Beauty Capitol of the World : Myeong-dong
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There are a lot of beauty products in the world,
But if they aren’t made in South Korea, then like, do they even count??
I wrote a separate blog post on the history of Korean cosmetics, so I’m mainly here to discuss the moment I stepped foot in Myeong-dong, the Beauty District of Seoul.
In Seoul, you’re going to see TONS of beauty shops everywhere, but I’d recommend holding off and buying them in Myeong-dong, for a few reasons.
- You get all your options at once.
- FREE SAMPLES
- They usually have the lowest prices.
- FREE SAMPLES
- There’s street food!
- FREE SAMPLES
- And dog cafes !
- FREE SAMPLES
Before I visited South Korea, I used to be part of a foreign exchange student conversant program during undergrad. Basically, I buddied up with a foreign exchange student and we hung out. It was chill. Anyways, I had a buddy from South Korea and for our first meeting, we were walking around downtown (in the rain, what a surprise Oregon) and he started teaching me a little Korean. Yanna, super easy words like tea (cha) and car (cha), but I honestly couldn’t tell the difference (cha). Kekeke, word play.
I repeated the words back to him, waiting for him to either silently nod in approval or laugh at my pronunciation. Instead he just stared back at me. “Do I have cha-rd in my teeth?” I grinned.
He looked deep into my eyes, “You have a fist face.”
I stopped grinning. “Mm. Okay, what does that mean?”
He balled his well-groomed hand into a fist, holding it in front of me. “I mean, your face is small, like a fist. And you have really big eyes.” He smiled, lightheartedly picking apart my face like no big deal. He patted my shoulder, reassuringly. “That is considered beautiful in South Korea.”
“Oh,” I replied. “Cool.”
I quickly learned that was not enough.
Five-ish years later, I took the subway to Myeong-dong, and like the responsible blogger I am, I did not take any pictures of the directions. But I’m confident you can find your own way there, and you will probably not get off at the wrong stop three times.
When you get to Myeong-dong, it’s going to look like a lot. And it is. It’s going to feel like millions of beauty advertisements decided to drag themselves out of a magazine and coagulate into life. Hundreds of stores line the couple of blocks that make up (no pun intended) this district. Feel free to dive right in and start wherever.
Beauty stores will often have sales people at the door, FREE SAMPLES in hand, ready to escort you inside. Most of them are extremely friendly, while some are uncomfortably aggressive. I’ve actually had one of the women grab me by the arm to bring me inside. It’s just the way it is, but you don’t have to put up with it. If you don’t like it, be firm. Tell them to stop and don’t manhandle you, you are not a piece of meat that needs tenderizing. You’ll go inside if and when you choose.
Some of the big brand competitors are : Etude House, Tony Moly, Nature Republic, Holika Holika and Innisfree. You can shop online for some of the stores. I know a couple of stores in the USA carry them now, but you’ll be amazed at how much cheaper everything is in person.
Once you are inside a beauty store, unless it’s a big name, usually the a sales person will follow you around and offer products that you might be interested in checking out. Apparently, I look like I need products focused on acne, anti-wrinkle, and hyper-pigmentation. And yes, they were very blunt about it.
They also make it very hard to leave the store without buying something, but with deals like BOGO 10 snail face masks for ~$4USD (SO LIKE 20 MASKS for $4!!!), I usually didn’t leave without buying something anyway. But if you’re really just browsing, be stern, and you can get out with just a disappointed look from the sales people. Usually I would cross my arms and look really displeased and annoyed and no one wanted to deal with that kind of negative wrinkle-making attitude. It worked every time.
Or if you prefer not to have strangers think you’re mean, you could pick up a cute little nail polish or single face mask and call it a day.
If you’re not local to South Korea, a lot of stores will have stickers on the window claiming that they are tax free. Even more stores will have the option to opt out of the tax, but you usually have to buy a certain amount before you are exempt. Either way, the tax isn’t as high as California, so I wasn’t complaining much anyway, but if you’re going to spend a pretty penny, you’ll definitely want to bring your passport with you. $ave Dat Money, honey.
Another nice thing to know, if you don’t speak Korean, most of the sales people speak fluent Chinese. Woohoo for the majority of Seoul tourists! If you don’t speak Chinese either, a couple stores might have someone that speaks English well enough to get the point across. If you don’t speak English either (how are you reading this?) or a language that someone would happen to know, they always have a trusty calculator to explain the price and 100% of the sales people are very good at charades.
A vast majority of the time, the sales people will also direct your attention to the MOST EXPENSIVE PRODUCTS ON EARTH. While they are certainly cheaper than buying them at Macy’s, I did not have the budget to drop $75 USD on a gold face peel. Take a good look around the store for their sale bins or sale stickers. You’ll find great stuff for unbelievable deals. Another tip I learned would be not to buy everything at one place. Usually if you spend more than $10-20 USD, you’ll get a good amount of bonus free samples at check out, so cut it off there and head to the next store for more add-ons. Aside from beauty products, there were tons of makeup and cosmetics, but let’s be real.
They didn’t have my shade.
Whatever.
If you have pretty fair skin, I’ve heard great thing about their BB cream! This is my beauty haul from ONE trip to Myeong-dong (about half were free samples), and I spent maybe….$25 USD. Those carrot, avocado, and the snail pack on the left: THOSE ARE 10 PACKS. I wonder how much I could get at Ulta for the same price…
Naturally, I went back another two times and loaded up on K-Beauty in Myeong-dong, so I am probably good on masks, creams, lotions, and nail polish for a few years. When that’s gone, I’m booking the first flight back to Seoul.
Also in Myeong-dong, there’s a dope dog cafe (and cat cafes), tons of restaurants and street food carts, and clothing boutiques as well! Get all your shopping done at the same time! Because I’m a responsible blogger, I didn’t take any pictures of those either.
How do you guys put up with me?
Clothing wise, Myeong-dong probably isn’t the cheapest for clothes, but they do have everything! They have the staples like Nike, UNIQLO, H&M, Forever21, and Zara. Oh, and of course the Lotte Department store, you should definitely check that one out. But you should also stop by the Korean brand stores and get made-in-Korea pieces at lower prices than shopping online! They’ll be wedged in-between all the Etude Houses, so you can take a break from smelling the strawberry face scrub that you can also eat.
Have you ever been to Myeong-dong? What did you think about the sales strategy? Personally, I was a little uncomfortable but that could just be from my usual American shopping experience where the sales team are generally hands-off unless you ask for help. But I also have a friend from Japan that said she appreciated the extra attention because she was so overwhelmed she didn’t know where to start. What do you think of K-Beauty?? What do you think about the cosmetics industry in general??? Let me know your opinions in the comments below!
