Anua Just Named Kendall Jenner Its First-Ever Global Ambassador

Back in June 2026, a Korean skincare brand that most American shoppers had only just started recognizing from TikTok Shop hauls did something no Anua campaign had done before: it put a Kardashian-Jenner on the bottle. Anua named Kendall Jenner as its first-ever global brand ambassador on June 1, 2026, and — this is the part worth being precise about — the deal is a multi-year partnership that's still ongoing as of this writing, not a one-off campaign that already wrapped. If you're seeing Jenner's face on an Anua serum spray for the first time this week, you're not looking at breaking news; you're looking at roughly two and a half months into a relationship both sides have said will keep going. What's actually interesting isn't the announcement itself, it's what it reveals about how a Korean indie skincare brand got big enough to afford a Jenner in the first place, and how that growth strategy compares to what other K-beauty brands are doing in the same market at the same time.

Quick Facts — Read This First

Announced	June 1, 2026 — deal status: multi-year partnership, ongoing
Featured product	PDRN Collagen Glow Facial Serum Spray (2,000ppm PDRN/salmon DNA + hyaluronic acid)
Anua's 2025 global revenue	Surpassed $500 million
Global reach	40 million+ units sold across 160 countries; 20,000+ U.S. retail doors
Company behind the brand	The Founders, Inc. (CEO: Yi Seonhyeong)

Photo via Unsplash

What Anua Actually Announced on June 1

According to Anua's official press release, distributed via PR Newswire, the brand named Kendall Jenner its first-ever global brand ambassador as part of a multi-year partnership that spans global campaigns and future product launches — not a single ad cycle. The campaign centers on Anua's PDRN Collagen Glow Facial Serum Spray, a mist-format serum formulated with 2,000ppm of PDRN (a polynucleotide derived from salmon DNA that's become one of Korean skincare's signature "regenerative" ingredients over the past two years) plus hyaluronic acid. Campaign content shows Jenner using the spray across her routine — morning prep, travel, on-set touch-ups — distributed across both Anua's own channels and Jenner's platforms. In the release, Jenner is quoted saying: "I first discovered the double cleanser, and it has changed my skin. I also love their Azelaic green serum and PDRN which gives me a dewy glow. I am big fan of the products" [sic, quoted verbatim from the official press release]. Yi Seonhyeong, CEO of Anua's parent company The Founders, Inc., framed the pairing around brand fit rather than pure star power: "We are thrilled to partner with Kendall Jenner, a true global icon. Her minimalist and intuitive lifestyle seamlessly aligns with Anua's 'trend meets trust' philosophy, and we look forward to sharing this shared vision with a wider global audience."

How Anua Got Big Enough to Afford This

Celebrity global ambassador deals aren't cheap, and brands don't typically sign multi-year commitments with someone at Jenner's level unless the underlying business can justify it. Anua's numbers explain the timing. Per the brand's own disclosed figures, Anua surpassed $500 million in global revenue by 2025, has sold more than 40 million units across 160 countries, and is now stocked in over 20,000 U.S. retail doors — a scale that's easy to undersell if your only exposure to the brand has been a single Olive Young shelf or a TikTok Shop recommendation. The brand has also posted more than 200% annual growth every year since entering the U.S. market in 2022, was named TikTok Shop's #1 beauty brand in 2024, and ranked #1 during Amazon Prime Day that same year with a reported 537% year-over-year sales increase, followed by Amazon Top Brand recognition in both 2024 and 2025. In other words: the Kendall Jenner deal isn't a scrappy indie brand betting everything on a celebrity to get noticed. It's closer to the opposite — a brand that already won the U.S. market on its own terms using cleansers and toners, and is now using a global ambassador to convert that momentum into mainstream, non-beauty-forum name recognition.

Three Different Ways K-Beauty Brands Are Winning America

Anua's celebrity-ambassador play is only one of several distinct strategies Korean beauty brands and retailers are using to grow in the U.S. right now, and putting them side by side makes each one's logic clearer. Olive Young, Korea's largest health-and-beauty retailer, opened its own first physical U.S. store in Pasadena, betting on direct brick-and-mortar retail rather than a single brand's marketing push — that Pasadena opening drew roughly 6,000 visitors over its first three days. Sephora took a third route entirely, partnering directly with Olive Young to bring a curated K-beauty selection into roughly 700 of its own stores across multiple countries — a rollout Hallyu101 covered in detail when it was first confirmed, and one that had its actual August 2026 in-store launch tracked here as well. None of these approaches is "the" K-beauty growth playbook; they're three different bets running in parallel.

	Anua	Olive Young (own stores)	Sephora x Olive Young
Growth strategy	Single-brand celebrity ambassador campaign	Direct-to-consumer physical retail expansion	Wholesale partnership inside an existing major retailer
2026 milestone	Kendall Jenner named global ambassador (June 1)	First U.S. store opened in Pasadena; 2nd store at Westfield Century City	K-Beauty Edit launched inside Sephora stores (August 20)
Scale signal	$500M+ 2025 revenue, 20,000+ U.S. retail doors	At least 5 more California stores planned by H1 2027	~700 stores across the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong SAR, and Southeast Asia
Who controls curation	Anua alone (single brand)	Olive Young alone (multi-brand retailer)	Olive Young curates within Sephora's existing footprint

Read together, the pattern is that Korean beauty companies at very different points in their growth are no longer waiting for Western retailers or media to "discover" them one at a time. Anua is spending on global celebrity marketing the way an established Western beauty brand would. Olive Young is building owned real estate. And the Sephora partnership is piggybacking on distribution infrastructure that already exists. All three moved within months of each other in 2026, which says more about how much confidence the industry has in the U.S. market right now than any single deal does on its own.

What's Actually in the Serum Kendall Jenner Is Using

The ingredient doing the marketing heavy lifting here — PDRN — isn't a new invention Anua cooked up for this campaign. It's part of a broader wave of "regenerative" actives (PDRN, exosomes, postbiotics) that have been showing up on Korean skincare labels for a couple of years now, originally popularized through in-clinic treatments before migrating into at-home serums and sprays. Hallyu101's breakdown of PDRN, exosomes, and postbiotics covers what the ingredient actually does at a formulation level and why Korean brands have leaned into it so heavily, if the marketing language in Anua's press materials ("dewy glow," "collagen glow") leaves you wanting the plainer explanation. Worth noting: Anua's specific spray uses a 2,000ppm concentration, a number the brand has chosen to disclose upfront rather than bury in an ingredient list — itself a small signal of how ingredient-literate Anua expects its customer base to already be.

What Happens Next

Because this is a multi-year deal rather than a single campaign burst, the more useful question for readers isn't "did this happen" — it did, in June — but what comes out of the partnership going forward. Anua's own release describes "global campaigns and product launches" as part of the scope, which suggests more than just static ad content featuring Jenner using existing products. Whether that means a co-developed product, expanded campaign markets beyond the initial launch, or simply a longer content cadence hasn't been detailed publicly as of this writing, and Hallyu101 will update this piece if Anua or Jenner's team confirms specifics. For now, the safest framing is the one Anua itself used: this is the start of an ongoing relationship, not a single moment.

FAQ

When did Anua announce Kendall Jenner as its global brand ambassador?
Anua announced the partnership on June 1, 2026, via an official press release distributed through PR Newswire.

Is Kendall Jenner still Anua's ambassador, or was this a one-time campaign?
It's an ongoing multi-year partnership, not a one-time campaign. Anua's announcement describes the deal as spanning global campaigns and future product launches over multiple years.

What Anua product is Kendall Jenner promoting?
The campaign centers on Anua's PDRN Collagen Glow Facial Serum Spray, formulated with 2,000ppm of PDRN (salmon DNA-derived polynucleotide) and hyaluronic acid.

How big is Anua as a company?
Anua surpassed $500 million in global revenue by 2025, has sold more than 40 million units across 160 countries, and is available in over 20,000 U.S. retail doors. It has posted more than 200% annual growth every year since entering the U.S. market in 2022.

Is Anua the same company as Olive Young?
No. Anua is a single skincare brand owned by The Founders, Inc. Olive Young is a separate, much larger Korean health-and-beauty retailer that sells many brands, including Anua, alongside its own physical U.S. stores and its Sephora retail partnership.

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