The Secret to Getting Perfect K-pop Skin & Skincare for Men

Lee Min Ho for Etude House

. Earlier, I wrote about BB cream as being one of the secrets to Hallyu skin, but obviously in Korea, there's more. A lot of it has to do with skin care shops, skin clinics and dermatologists ....and yes, plastic surgeons.

 If you've been watching the videos I've been posting, then you know by now, that good looks are highly prized in Korea and the social pressure to look good, even if you're an average person, is still there.

 Men and women can wear makeup and as I said with my BB cream post, many Hallyu stars promote skin care and makeup lines. Korea's kind of unique that way. In  the U.S., Hollywood male stars don't promote much in the way of skin care.  I'd say it's pretty non-existent. At the most, they'd do
advertisements for clothing designers, credit cards, watches... not cereal or cologne. Nope, leave that to the Hollywood ladies!

 But not Korea.

Hallyu men show you how to have great skin

There's Lee Min Ho for Etude House, Kim Hyun Joong for Faceshop and Tony Moly, Seo Ji Sub for Beaute and a whole bunch of others...such that I don't need to buy star paraphenalia inKorea. I just need to walk the shopping districts, past the skin care shops and just take pictures! It's like walking the Hallyu red carpet.

 

Seo ji sub for Beaute

 

Star of Love Rain star at Nature Republic (where Rain was once the poster boy of)  

 

What scandal is he from?... Aside from peddaling Tony Moly's snail extracts?

Skin Care Tips for Men [Korea Today]

Here's a video on men's skin care in Korea.

Here's some really neat secrets I've found while living in Korea:

Facial masks:

If you want a home program, then most skin care shops sell face masks for 1,000-2,000 won and it's packed with goodies, which promise to lift, plump, unwrinkle and whiten your skin. Q10 collagen, pearl masks, Hyaluronate collagen,...basically, it all contains vitamins to beautify your skin. 

Korean face masks

 Korean face masks from Faceshop. 1,000won each, they're a simple facial pack.

Pimple patches

I really don't know what they're called in Korea but I know them as zit patches. They're transparent circular dots that are medicated. Whenever you have a zit, just stick one of these babies on and they help make it go down. Not to mention, they slightly conceal the zit so you can essentially wear it when you go out. Just don't let anyone get too close to you!

Medicated scar patches

How do you avoid scars from cuts and pimples? Well, these medicated patches help heal your scar tissue so that it doesn't leave any noticeable signs of scarring. Its like a huge bandaid that you cut up to the size you want to cover your cut.

Getting outside help from dermatologists and skin experts:

It's not very hard to find a dermatologist shop when you want one and you'll get treatments from facials to laser scaling to mole removal. I went to a dermatologist in Daegu's Banwoldang, All for Skin for my sunspots. My doctor's pretty reputable (saw him interviewed on a beauty documentary on Korean TV once). He prescribed laser scaling and it entailed zapping each one of my freckles, so that they'd eventually lighten. It was pretty effective but my seven months traveling India and Southeast Asia pretty much brought all those sunspots back. The sun can be pretty intense in those countries and although I had sunscreen on, I was still exposed.

 Here's a video I found from Justin Patrick (youtube channel here), whose video I showed you in the post, 'How to Become a K-pop Singer'. I wish he'd do more info vlogs like these because they've got more fun and interesting facts in them than some of the best K-bloggers I've read. But he shares some additional shocking Korean beauty secrets that I didn't know about. .

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