RESCENE Before the Breakout: 'lip bomb' Sales and the Korea First Brand Award

What happened

On the morning of 6 January 2026 the 2026 Korea First Brand Awards (대한민국 퍼스트브랜드 대상) were held at the Shilla Hotel in Jangchung-dong, Seoul. The ceremony is hosted by the Korea Consumer Brand Committee and co-organised by The Korea Economic Daily and the Korea Consumer Forum, and RESCENE received the award in the rising-star female idol category, posing for photographs with the newspaper’s chief editorial writer, Yoon Sung-min.

Sports Kyunghyang reported the group’s acceptance speech on 8 January: “Thank you for giving us the ‘Rising Star’ award. In 2026, RESCENE will repay you with better songs and stages.” The members added that the previous year’s experiences had given them good energy and strength, and that they wanted to show their songs and performances to even more people in 2026.

The award closed a 2025 in which RESCENE released the second mini album Glow Up, the second single Dearest and the third mini album lip bomb, each built around a scent: soap, grass and berry. lip bomb, released at 6 p.m. KST on 25 November 2025, was the release that set the group’s first-week sales record.

Why is it trending?

The number that matters is 104,406. According to Hanteo Chart figures reported by Sports Kyunghyang on 2 December 2025, that is how many copies of lip bomb were sold in the seven days from 25 November to 1 December — the 초동 (chodong, first-week sales) figure Korean media use as the standard measure of an album launch. It was about 20,000 more than the previous album’s first week and the group’s highest to date. THE MUZE Entertainment’s announcement on 3 December, as carried by ET News and Sports Kyunghyang, put the figure at the group’s highest and called it unusual for a K-pop girl group to pass 100,000 first-week copies.

The album’s five tracks are led by two title tracks. ‘Heart Drop’, released ahead of the album at 6 p.m. KST on 6 November 2025, is described by ET News as a dreamy track about slipping into a sweet whisper and a faint fragrance — a cranberry scent, in the album’s own language — with the repeated hook ‘Can’t stop, won’t stop’. ‘Bloom’ carried the music-show promotions, which opened on KBS2 Music Bank and closed with an MBC Show! Music Core stage broadcast on 20 December.

The ‘Bloom’ music video, published on RESCENE’s official YouTube channel on 25 November, passed about 20 million views within six days and about 23 million by 23 December. On 2 December the group also performed at the 12th Edaily Culture Awards.

Critical reception followed the sales. The Korean music webzine IZM gave lip bomb four points out of five, singling out ‘Bloom’ — an eight-beat song that opens on a 32nd-note hi-hat — for a pop appeal it compared to injeolmi rice cake stuck to the roof of the mouth, and crediting the chest voice of Liv and Minami on ‘Bloom’, ‘Love Echo’ and the R&B number ‘MVP’ with supplying the group’s energy. The same review, quoted by Sports Kyunghyang, placed the album at the end of a year without gaps: a reverse run for ‘LOVE ATTACK’ early in 2025, Glow Up on Billboard’s list of 25 K-pop albums for the first half of 2025, Dearest in summer and lip bomb in November.

Seen from August 2026, the award and the first-week figure mark the last measurements before the chart breakout. Melon’s own first-half 2026 report later described ‘LOVE ATTACK’ as having gone through two reverse runs over about two years — the second triggered from Woni’s YouTube channel, which opened in February 2026 — before reaching 5th on the TOP100 on 30 June 2026. In January, Sports Kyunghyang’s report on the award said the group planned to continue diverse activities in 2026 and communicate with global fans.

What you need to know

• The 2026 Korea First Brand Awards were held on 6 January 2026 at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul; RESCENE won the rising-star female idol category.
• The awards are hosted by the Korea Consumer Brand Committee and co-organised by The Korea Economic Daily and the Korea Consumer Forum, and are chosen by consumers.
• lip bomb was released on 25 November 2025 with the double title tracks ‘Heart Drop’ and ‘Bloom’ plus ‘Love Echo’, ‘Hello XO’ and ‘MVP’.
• Hanteo Chart counted 104,406 copies sold between 25 November and 1 December 2025, about 20,000 more than the previous album’s first week.
• ‘Heart Drop’ was pre-released on 6 November 2025; its official music video is on RESCENE’s YouTube channel.
• Music-show promotions ran with ‘Bloom’ from KBS2 Music Bank to a Show! Music Core stage broadcast on 20 December 2025.
• The webzine IZM rated lip bomb 4 out of 5.
• The title is a coinage from ‘lip balm’ with ‘balm’ swapped for ‘bomb’, according to the tracklist announcement.