K-Beauty straight from South Korea
Seoul is the land of beauty mania. It’s really overwhelming. Whilst a lot of my favourite Korean beauty products are only available online (and a lot are available internationally online now- yay), here are my must-buy products from the streets of the city! I’ve tried to focus a little more on products not so easily available outside of Korea in this list. Let’s get stuck in!
Believe it or not, I’ve only ever tried the creepily packaged “Moist Lover” face mask from Dr Jart (it was fine but nothing amazing). However I have visited their awesome store on Garosugil, and think you should too if you’re visiting Seoul. It’s pretty cool.
I wanted to let you guys in on one of Hongdae’s best kept secrets- 7 Face Brush. It was my friend Claire over at @unityjackson on IG who told me about this place, and I’m so pleased she did! I’ve found some of the most affordable, and best quality, tools I’ve found in my whole time in Seoul. An amazing find!
If you’ve been following my Instagram, you couldn’t miss that for my winter vacation this year, I jetted across the sea to the Land of the Rising Sun. Not only this, but I was lucky enough to have my mum fly over from England and meet me for a one week adventure in Kyoto and Osaka.
Of course while I was there, I did some beauty shopping! The beauty scene in Japan is unique and pretty nuts compared to anywhere else I’ve shopped. I tried to refrain from going as crazy as I did on my last trip, and only purchased products I felt weren’t easily available (or are way more pricey) in Korea. So gonna share my haul, and I’ve also included some travel photos and information at the end of the post, for those of you who are interested!
Daiso. If you don’t know what Daiso is, you haven’t lived my friend. Daiso is the Japanese version of the dollar store or poundland- only a million times better. The stores are situated in many countries all over the world (why not the UK yet? I hear you, and I don’t know why, sob), but after Japan, Korea has the highest number of shops. You can literally discover ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING in these stores; one of my most recent useful purchases is a mini toilet brush that curves at the neck to get right into, and clean, the area under the rim of the bowl where the water comes out…yeah they think of all your needs, ever. But the best bit for me? Their beauty section. Here are my top beauty purchases from Daiso- mostly in Korea, but a couple from Japan too, and all of them are under 5000 won (roughly $5/£3.50).
This past Saturday was pretty wonderful- I went to the K-Beauty Expo in Seoul. The expo offers the opportunity to view all the new trends/new products/new companies (as well as older established favourites), tutorials and seminars, discount shopping, and just generally be surrounded by the most innovative and exciting K-Beauty everythaaang. I went along with my good friend Megan, blogger from Kimchi Days and Soju Nights, and here’s what we got up to!
When you first arrive in Seoul Whenever you’re vacay-ing in, living in, or just in breathing range of Seoul, it can be VERY easy to spend a shit tonne of money within your first day, or hour, if you’re like me. That’s money on cosmetics, accessories, electronics, stationary, clothes, and just about everything in between. I’ve finaaaally after two years figured out a strategy (you know you’ve got shopping problems when you have to come up with a strategy) to avoid buying everything every single weekend. So I’m gonna share! In other words, this is a guide on spending loads of money, but spreading the spending out, so you’re not left in shock looking at your bank account after day 1 (disclaimer: you may still be left in shock at a later time, your choices not mine).