Sales of lipstick have soared in South Korea over the past year, with the category notching up double-digit growth in 2016, according to a report published by Pulse News.  

Local manufacturer LG Household & Health Care saw sales of its Face Shop brand’s lip range leap 61.4 percent in the first 11 months of the year, while its VDL marque witnessed meteoric growth of 81.8 percent for best-seller Lip Cube.

Tonymoly has also seen sales of lip care products skyrocket, up 89.9 percent over the year, while fellow mass brand Missha reported growth of 38.5 percent for the lipstick and gloss category.

The rise has been attributed to the ‘Lipstick Effect’, a term coined by Leonard Lauder to describe the phenomenon of increased make-up sales in times of economic distress.