Since coming to Korea is a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, I made a vow to myself to make the most of the time I have here, and part of that vow was trying to experience life as a Korean would. Obviously, as a girl, that includes Korean cosmetic and skincare products, and I must say, since I got here I haven’t been able to stop shopping!
Today I’ll be sharing with you a haul of all the cosmetics/skincare products I’ve bought from various Korean Beauty brands during my first month in Korea and hopefully introducing new products/brands to you too. I saved my favourite till last so be sure to check it out!
Olive Young :: “All live young with Olive Young”
The first store I’m going to introduce is Olive Young, I personally had never heard of it before coming here so I assumed it wasn’t spoken about since it wasn’t good, but that was all a misconception! Olive Young isn’t exactly specialized in either skincare or cosmetics like other Korean brands are, however it is good for those miscellaneous beauty items like make-up brushes and hair styling materials.
Gatsby Moving Rubber Wax - Wild Shake: ₩9,500 | Gatsby Ex Ice Cooling Gel Facial Wash: Free with the gel!
If you’re a fan of Asian hair tutorials on Youtube like Hanzel is, then you’re probably familiar with Japan’s Gatsby hair wax; you’re probably also familiar with the ridiculous cost of shipping it to wherever you live. However, in Korea you can find this bad boy all over at a very low price too, so it was a given Hanzel would buy some. Korea being the land of unexpected freebies, it also came with a free facial wash too - who knew Gatsby did skincare products?
Make-up Puffs: ₩2,000 | Styling Clips: ₩2,500 | Oil Blotting Paper (100 Sheets): ₩2,400 each (on sale from ₩3,500)
As I mentioned before, Olive Young is great for those miscellaneous items you need when finalizing your look; they’ve got a wide range of brushes and such in all different shapes and sizes, and the best part is they’re all at bargain prices too. I’m especially happy about the oil blotting papers since my pours have opened a lot since I got here, 100 sheets for just over £1? That’s a price I’m more than willing to pay!
Nature Republic :: “A sense of the beginning”
Super Aqua Max Facial Mist: ₩6,950
Earlier in the month I wrote a post about two products I’d already bought from Nature Republic, and I even loved one so much I wrote a review recommending it to everyone. This time round, since the weather was simply too hot for me to put moisturizer on my face without feeling like I’m melting, I bought a facial mist instead.
I don’t believe we have anything similar to this in west, but its basically a spray that you can apply (even on top of make-up) to restore moisture to your skin. It’s very light and it’s not visible right after you’ve sprayed it either so it’s great for when you need to bring your face back to life. It’d be great in the winter too, since you can just use a quick spray if your face dries out during the harsh weather.
THEFACESHOP
Black & White Gel Nail Polishes: ₩5,000 (buy one get one free) | Grey Nail Polish: ₩2,000
In all truth, of all the shops I’ve been to, THEFACESHOP is my least favorite. Upon walking in I noticed that the store was grossly overpriced in comparison to the other stores I’d been to, despite the fact it was selling virtually the same products. Likewise, I actually regret buying my nail polishes here since I could have got them cheaper elsewhere, even despite the buy one get one free offer. I feel like it could be a while before I go there again.
Etude House :: “Skin Revolution”
I’d heard a lot about Etude House before coming to Korea but it never struck me as anything special… but, boy, was I wrong! I can honestly say that Etude House is now my number one place to shop for make-up, I’ve been back there multiple times since I got here (including multiple trips on the same day XD)
Wonder Pore Freshner (Toner) Set: ₩8,000 (50% off)
While Etude House is my favorite place to shop for cosmetics, I don’t think it has the same standing when it comes to skincare. Since coming to Korea my pours have seriously exploded making my skin really oily, so I’ve been using this toner in hopes that it’ll close up my pours again. On the front of the (very cute) packaging, it’s got a list of 10 supposed benefits of using this toner, but so far, my pours are still open and clearly visible. However, I must say that it has cleared up my skin and managed to keep my pours clean and face, spot-free since I’ve been using it.
Pearl Face Masks (10 sheets): ₩4,750 (50% off) | Dear My Wish Lips-talk Lipstick #RD302: ₩9,500 | Soft Touch Auto Lip Liner: ₩2,000
Let me tell you something about Koreans: they loooooooooove their face masks, which is why you can get so many so cheap. Usually when you visit any of the big make-up stores, they give you face masks as freebies when you buy something, some actually give them to you just for walking into the store! Personally, I’ve loved all the face masks I’ve used so far, and they’re perfect for the days when you don’t want to put on any foundation but still want glowing, supple skin.
Moving on, this autumn I’m planning to focus my make-up looks around the colours purple and burgundy so I went out to get some make-up in those shades. I actually had a really hard time finding darker colours in the Korean cosmetic stores and this lipstick was actually the darkest I found - Korea, you need more dark lip colours! Fortunately, I also found this reddish burgundy lip liner too; look forward to my upcoming Fall Make-up Tutorial!
Red & Grey Nail Polishes: ₩2,000 each | Cream & Cookies (Ice-cream themed) Nail Polish: ₩3,000 | Nail Polish Remover: ₩2,000
I think that nail polishes are my second favourite thing about Etude House, over the last year my interest in nail art has grown exponentially and Etude House just has some many wonderful (and cheap) polishes to offer! They have almost every shade of every colour you could ever want as well as themed polishes and more. That said, good luck getting anything with glitter in it off, the nail polish remover isn’t very good with those.
Play 101 Pencils #6, #18, #30 & #50: ₩6,000 each
Last, but by no means least, my favourite product from my favourite store, Etude House’s Play 101 Pencils!!! If you don’t know what these are, you are missing out; they’re essentially pencils that you can use in any way you want: that includes as an eyeshadow, eyeliner, highlight, contour, blush, and even lipstick. I’ve seen them used in soooo many ways, and there are 50 vibrant colours for you to collect in every shade you could possibly imagine.
Some of you might be familiar with Pony from Pony’s Beauty Diary on Youtube and she has a few tutorials where she uses just these for her entire make up look. Though they’re not exactly cheap when buying in bulk, they’re not expensive either, so they’re definitely worth the investment! You can bet they’ll be appearing in my tutorials in future.
And that’s it! We’ve finally made it to the end of my Korean Beauty Haul, as you can see, I am a total shopaholic (Hanzel is no better to be honest) so we’ll definitely be doing more haul posts/videos in future. Thank you for reading!
P.S. Out of the products mentioned in this haul, is there anything you’d like me to do a review/tutorial on?
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