[VOGUE] 20 Internet-Breaking Korean Beauty Products—Straight from Seoul

October 30, 2015

 

(Screenshot of Sephora.com)

(Screenshot of Sephora.com)

[VOUGE.com] — From Bella Hadid and Soo Joo Park’s sheet mask selfies on Instagram to the apple-shaped TonyMoly hand cream that flies off shelves at the company’s newly opened New York flagship, the cult of Korean beauty keeps growing wherever you look. And though many of its cute and quirky products can now be found stateside, Seoul remains one step ahead, rapidly churning out the highly innovative creations we’ll be talking about six months from now.

So it was that on a recent trip to Seoul, we decided to scour the city’s best beauty haunts and unearth the current K-beauty trends—and what a scouring it was. “In Seoul, beauty stores are everywhere you turn,” explains Charlotte Cho of Soko Glam, an online shop dedicated to curating the best of Korean skincare, makeup, and more. “They’re underground in subways and on every street corner—sometimes the same brand’s shop is just a few feet away from another!” Thanks to a few tips from Cho, we headed off through the narrow alleys of Myeong-dong, chockablock with neon signage and boutiques, and on to the lovely ginkgo-lined street of Garosu-gil. From Korean drugstore beauty at Olive Young to the tri-level Skinfood concept shop, above, here are 20 of the most eye-catching products you’ll find on Seoul shelves right now. [READ MORE]