As some of you may know, we’ve been beauty-hunting in Korea for the past 2 weeks! After soaking up some modern Korean pop culture and beauty trends, we’re back now in the city of New York and—needless to say—we brought some goodies back with us. And we want to share some of our stories from the motherland about beauty-hunting, discovering, and of course, eating (because let’s face it—K-beauty is pretty great but K-food is hands down AMAZING).
The K-Beauty Epicenter: Myeong-Dong
Being that this was a “hunting” trip (for K-beauty), we were naturally drawn to where there is the most “game”: the district of Myeong-Dong (명동). Myeong-Dong is the shopping mecca of Seoul for locals and tourists alike. So naturally, most of the employees at the shops speak at least two languages: Korean and either English, Mandarin, or Japanese. So if you happen to visit Myeong-Dong but you don’t speak much Korean, you could probably still get by pretty decently.
The best part about Myeong-Dong—in our personal, admittedly biased, yet unapologetic opinion—is that the streets are lined endlessly with K-beauty shops. Missha, The Face Shop, Nature Republic, Skin Food, Etude House… you can find most major K-beauty brands in this district.
Another must-visit store in Myeong-Dong is Olive Young. If you don’t know already, Olive Young is a huge beauty&health company in Korea that carries various items from cosmetics to lifestyle and health products. We were excited to see their flagship store carrying some of our favorite facial masks: Jayjun Cosmetic’s Skin Fit Aqua Brightening Mask & Refine to Shine Mask and Papa Recipe Bombee Honey Mask. You’re doing it right, Olive Young. You’re doing it right.
The Real “Gangnam Style”
You all probably heard of Gangnam (강남) already from Psy’s addictive tune, “Gangnam Style”. Well, Gangnam Style isn’t just about a sick beat and some funky dancing. Gangnam is also known for having plenty of K-Beauty stores.
We visited Boons Apothecary, a health&beauty shop that offers the latest K-beauty products. And right there before our very eyes was something like a replica of our online storefront for Cosrx, except everything was very much tangible.
GAROSUGIL, AKA BEAUTY STREET
Garosugil (가로수길) in the neighborhood of Sinsadong (신사동) is another popular area that attracts tourists. It’s filled with cute cafes and restaurants for the foodies, clothing shops for the fashionistas, and K-beauty stores for the beauty lovers.
Continuing our K-beauty hunt, we visited another mass health&beauty store, LOHB’s. We were greeted by some friendly apologies(?) from the full I’m Sorry For My Skin line by iM1NE. Their jelly essence is so moisturizing and abundant in the package, you could even save up some of the leftover essence to use again the following night! If you haven’t tried one of these goodies yet, we don’t know what you’re waiting for.
We also visited our friends at 3 Concept Eyes! The design of the store is so chic, it makes you feel beautiful just shopping in it. We picked up a couple more sample products to try out so stay tuned to see what new items we bring to you.
Meeting LINE Friends at Itaewon
We dropped by Itaewon (이태원) for a quick visit to some LINE friends! If you don’t know, LINE is a chatting application for smart phones with some of the cutest characters. All the ladies of Cupidrop couldn’t stop “Aww”ing!
Being a Mukbo
As aforementioned, we love K-beauty but our love for K-food is a whole other topic. We were probably eating something 75% of the time while we were walking around the streets of Seoul (excluding sleep time). Everybody at Cupidrop is somewhat of a Mukbo (먹보), which is the equivalent of the term “foodie” in America. So naturally, our eating game was ON POINT.
WARNING: The following pictures may cause mouth-watering, hunger, and thoughts of “why do I do this to myself”.
That sums up our K-beauty Hunt in Korea! We’re still gathering our research and experiences together to see what new items we can bring to you through our shop, so stick around, beauty lovers. And if you ever get a chance to visit Korea, make sure to hit up those K-beauty shopping districts! You won’t regret it.
Annyeong (안녕) for now!
