Daiso vs Olive Young: Where Should You Buy K-Beauty?

A few years ago, this comparison would have sounded a little strange. Daiso was where you went for household basics. Olive Young was where you went for beauty. Not anymore.

At Daiso, you can now find everything from ₩1,000 sheet masks to ₩5,000 toners, creams and cushions. Familiar K-beauty names like Etude, JUNGSAEMMOOL and Mamonde are showing up there, too --- often through different lines and formats. Meanwhile, Olive Young has become more than a Korean drugstore for international visitors. It is now a K-beauty destination in its own right, built around the ability to browse and compare a much wider selection in one place. So if you're shopping for beauty in Seoul, there's a very practical question:

Do you need to visit both?

Our answer is yes --- if you have the time. Just don't go looking for the same things.

Daiso is for discovery. Olive Young is for selection.

Once you understand that difference, deciding what to buy where becomes much easier.

First, they're more different than they look

On the surface, both sell skincare and makeup. But the way you shop them is different.

	Daiso	Olive Young
Best for	Low-cost discovery and experimentation	Selection and comparison
Entry price	Extremely low	Wide range, from affordable to premium
Brand/product range	Curated, including channel-specific lines	Much broader
Skincare	Easy, low-risk experimentation	Better for comparing specific skin concerns
Makeup	Fun, inexpensive finds	More brands, shades and categories
Beauty tools	A real strength	Available, but Daiso is often more interesting
Gifts	Lots of small, inexpensive options	More recognizable beauty gifts
Best mindset	“Why not try this?”	“Let’s find the right one.”

That's why comparing the two on price alone misses the point. Daiso's advantage is what you can discover for ₩5,000 or less. Olive Young's advantage is how much choice you have once you know what you want.

Daiso: Try the thing you've been curious about

The best Daiso finds are often the ones you didn't plan to buy. Maybe you've been curious about PDRN and spot a ₩1,000 sheet mask. Maybe you recognize a major K-beauty company behind a Daiso line you've never seen before.

Maybe a lip product or cushion puff costs ₩1,000--₩3,000, so you toss one into your basket just to see what it's like. Daiso makes these decisions incredibly easy. The cost of getting it wrong is small.

Daiso has continued to expand beauty aggressively in 2026, introducing hundreds of new beauty items and broadening its beauty and health assortment across categories including sun care, masks, color cosmetics and body care. Shopping here is less about finding the one perfect product and more about trying several possibilities without much commitment.

ADoS TIP

Don't arrive at Daiso with a 20-item beauty checklist. A better rule is:

One because you need it.
One because you're curious.
One because it looks fun.

The lower the prices, the more useful a rule like this becomes.

Olive Young: Go when you actually want to choose

Olive Young works almost the opposite way. If you already have a brand in mind, if you want to compare several sunscreens for sensitive skin, if you're looking for a cleansing oil that's popular in Korea right now, or if you need to test cushion shades, Olive Young makes much more sense. Because the selection is much deeper. For many visitors, going to Olive Young is now simply part of a K-beauty trip to Korea.

ADoS verdictIf you know what problem you want to solve, start with Olive Young. If you just want to see what looks interesting, Daiso is more fun.

1. Skincare: Olive Young wins when you want to choose carefully

Skincare is where the difference between the two stores becomes clearest. At Daiso, you can now find toners, ampoules, creams, masks, retinol, PDRN and plenty more. But the depth of choice is different.

Say you're looking specifically for a calming serum for sensitive skin. Having one inexpensive serum on the shelf isn't necessarily as useful as being able to compare multiple brands, textures, price points and ingredient combinations. That's where Olive Young is stronger.

But if you're simply curious about PDRN and want to try it once, or you want a ₩1,000 sheet mask for your hotel room that night, Daiso is hard to beat.

Serious routine building → Olive Young
Low-risk experimenting → Daiso

2. Makeup: Olive Young for choice, Daiso for fun

Makeup follows a similar pattern. Daiso now carries a surprisingly broad range of tints, cushions, mascaras, eyeliners and blushes. In 2026, products under Play 101 by Etude, for example, appeared at Daiso across categories including tints, brow products, mascara, liners and cushions, generally within the ₩3,000--₩5,000 range. So if your goal is simply:

"I want to try one fun Korean makeup product."

Daiso can be great. But foundation and cushion products are different. If shade matching matters, or you want to compare finishes and brands, Olive Young is usually the better stop.

ADoS TIP

For base makeup, shade match matters more than saving a few thousand won. A ₩5,000 cushion you can't actually wear is ultimately the more expensive purchase.

3. Beauty tools: Check Daiso first

Puffs. Brush-cleaning tools. Hair brushes. Mirrors. Small travel containers. For categories like these, we usually check Daiso first. The reason is simple.

They aren't technically complex skincare products, the price difference can be meaningful, and they're exactly the sort of things you suddenly realize you need while traveling. Daiso regularly releases inexpensive, practical beauty accessories --- the kind of products that make you wonder whether there's much reason to pay more.

ADoS verdictBeauty tools → Check Daiso first.

4. Viral K-beauty: Olive Young gives you context

If you already have a list of products saved from TikTok or Instagram, the equation changes. When you want to find a specific viral product, compare it with alternatives and see what else the brand makes, Olive Young is usually more efficient. It's also better if your goal is to get a broad sense of what's currently popular across Korean beauty brands.

At Daiso, the discovery itself can be the content. At Olive Young, the comparison is the content. That's a useful distinction to remember.

5. Gifts: It depends who you're buying for

If you need small gifts for several friends, Daiso works beautifully. A few ₩1,000 sheet masks or tiny beauty finds are easy to split up, inexpensive, and simple to combine with Korean stationery or small souvenirs. But if you're buying for one beauty-obsessed friend and want the gift to clearly feel like "K-beauty from Korea," Olive Young is more likely to give you recognizable brands and hero products.

Many small gifts → Daiso
One intentional beauty gift → Olive Young

Does Daiso automatically win on price?

This is where comparisons can get misleading. The total purchase price of Daiso cosmetics is undeniably low. But seeing a familiar beauty name at Daiso doesn't mean you've found the exact Olive Young product at a dramatically lower price.

It may be a separate line. The size may be different. The format, formula or positioning may be different. So comparisons like:

₩25,000 → ₩5,000 = 80% cheaper

can easily distort what you're actually buying. At Daiso, the key advantage is the low entry price. At Olive Young, part of what you're paying for is selection and the ability to compare.

ADoS TIP

If you really want to compare prices, look beyond the sticker. Check the size and price per ml, and never assume similarly named products use the same formula.

What if you only have one hour?

For travelers, this may be the more useful question.

If K-beauty is a major reason for your trip

Go to Olive Young first.

Find the brands and products you actually want, then browse a nearby Daiso if you have time left.

If you're not a huge beauty shopper but want a few fun things from Korea

Go to Daiso first.

You can browse beauty, stationery, travel essentials and small souvenirs in the same trip.

If you've already been to Olive Young several times

Try Daiso Beauty this time. It's one of the easiest places to see how quickly Korea's ultra-low-price beauty market has changed.

If you have time for both

This is our favorite option.

Choose at Olive Young. Discover at Daiso.

So what should you buy where?

Go to Daiso for

• Sheet masks and other low-commitment beauty experiments
• ₩1,000--₩5,000 products you're simply curious about
• Daiso-positioned lines and formats you may not see elsewhere
• Puffs, brush-cleaning tools and other beauty accessories
• Small gifts
• Practical beauty items you suddenly need while traveling
• One thing you never planned to buy but genuinely want to try

Go to Olive Young for

• Skincare for a specific skin concern
• K-beauty hero products you already know
• Purchases that require comparing multiple brands
• Makeup where shade selection matters
• Categories like sunscreen, serum and cleansing where breadth helps
• More recognizable beauty gifts
• A serious K-beauty shopping trip

The verdict: They compete, but they don't replace each other

As Daiso Beauty has grown, the overlap between the two retailers has become real. So is Daiso becoming an Olive Young competitor?

In some parts of the market, yes.

The competition is especially visible in inexpensive cosmetics, discovery shopping among younger consumers, and low-commitment beauty purchases. But for travelers, there's a more useful conclusion:

One doesn't completely replace the other.

A good Daiso trip is about finding something unexpected without spending much. A good Olive Young trip is about choosing the right product from a much wider field. So when we shop for K-beauty in Seoul, we don't really choose between them.

We give them different jobs.

Daiso is for discovery.
Olive Young is for selection.

And if there's time?

Go to both.

Going to Daiso?

Before crossing Seoul for a famous flagship, read our local guide to Daiso Korea and see what's already around you.

→ Find a Daiso near you with My Seoul Drop

More on Daiso

→ Wait, Daiso Korea Sells Supplements Now?
Yes. Here's why --- and what travelers should know before buying them.

→ What Koreans Actually Buy at Daiso
Forget the TikTok must-buy list for a minute. Here's what Koreans actually go back for.

A Drop of Seoul looks beyond what's trending to find what's actually worth discovering.