Seo Jae-hyeong said he has started wearing skin foundation and facial masks at night.

It is not about looking younger, the 49-year-old head of Daishin Asset Management Co said. Seo is trying to get first-hand insight into one of South Korea's hottest stock-market bets - the cosmetics industry.

Led by Amorepacific Corp and LG Household & Health Care Ltd, makers of Korean beauty products are surging more than 100 times faster than the broader market and prompting the nation's male-dominated investment world to rethink how it covers the sector.