AmorePacific Corp., South Korea’s leading cosmetics manufacturer, has opened its first “Sulhwasoo”

brand outlet in Singapore as it steps up efforts to make inroads into the Southeast Asian market, company officials said Thursday.

The outlet in a department store in Singapore’s popular Orchard Road shopping district sells the company’s top-of-the-line brand, which uses traditional herbal treatments.

It is Amore Pacific’s 18th overseas outlet. The company also has Sulhwasoo brand stores in such cities as Hong Kong, New York and Beijing. The company also makes the “Laneige” brand.

Sulhwasoo, which translates as “snow flower blossoming,” has been the best-selling cosmetics brand in South Korea for a number of years, outpacing global brands such as Estee Lauder, Dior, Lancome and Clinique.

AmorePacific said it will further ramp up its global presence for Sulhwasoo with plans to establish shops in Taiwan and Thailand later this year. It also seeks to launch the cosmetics line in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines by 2015. (Yonhap News)