Korean Cosmetics
I met my Korean friend for dinner in Myeong-dong, which is a famous shopping area in Seoul for cosmetics. Everyone here can speak Chinese because so many Chinese tourists come here to stock up on products. Every single store was a beauty shop, one after another. My friend dragged me from one to the other in such a hurry that I had no perception of where I was and every beauty shop was similar to the next so I couldn’t distinguish a landmark. We went to several shops, but only bought from the Nature Republic and the Face Shop. Of course, I only know the names from checking the receipts later.
I told my friend that since moving to Beijing, I have had really bad acne and I want something for it. He asked what my regimen was. I told him I washed my face. He asked what else, but that was it. He immediately exclaimed, “Well, thats your problem!!” (but in Chinese). Koreans have a 37 step beauty regimen. It is most likely 3 to 10 steps, but Joey and I joke that it is 37 steps because we once traveled with some Koreans and during a long bus ride, every time we looked over at them, they were applying a different lotion, for 4 hours.
So my new 3 steps Korean beauty regimen:
1) Nature Republic’s Bee Venom Cleansing Foam, particularly good for acne prone skin due to its antibacterial nature. Applied using The Face Shop’s Konjac Cleansing Puff, which is described as being made of natural devil’s tongue jelly, so I thought it was a jellyfish, but apparently is a type of potato found in Japan…
2) The Face Shop’s Seed in seed core seed purifying essence. I really don’t understand why there are so many seeds in the title, but my friend insisted that I need essence, which is to be applied after washing your face and before applying lotion. I still don’t understand what “essence” is, but its supposed to be really good for your skin.
3) The Face Shop’s Mango Seed Butter, a 36-hour moisturizer to be used before bed. I’ve never used moisturizers before, ever, but I really love this product. The rest, I can’t really notice a significant difference, but this one I can. My face also feels less oily when I was up in the morning.
Since my Korean friend dragged me from shop to shop and said buy this, buy this, I had to look everything up online when I got home. When I got back from Korea, my Chinese friends noticed my skin was a lot clearer so hopefully that expensive Korean facial was worth the money!