Olive Young Korea: A First-Timer's Guide to Stores, Tax Refunds and Sales

Last checked: October 30, 2026. Store hours, sale dates and refund rules can change. Check the store's official page before a special trip.

If you have a K-beauty shopping list, sooner or later it leads to Olive Young. It's a Korean health and beauty store chain with branches all over the main shopping districts, and it has become a regular stop on visitors' itineraries. In August 2026 the company said foreign shoppers made up 33% of its offline sales that month, up from 2% in 2022.

The first visit can still be a lot: thousands of products, Korean-only packaging on some shelves, and promotions stacked on promotions. This guide covers what Olive Young actually is, where the big tourist-friendly stores are, how paying and the tax refund work at the counter, and how to time your visit around the big seasonal sale.

K Side Notes cover card: a first-timer's guide to shopping at Olive Young in Korea

Olive Young at a glance

Card summarizing Olive Young Myeongdong Global Store hours, tax refund, payment options and sale months

What	Details
What it is	Korean health and beauty store chain run by CJ Olive Young
Best-known tourist store	Myeongdong Global Store, 53 Myeongdong-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul
Hours (Myeongdong Global)	10:00–22:30 every day, holidays included (may change)
Tax refund	Instant refund at the counter for KRW 15,000+ with a physical passport
Simple payment	WeChat Pay, Alipay and other simple payment options listed
Big sale	"Olive Young Sale" four times a year: March, June, September, December
Exchanges and refunds	Unopened items, within 15 days

What is Olive Young?

Think of it as a drugstore that went all in on beauty. Skincare, sunscreen, sheet masks, makeup, hair care, body care and men's grooming fill most of the shelves, with health supplements, snacks and drinks toward the back. The Myeongdong Global Store's official page also lists household products and even alcoholic beverages among its categories.

What makes it popular with visitors is range. Korean brands that can be hard to find abroad sit next to the bigger names, and in tourist areas you're rarely far from a branch. Olive Young designates certain branches in tourist areas as "Global Tourism District" stores: 151 of them as of August 2026, according to CJ's own newsroom, with staff who speak foreign languages and multilingual signs.

The Myeongdong stores: where most first-timers start

Myeongdong is the classic first stop, and Olive Young has built its biggest tourist operations there.

Olive Young Myeongdong Global Store. The official English page lists the address as 53 Myeongdong-gil, Jung-gu, near Exit 8 of Myeongdong Station (Line 4) and Exit 5 of Euljiro 1-ga Station (Line 2). It opens daily from 10:00 to 22:30. The ground floor focuses on skincare, sun care, acne care, face masks and dermo cosmetics. Upstairs you'll find makeup, hair, body, fragrance, health products, a Global Service Lounge with free Wi-Fi, and a GTF tax refund desk.

Olive Young Central Myeongdong Town. A newer global flagship opened in March 2026. Asia Economy reported it as the chain's second-largest store in Korea, spread across three floors with more than 1,000 brands and about 15,000 products. It has a dedicated "Mask Library" with over 800 mask packs sorted by skin type, 22 staffed checkout counters, and staff wearing flag badges for the languages they speak (English, Chinese or Japanese).

If Myeongdong isn't on your route, don't worry. Busan, Jeju, Hongdae, Seongsu and Gangnam all have tourist-area branches too.

How to pay

The Myeongdong Global Store's page lists "simple payment" options including WeChat Pay and Alipay among its services. If you're relying on a particular card or payment app, check with staff before you queue with a full basket.

A few small things that surprise first-timers:

Bags aren't free. The official page lists paper bags at KRW 100 and reusable bags at KRW 500, so bring a tote.
Gift boxes are available for KRW 1,000–2,500 depending on size.
The in-store points membership requires a Korean phone number. Foreign visitors are pointed to the Global Mall membership at global.oliveyoung.com instead.

Tax refund at the counter

This is the best part for visitors. Olive Young's Myeongdong page says that purchases of KRW 15,000 or more, paid with your physical passport in hand, qualify for an instant refund at the store. You pay the tax-free price at checkout and you're done. The page gives a range of KRW 15,000 to 1,000,000 per receipt, up to KRW 5 million in total, and puts the refund at 5–8% of the purchase amount.

If you don't have your passport on you, the store can issue a refund voucher instead and you claim it at the airport. A few items are excluded, including shopping bags, sanitary goods and dried fruit products. Remember that refunded goods are supposed to leave Korea with you, so keep them unopened until you fly.

Not every one of the chain's stores is guaranteed to offer the instant refund. Asia Economy described it in July 2025 as available at "major stores." If you're at a small neighborhood branch, ask before you pay. For the full picture, including downtown and airport refunds, see our Korea tax refund guide.

Timing your trip: the Olive Young Sale

Olive Young runs a large seasonal sale, simply called the "Olive Young Sale" (올영세일), four times a year: in March, June, September and December. The March 2026 edition ran March 1–7, covered around 30,000 products in stores and online, and added daily specials on selected brands plus coupon packs, as reported by the Kyunghyang Shinmun.

The same report said tourist-area stores in places such as Myeongdong, Seongsu, Hongdae, Busan and Jeju offered extra discounts on a set of items popular with foreign shoppers during the sale. Exact December 2026 dates hadn't been confirmed in the sources we checked, so look for an announcement closer to the time if your trip falls in December.

Sale weeks are good for your wallet and bad for your patience. Expect bigger crowds and longer queues, especially in Myeongdong in the evening.

What do visitors usually look for?

We're not going to tell you which products to buy. Skin is personal, and a viral favorite isn't always the right one for you. What Olive Young's own data shows is where foreign shoppers tend to go:

Sheet masks and mask packs: the category foreign visitors buy most often, according to the March 2026 flagship report.
Basic skincare, makeup and hair care: the top categories for foreign shoppers in CJ's August 2026 figures.
Dermo skincare and functional hair care: fast-growing with foreign customers in 2026.
Inner beauty and wellness: supplements and similar products grew 64% with foreign shoppers from January to August 2026, per CJ.

On average, foreign shoppers bought about six products per visit, and 35% spent KRW 100,000 or more in one payment, per CJ's newsroom. In other words: write a list, or plan on a bigger suitcase.

Practical tips

Bring your physical passport every time. It's the key to the instant tax refund.
Go in the morning on a weekday if you can. The Myeongdong stores open at 10:00.
Bring your own bag. Store bags cost extra.
Keep your receipt. Exchanges and refunds need unopened items within 15 days, and refunds go back to the original store.
Use the product name in English on your phone if staff are busy. Many shelves carry English labels in tourist-area stores.
Don't plan on storing luggage: the Myeongdong Global Store says it can't hold personal items, and it has no restroom.
Patch-test anything new before slathering it on. A holiday breakout is nobody's favorite souvenir.

FAQ

Can tourists get a tax refund at Olive Young?
Yes. At stores offering instant refunds, such as the Myeongdong Global Store, show your physical passport on purchases of KRW 15,000 or more and you pay the tax-free price at the counter.

What time does Olive Young Myeongdong open?
The Myeongdong Global Store lists 10:00–22:30 every day, including holidays, but says hours may change depending on the store's situation.

When is the Olive Young Sale?
Four times a year, in March, June, September and December. Each edition runs for about a week; the March 2026 sale was March 1–7.

Can foreigners join the Olive Young membership?
The in-store points membership needs a Korean phone number. Foreign visitors can join the Global Mall membership at global.oliveyoung.com.

Shopping from home instead? See our earlier post, Olive Young Global: What Changes Your Cost Before You Pay.

Sources

Images: illustrated cards by K Side Notes.

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