First K- Beauty Stop: Beauty Play Myeongdong!
Meggie
2 days ago
Warning: this will probably seem like a sponsored or paid endorsement, but I'm just genuinely a fan of this place!
Imagine if there was a central hub for all Korean body image and beauty trends, products and specialties- but it's not owned by one manufacturer, one company or one brand. That's Beauty Play!
The government made a place that rotates through different seasonal offerings from famous as well as up and coming brands across skin care, makeup and analysis. It went so well that they opened a second location in home day and are set to open a third in June in another part of the city.
You walk or take the elevator up to the fun, where multilingual staff and signs greet you. They guide you to an electronic consent and info form to fill out on your own device, and then you have so many options!
You can asl for guided assistance one on one for color analysis, makeup tutorials and skin analysis. You can sign up for upcoming group activities, around traditional crafts or beauty. You can walk around the shop and perform your own explorational learning activities, like using an AI station for skin or color analysis.
Another fun element is that this serves as a pop-up every hour that it's open, with free and paid product opportunities. There are many stations with signs, if you want to participate in "events", which are small promotions involving mostly social media and app engagement.
These, like everything else, are totally optional. You can walk out with fullsize or sample products for free, or buy the featured brands' top products onsite.
I personally did the staff-guided skin analysis, and loved the experience. It wasn't as involved as a dermatology skin clinic I went to later in the week, but it also felt a bit more honest. A for-profit skin clinic designed to upsell tourists on procedures gives a slightly different approach to a governmental resource that isn't immediately reccommending days worth of treatments, which makes sense!
So come here before you go anywhere else in Seoul, to learn from these people and enjoy a fun experience
