K-beauty retailer, Olive Young, draws quite a crowd in Pasadena, its first U.S. location

Lines of people wrapped around the block, for blocks, for a new K-beauty store in Pasadena with some shoppers even sleeping outside overnight before Friday's grand opening.

Olive Young is a South Korean leading beauty and lifestyle retailer with 27 years of skincare expertise, and the Pasadena location is its first brick-and-mortar store in the U.S.

Beauty store enthusiasts lined Colorado Boulevard to Green Street, braving a night on the sidewalk, just to be among the first to get inside. "It was pretty cold, but we had blankets and chairs," one shopper said.

The K-beauty line uses social media to share products, creative uses and solutions to consumers around the world.

"K-beauty is fast, it's trendy, and it's also very smart," Priscilla Kang, Olive Young merchandising team lead, said, noting this isn't just another beauty store opening.

"The major difference -- we focus on new and emerging brands. We just don't work with the big mega brands, but we work with small indie ... just out in market brands," Kang said.  

Industry experts say the K-beauty market surged in popularity over the last decade and is projected to reach nearly $38 billion globally by 2033.

Shoppers at Friday's grand opening said they are committed to K-beauty because of "way better ingredients," and "because it's pretty much fantastic on the skin, it's like magic." One shopper said that while she was in South Korea last year, she bought an extra suitcase to stuff it with K-beauty products.

Some would say camping overnight for beauty products is a bit much, but it doesn't compare to shopper Sienna Laster's dedication. "It's worth it, because I usually fly to Korea to go to Olive Young. I flew there twice within the last year to buy skincare," she said.

Olive Young merchandises by category-specific zones throughout the store, where each space is tailored to help customers easily discover products based on their individual needs.

Stores also offer complimentary services, from skin scans to scalp analysis, inspired by the retailer's popular services in Korea.

Olive Young is preparing to open its second U.S. store in Century City in just two weeks, and then will expand to the East Coast