance and better injection procedure, an average effect increased from 3-4 months to 5-6 months. The patient appreciated the change.

Individual Approach

Service customization is a global trend in all industries. Each patient wants a personalized treatment to get the best effect and save time and money. One visit to a beauty salon for several procedures and scheduled post-care is more attractive than spontaneous procedures.

Features of Korean Botox Brands

There are three commonly known features of Korean “botox” products:

High Quality

The patients evaluate the quality of botulinum toxin drugs with the duration of the main effect and the number of side effects. Korean botox brands provide high-quality products with minimal foreign protection, which means a low risk of side effects.

Affordable Price

Korean botox manufacturers can offer their products at a lower price. It is more affordable than its rivals: the cost of the Botox™ procedure for one zone can be twice more than the same procedure with Korean botulinum toxin.

Long Lasting Effect

The high competition in this market segment forces the leading manufacturers to offer the best possible products. Otherwise, they will lose market share. Thus, all leading Korean botulinum toxin brands provide drugs effectively lasting 7-8 months.

This term offers more than 5-6 months of effect duration for products by leading European and American brands. However, the clinical research did not discover any difference in effect duration for a different brands. The time of effect depends more on the individual reaction than on the drug brand. The researchers claim: the only difference can be found in the impact of activation time. However, for all brands, it takes approximately a week.

The difference in effect duration between Korean botox brands and other manufacturers is the result of a marketing approach. American and European brands declare the average effect duration (as 5-6 months), and Korean brands declare the maximal effect duration as 7-8 months.

Three Largest Korean Botox Manufactures

The paradox is that, despite the ability of Korean botox manufacturers, only three brands occupy 90% of the local market. They are Medytox’s Meditoxin, Hugel’s Botulax, and Daewoong Pharmaceuticals’ Nabota.

Meditoxin

Meditox offers its botulinum toxin products by different trade names: Neuronox®, Siax®, Botulift®, Cunox®, Acebloc®, and Meditoxin®. Since its launch in 2006, the company has captured 40% of the Korean botox market and planned to achieve a 10% market share globally.

Botulax

Hugel also started the production of botulinum toxin products in 2006, and now it is the top-second Korean botox brand manufacturer with its Botulax 100. With all the benefits of a Korean botox brand – affordable price, high quality, long effect – it successfully competes on the global market.

Nabota

Daewoong Pharmaceuticals has more than 30 years of experience in biotechnologies, but its product Nabota is relatively young on the market. This Korean botox brand is recommended to patients who resist other brands because of its high purity.

How to Choose Botulinum Toxin Drug

Only a licensed injector can choose the botulinum toxin drug correctly. When an injector chooses the best brand for a patient, he or she should keep in mind age, general health condition, and history of botox use. The beauty market offers numerous solutions, including Korean botox brands, and most of them are effective and safe.

Beyond Botox: A Look at Your Options

Despite the popularity of Korean botulinum toxin brands, many patients do not want to use botox injections. Some of them want to avoid discomforts related to injections; others have allergic reactions or resistance to botulinum toxin. There are some other options to make skin look younger without neurotoxins.

Healthy Lifestyle

It is commonly known, but we cannot go on without mentioning that a well-balanced diet, hydration, little stress, and a healthy environment help people look more attractive. Not all patients can afford to follow all these rules, but even some of them can positively affect the skin.

Face Massage

Regular face massages, especially with natural oils and liquid vitamins, can reduce wrinkles in certain face zones. However, it should be regular to be effective.

Dermal Fillers

Instead of paralyzing facial muscles, the dermal fillers bend water in body tissues, especially in the middle-deep skin layers. They help return the volume to some body parts, smooth wrinkles, and pump up the skin.

Mesotherapy

Another treatment that reduces the signs of aging is mesotherapy, microinjections of vitamins, minerals, and other substances under the skin. The particular drugs stimulate the natural production of collagen and elastane and improve metabolism.

Creams and Lotions

Non-invasive skin care can also be effective when regular. Also, anti-age creams and lotions can support and prolong the effect of beauty injections.

Chemical and Laser Peeling

It is possible to smooth wrinkles by removing the top epidermis layer. New, healthier skin with better regeneration potential will look younger. A chemical peel (usually with fruit acids) or a laser can remove the top skin layer and reveal the younger and smoother layer of the epidermis.

It is necessary to understand that no therapy can stop the process of aging. Even celebrities like Madonna, known for regular anti-age therapy use, cannot hide their age completely. Aesthetic cosmetology can improve your appearance, but a patient should be ready to face the inevitable.

Conclusive Thought

People want to be beautiful and visually attractive. Nowadays, aesthetic cosmetology offers many options to improve the look and feel more confident. Among other procedures, Botulinum (Botox) injections are relatively low-cost and with immediate visual effects, which explains why these injections are so popular.

Korean botox brands won the market share because of their price, quality, and effectiveness. So, they can be used against the signs of aging.

Disclaimer: The contents of this article should not be construed as medical advice but only for informational purposes. Medsupplysolutions.com staff does not review any of these articles for medical validity. Medsupplysolutions does not endorse the opinions or views expressed in this article. Please always seek professional medical advice from licensed doctor.