About 3-4 months ago I had the time of my life in South Korea: no curfew, freedom, shop till I drop, visited cute cafes, saw one of my favorite bands (*cough* Royal Pirates) busking 4 times in the streets of Seoul, hung out with the best people from day until night and I even experienced sitting in a VIP lounge of a club in Itaewon with friends and celebrities on Feggy Min's Hip Hop party. It was crazy I tell you, but overall good summer vibes.
Fast forward to 3-4 months later, I'm now back at school working on weekly assignments and studying for exams. It's mind boggling how fast the time flies and the memories that once was so close seem faraway now. But thankfully I could still take back some of the memories with me in the form of hauls!
First of all, Etude House is literally stationed at every place I went in Korea! Needless to say some were bigger than others but overall all stores carried all the products that they have in store. I noticed that while I was there, the ones that are located in the popular places like Hongdae and Myeongdong are usually the stores that have sold out their newly launched product first.
Also, Etude House often offers discount for people who have a membership card. But unfortunately, if you're like me who can hardly speak Korean it's not easy to apply for one. I'm not even sure if they offer a membership card for people who doesn't live in Korea. But fret not, despite that it's rare, even as a tourist you can still get discount. There was one time that one of the flagship stores in Hongdae offered 20% discount for foreigners who use credit cards to pay for their purchase! And of course I took advantage of that. ;)
CLIO is probably the only store in Korea that asked me whether I wanted a membership card. When I told them that I don't live in Korea, they told me that it's free for everyone. How awesome is that? As you can see, I didn't purchase a lot because I'm not all too familiar with the brand.
Aritaum, like Etude house is one of the familiar stores stationed in popular areas. On that day, Aritaum had 1+1 for their lipsticks so I purchased 6 lippies only to be notified that it was only for members! Sadly, I didn't have a membership card and couldn't profit from their event, but the lady was kind enough to give me a sample size of 30 ML Laneige Water Bank Mineral Mist to soothe my wound.
Stylenanda is often packed with crowds and based from my observation, the 3CE section attracts more people than the regular store. I had the opportunity to test out their makeup in the Hongdae flagship store and while I do think that it's a hype, I was still impressed at the quality. You should have seen me standing there among a crowd of girls, debating whether I should purchase more or stick with what I had for hours long.
One thing that I really liked about the 3 Concept Eyes was the way they set up their buying process for the customers. If you have located the products you want to buy, all you have to do is find one of the 3 Concept Eyes staffs that is roaming around in the store and they will give you a number for your order.
Next, you can point or tell the staff which product you want and they will have this wireless microphone attached to their body in which they talk to and this is connected to the person on the counter. The person on the counter will then proceed to retrieve the products from the storage room to the front. When that is done, you can just head over to the front desk, hand over your number and within seconds you have paid for your makeup products.
Tony Moly is one of the stores that I visited within a couple of days of my stay in Korea. Therefore I didn't purchase much because I was busy calculating how much I was allowed to spend. I was actually lured into the store with the 20% discount sign, but alas it turned out that it was only for people with membership cards.
That was it about my adventure in Korea regarding shopping for beauty products. If you have any question regarding my stay in Korea or if you're curious about my experience, feel free to leave a comment down below and I'll get back to you.
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