Okay, so what does this have to do with Korean beauty products? Nothing lol. Well, let's see if I can make some kind of grand connection- JGL's love interest, Summer, is cute, quirky, and a little mysterious but (spoiler alert) she ended up breaking his heart in the end. He really wanted to make things work but she had already checked out leaving him wondering what happened to his 'perfect' girl. When it comes to Korean beauty I feel like JGL...I had this perfect picture in my mind about how I would go to Korea, find amazing beauty products, and fall completely in love with them and be faithful to the end. Well reality hit and just like Summer, Korean beauty products turned out to be a biatch (let's just say she could've made better choices). Just like Summer, all the products I bought were great in theory- beautiful packaging, smelled nice, so many people like them...but after a while, the ugly side came out and I was no longer infatuated (not a bad analogy, eh?! I tried). I'm not going to review every single thing I bought while I was in Korea, but these are just my general thoughts on Korean beauty and the industry (the good and the bad). Disclaimer: I'm only covering a small aspect of Korean beauty as it's a broad topic. However, this is still a long post lol.
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| Some affordable Korean products I bought shopping at Co-ex mall (minus the Bioderma, that's from France and it was so overpriced -.-) |
1. Korean beauty is all about MARKETING. In the States, we see beautiful models with poreless skin and eyebrows on fleek plastered on billboards and magazines, right? That's nothing compared to Korea. In Korea, the stores and streets are filled with Kpop stars (girl groups, boy groups, etc) and popular actors/actresses advertising the latest trends in makeup and skin care. Especially if you go to the hot tourist spots, 8/10 stores are beauty related, it's madness!! I heard rumors of Chinese girls buying hundreds of sheet masks enough to fill a whole suitcase to take back with them. WHY? Because of smart marketing, adorable packaging, tons of sales (and samples), and the promise of looking like the flawless Kpop celebs that supposedly use all this stuff. I know it sounds like I'm hating on the celebs, I'm not- but you have to realize that most, if not all, celebs go to dermatologists regularly and have a professional hair/makeup posse to make them look the way they do...be a smart consumer, don't be fooled!
2. Everything has FRAGRANCE. I knew this from the get-go because every Korean product I've seen since I was young has had this ahjooma (old lady) smell- very heavy and floral. It's not a bad smell but is it necessary? Nowadays the ahjooma smell is not as prevalent- now there are 'cute' smells like apple, strawberry, plum, etc. Either way, unless it's a body lotion or perfume, I don't want my face to smell like a field of flowers and/or a basket of fruit! If you've been reading my blog for a while you know fragrance (natural and synthetic) is one of the most irritating ingredients in beauty products- unless you have extremely resilient skin with no sensitivities, many of us will react to fragrance at some point while using a beauty product. I found no brands (high end or drug store) that claimed to have 0 fragrance in their products (maybe a couple items here and there but not a full line). I hope in the future Korean companies will recognize fragrance as an irritant and either use less or get rid of it!
3. There are too many CHOICES. I'm not a wishy washy kind of person. I choose what I like best and I'm loyal to it...but if you live in Korea, this is literally impossible. Like I mentioned earlier, if you go shopping in a tourist area or even a campus town, you are bombarded with so many choices you will either buy everything or nothing lol. If one brand has an item that becomes a huge trend, every brand will come out with a version of the same thing! It's enough to make a shopper go insane! The best way to go about this dilemma is to look up youtube reviews and blogs on items you are interested in first- then make a list and only buy what's on the list...unless you want to go insane and become a hobo whilst in Korea. "Make good choices." (Becca from Pitch Perfect).
4. Although I didn't have the greatest experience with Korean beauty products this time around, there are smaller companies filling the gap of what's missing in the market such as COSRX and CREMORLAB. These companies are not as well known as let's say Innisfree or Nature Republic but they are accessible in Korea as well as the States. What I like about these small brands is their minimal use of ingredients and marketing via word of mouth (which means you're not wasting money on packaging and celeb endorsement). I'm sure there are other small beauty companies out there and I'm going to do my research and trial and error until I find products that work for me at some point- for now I'm very content with my non-Korean beauty products.
To conclude, I don't think Korean skin care is necessarily better than products from the States or Europe. A sales associate at Sephora once told me how Amore Pacific (a major beauty company) is 17 years ahead when it comes to the technology of skin care...I say rubbish. How does one come up with that stat anyway? I know this sounds like a rant but it's just my honest impression on the whole hype surrounding Korean beauty. Like I always say- just because it doesn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for you! I got my mom a sleeping mask from Sulwhasoo and she loves it. Even though I didn't find anything great on my last trip, I'm excited to try products from smaller Indie Korean brands on my next trip!
<3yaeinn
Ecc3:11
Ecc3:11
ReplyDeleteKorea is ahead of the US. It has been using certain ingredients, such as hyaluronic acid for 15 years. The US just started using it five years ago. I wouldn't even bother with Cremorlab. It is not a good skin line. Peach and Lily have been hyping it up because they have exclusive rights to it, but it's performance is lackluster. If you want a good product, try Missha first treatment essence, Skinfood black sugar serum, and Innisfree green tea serum. Also, I would look into the hydrogel masks if you're not impressed with sheet masks.
Hi there! Thanks for stopping by my little blog =]
DeleteWow, good info may I ask where you read about it? I'm trying to read more on Korean skin care technology. While I was in Korea I purchased a few popular items like Banila co. clean it zero, Skinfood black sugar mask, etc and I wasn't that impressed. I prefer my non-Korean products over them. I mentioned Cremorlab because I feel like in the mass market there aren't many small companies- I bought one of their moisturizers and wasn't a huge fan but it was one of the only face products I could find that didn't have any fragrance. I also tried samples of Sulwhasoo, Sum37..everything broke me out. I'll look into the products you've mentioned, I've heard good things about them from a lot of people!