A little bit different from the reviews I write so often...I am starting series of posts called Korean Trends and I am not sure how many there is going to be as I could probably come up with a few but I will see about it later...
Korean trends are often a bit different to American and European ones(I live in the UK)...I am used to seeing the trends that are going on in the West due to media, but personally I think that quite often there are a lot more interesting trends going on in Asia. Sometimes Western media does pick up on the Asian trends but often it is months or even years after it became a trend in Asia!
An example of this are BB creams and in Asia they have been a trend for many years now and only became a trend a few years ago in the West (unfortunately the BB creams are not as good either). I wish that due to the expanding media, these trends would pick up on quicker or at least be acknowledged. Personally I find many good things with both Asian and Western trends and I like to mix things up!
As some of you may know, Korean makeup trends are a bit different to Western ones. If you have ever watched K-drama or K-reality shows you have probably noticed that women don't wear that much makeup. Women in Korea like to look as natural as possible as well as youthful, so keeping makeup to a minimum on a daily basis makes you appear younger and more natural. (Just to clarify, I will be using the term West and Western a lot in this post and by that I mainly mean the trends that are popular in America and UK.)
One of the trends that, I have personally never tried but I found very interesting, was to make your eyes look cute and puffy and this phenomena is called the Aegyol sal. You may have heard about it because it was in the news awhile ago and also all over Youtube. Many K-brands have makeup products in order to achieve this including Etude House.Eye shadows are not as popular in Korea as they are in the West. I have noticed that in Korean beauty shows if they do end up using eye shadows it is often very natural. They use eyeliners more often and if they want to achieve a smoky look they blend out the eyeliner. You won't see Korean women wearing false eyelashes very often because they opt for a simple, more natural look. Curling your eyelashes seems to be a must for Korean women in order to open up the eyes more and this is becoming more common in the West as well. Here is a great video from Wengie demonstrating the difference between American and Korean makeup trends:
I could talk about BB creams and CC creams but I think they have been covered by the media already and most people are aware of them. I thing that I will have to mention briefly is that there is a new hype with BB creams and CC creams and they come in a cushion form now! Every K-brand now has a BB cream that comes in a cushion form where a sponge has been soaked in a BB or CC cream and you dip your makeup sponge in it. These have become the new craze and are taking over normal BB and CC creams (below is an example).
You might have also noticed that a lot of Koreans have a very dewy complexion (almost a bit shiny) and this is due to the fact that they prefer a well moisturised skin with a dewy glow rather than a matte looking skin.
Lately in the Western media I have noticed that contouring has became a very popular thing. I have not noticed this in the Korean media and watching Korean beauty shows they prefer to keep their skin looking bright and apply a bit of blush and highlighting the face but contouring does not seem to be very popular. There was a clip on Beauty Bible where a makeup artist did contouring and the editors were a bit taken a back by this (which was no surprise really). I have to say I haven't seen this sort of contouring (or any contouring) in this show from any other makeup artist. The clip starts from 24:00 mark!
Personally I think that Koreans always have really nice lip colours and one of the trends that has been in for awhile is gradient lip colour. It makes your lips have a pop of colour while being a bit subtle and cute! Lip liners are not often used but concealer instead to tone down the colour and make lips appear smaller. This is probably one of my favourite K-trends. I have more K-brand lip products than anything else because personally I find them to last longer and be more hydrating than other brand's lip products.
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| Hyuna supporting gradient lip in Ice Cream MV |
Last trend that I am going to mention is eyebrows! Again in the West the trend with eyebrows at the moment seems to be slightly arched eyebrows whereas in Korea eyebrows are straighter and thicker because thicker eyebrows are viewed as more youthful than thinner eyebrows. Koreans prefer their eyebrows to be full, soft and lighter than their hair colour and not as bold as the Western trend. Korean celebrity IU is a good example how to achieve full and soft eyebrows.
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| IU |
Here are a couple of Korean trends that have caught my eye and I think are different from Western makeup trends! Hopefully this was new information to some people and hopefully you'll end up trying out some of these trends :)
If you are interested in watching a show about Korean beauty trends, here is a show that covers everything from makeup to exercise :Beauty Bible!
Have a nice day!
So true :D If we talk about the current trend of korean beauty product, we really can't leave out the Korean BB Cushion :) It's so hype at the moment.
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