Olive Young Korea Sale: 1+1 Deals, Member Perks, Sale Dates
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Tourists get the most out of the Olive Young Korea sale calendar by ignoring about half of it. The Olive Young Sale, a week-long markdown held four times a year, and the 1+1 bundles on the shelves are open to anyone who walks in with a basket. The perks that pad out most shopping guides, the monthly Olive Day coupons and the CJ ONE points, belong to members, and membership starts with an identity check built around Korean phone numbers and Korean-issued ID. So time your trip to a sale week if you can, grab bundles when you can’t, and don’t burn an afternoon of your holiday trying to sign up.
Quick answers
- The Olive Young Sale runs for seven days four times a year, and in 2026 the spring edition ran March 1–7 and the autumn one August 30 to September 5, with no membership needed for the shelf prices.
- 1+1 deals don’t need an account either: some are two units sold as one pre-packed set, others are shelf promotions on loose items.
- Member perks (Olive Day coupons from the 25th to the 27th of each month, CJ ONE points worth 0.5% to 1% of what you spend) require a CJ ONE account verified with a Korean mobile phone or a Korean digital certificate.
The Three Olive Young Discounts, Compared
Only two of Olive Young’s three kinds of discount work for a short-stay visitor: the seasonal sale and the bundle deals. The member perks don’t.
Olive Young’s own September 2026 explainer uses four names for its deals: the Olive Young Sale (올영세일), Today’s Special (오특), Olive Young Pick (올영픽) and Olive Day (올리브 데이). At the till they boil down to three mechanisms: a lower price for everyone, a bigger pack for the same money, or a perk tied to an account.
| 1+1 deals and bundle sets | Olive Young Sale | Member perks (Olive Day, CJ ONE points) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When | Year-round, with lineups that change | Four times a year, seven days each | Olive Day on the 25th–27th of every month; points on every purchase |
| Who can use it | Anyone | Anyone for shelf prices; the extra coupon packs need an account | Olive Members only, which means a CJ ONE account |
| What you see | A pre-packed set price, or a second unit free | Lower prices across roughly 30,000 products | Grade-based coupons, plus points |
| Tourist verdict | Use freely | Plan around it if your dates allow | Skip unless you live in Korea |
The confusion starts with the monthly event. English-language guides call it “Olive Young Day”, but the company’s name for it is Olive Day, and its 2026 explainer describes grade-based discounts for Olive Members (올리브 멤버스) running from the 25th to the 27th. It’s a member event, not a store-wide sale, and that one detail decides whether it belongs on your itinerary. Olive Young Pick is gentler on outsiders: a monthly list chosen by the company’s merchandisers that shows up as that month’s discounted prices, sets or free gifts, and nothing in Olive Young’s description of it mentions an account.
When Is the Olive Young Sale in 2026?
The Olive Young Sale runs four times a year for seven days, in March, June, September and December, although the June, September and December editions can open at the end of the previous month (the June sale began on May 31 in both 2025 and 2026).
In 2026 the spring sale ran March 1–7 and the autumn sale ran August 30 to September 5. The December 2025 sale ran November 30 to December 6, so plan for this year’s to open around the same point. Don’t expect much warning: Olive Young announced the March 2026 dates on February 27, and the December 2025 dates on November 28. If you’re booking flights months ahead, aim to be in Seoul for the first week of the month and accept that the sale may start a day or two before you land.
Olive Young’s 2026 explainer puts each sale at about 30,000 beauty and wellness products from more than 1,500 brands. The “up to 70% off” line that English guides repeat did come from Olive Young itself: the June 2025 sale was billed as up to 70% off about 20,000 products. The March 2026 announcement quoted no percentage at all. It led instead with coupon packs that could take up to ₩40,000 off in store, which have to be downloaded to an Olive Young account (more on the account problem below), and with 15 tourist favourites discounted at the branches where foreign shoppers make up a large share of sales. Read any “up to” figure as the ceiling on a handful of products, never the typical markdown.
Foreign shoppers have caught on. Olive Young’s analysis with tax refund operator Global Tax Free found that the number of foreigners who came back to Korea for both its March and June sales in 2026 was 11 times the figure from three years earlier, and that about 6,200 tourists returned to Korea three or more times during sale periods in 2025. Plan for busier stores in sale weeks.
How Do 1+1 Deals Work at the Till?
A 1+1 deal gives you two units for the price of one, and at Olive Young it comes in two forms worth telling apart.
The first is a pre-packed set. Korean beauty retail calls these 기획 (gihoek) sets: a “double” set (더블 기획) puts two full-size products into one box at one price. There is nothing to do at the counter, because the shelf price already covers both. Olive Young leans on these during sales. Its March 2026 announcement described a lineup built around double sets and sets with a gift attached, and the December 2025 sale sold award-winning products as limited jumbo-size, 1+1 and gift-with-goods versions.
The second is a shelf promotion on loose items, flagged as 1+1 or a similar bundle deal. Pick up the full number of units, take them to the counter together, and check that the receipt shows the free one before you walk away. The math is simple: 1+1 halves the unit price, but it only beats a straight markdown if you’ll finish the second tube before it expires.
You won’t be decoding everything alone. By early 2025, Olive Young’s tourist-area branches were posting foreign-language notices for their main promotions and had added electronic shelf labels that show product names in both Korean and English. For the Korean printed on the box itself, our guide to Korean skin type words on labels covers the terms you’ll meet most often.
Can Tourists Get Member Prices or Points?
Not in practice. Olive Young’s member perks run through CJ ONE, and CJ ONE’s sign-up page verifies new members with only two methods: a Korean mobile phone check or a Korean digital certificate.
The foreigner instructions on the same page ask for the registration number on a Korean alien registration card, overseas Korean residence card or permanent residence card, and CJ ONE’s help page adds that only foreigners currently residing in Korea can be verified at all. Residents holding one of those cards can sign up. A visitor with a passport and a foreign SIM has no way through.
It helps to know what you’re missing, because it’s less than the guides imply. Olive Members are graded on what they spent in the previous six months, and the April 2026 tiers run from Baby (under ₩100,000) through Pink (₩100,000 or more), Green (₩400,000 or more) and Black (₩700,000 or more) to Gold (₩1,000,000 or more). CJ ONE’s own Olive Young page lists points at 1% for Green, Black and Gold, 0.5% for Pink and Baby, and 0.1% for a CJ ONE member who hasn’t accepted Olive Young’s terms. So the “1% back” figure only applies once you’ve spent ₩400,000 in six months. A brand-new member spending ₩200,000 on one trip would bank ₩1,000 in points. Olive Day coupons are worth more: in March 2025 Olive Young put coupons worth up to ₩20,000 into member accounts by default, and Gold members could download a second coupon for 22% off purchases of ₩60,000 or more, capped at ₩25,000.
What tourists do get are payment promotions aimed at them. During the December 2025 sale, Olive Young gave extra discounts for paying with Alipay, WeChat Pay, UnionPay or WOWPASS. In February 2026, a WOWPASS payment of ₩100,000 or more took 5% off, capped at ₩10,000, and through March 2026 Japanese visitors who were Don Quijote members could claim a ₩4,000 coupon on purchases of ₩80,000 or more at 14 tourist-area stores. Each one runs for a limited window, so read the signs at the counter before you pay.
Which Olive Young Korea Sale Works for Your Trip?
If your dates are flexible, the seasonal sale wins; if they aren’t, bundles plus whatever payment promotion is running; and member perks only if you live in Korea.
Flexible dates. Aim for the first week of March, June, September or December, and arrive by the 1st, or a day or two earlier for the June, September and December sales. The autumn 2026 sale opened on August 30 and the December 2025 one on November 30, so a trip that starts on the 2nd can miss two or three of the seven days.
Fixed dates outside a sale week. Work the bundles, check the monthly Olive Young Pick list, and pay with whatever card or app has a promotion that week. Then hand over your passport at the till for the immediate tax refund, which works on sale and full-price baskets alike; the thresholds and caps are in our Olive Young tax refund guide.
Living in Korea with a residence card. Sign up. Olive Day coupons and grade-based points add up over a year in a way they never will over a week.
Where you shop matters too. Olive Young ran 151 branches in its global tourist districts in August 2026, more than a tenth of the chain, and those stores get the tourist selections, the bilingual labels and staff who speak other languages. Myeongdong alone has several within a short walk, which our guide to Myeongdong’s flagship stores maps out. Expect company: foreign shoppers had already spent more than ₩1 trillion in Olive Young’s Korean stores by August 2026, three months sooner than in 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does the Olive Young Global app work in Korean stores?
No. Olive Young’s membership page for the Global app says OY MEMBERS doesn’t apply at Olive Young stores in Korea. The app is for ordering from abroad once you’re home, not for discounts at the till.
Q: When does the December 2026 Olive Young Sale start?
At the start of October 2026, Olive Young hadn’t announced it. The December 2025 sale ran November 30 to December 6, and the dates came out just two days before it began, so watch for an announcement in the last days of November.
Q: Is Olive Young’s Today’s Special deal available in stores?
No. Olive Young’s 2026 explainer describes Today’s Special (오특) as an online-only deal sold through its Korean online mall and app, with a new product each day, so you won’t find that price on the shelf.
Q: Can I stack a sale price with the tax refund?
Yes. The sale lowers the shelf price, and the immediate tax refund is a separate step at the same till triggered by your passport, so a discounted basket still qualifies as long as the receipt clears the refund minimum.
Olive Young’s discounts look complicated because they’re built for regulars. For a visitor, the whole system comes down to two moves: shop a sale week if you can, and buy the bundle when you can’t.
Part of Shopping Districts
