Honestly, I really should have gave myself way more time in Korea.ย I thought I had 7 days, but two of the days is travelling.ย SIGH.ย You live and you learn haha.ย But nonetheless, I tried to make the best of the time I did have there and this day was spent with a special Korean friend that I have talked to for the past three years.ย I have never met her norย have I ever seen a picture of what she looked like.ย Standing in the subway station waiting for her, I was honestly expecting an older lady for some odd reason.ย But come to find out, she’s actually my age and GORGEOUS.ย My god LOL.ย Anyways, day three was all about Gangnam andย Garosugil so let’s get into it!
My first stop was Kakao friends store because Hongdae failed me.ย It wasn’t suppose to be closed but for some odd reason, it was.ย It broke my heart.ย I needed to get some Ryan sway damn it!ย We held off on eating so I could shop here for a bit HEHE.ย Thanks Amy <3.
The store was not short on cuteness.ย LOOK AT THESE BABY VERSIONS UGHHH.ย BABY RYAN, BABY APEACH, JAY G!!!ย SO CUTEEEE.
If only I had suitcase space, I would have DEFINITELY brought me a Ryan home.
RYANNNN!!!
Look at all those cute plushes!ย I don’t know why i didn’t get a Ryan keychain.ย But then again, I don’t want to be so generic and get all Ryan stuff.
The pouches are so nice!!ย But the quality of the bag is so so, hence why it didn’t come home with me :(.
Next stop was Cree’Mare.ย It was somewhat close to Kakao friends store in Gangnam.ย If I’m not mistaken, this is the only Cree’Mare in Seoul?ย They carry a lot of indie brands as well as Western brands.ย I really enjoyed my time in this store because i found a lot of brands I have never heard of and some smaller brands I have only seen online.
The store was very nicely decorated, equipped with sinks for you to test products out.ย Not only do they have cosmetics, they also had clothes as well.
Of course they have Huxley, a brand loved by many but unfortunately not me.ย I don’t find their products effective, price point is too high and the smell makes me want to punch a baby in the face.ย It is way too strong, even after application and it stays on the skin.ย Blah.ย I don’t care if it is “natural”, nothing that touches my face needs to smell that strong.
This was a brand I have never heard of.ย Superface… I will check it out online ;P.ย They didn’t have anything that interested me when I was in the store.ย But they did have decent promotions.
This is one of my most favourite brand finds.ย They are called Vavi Mello and seems to have already made a splash in Japan.ย At first, I thought it was a Japaneseย brand but my friend actually found that they are a cosmetic brand started by a clothing brand called Dahong.ย Their oil tints are really nice, texture is almost like jelly but moisturizing and it was super pigmented.ย They also have matte lip tints but me and my dry ass can’t buy any of those haha.ย I wish I picked one up but they didn’t have a neutral color I wanted.ย ย Their lipsticks were also 1+1!!
This one I did pick up hehe.ย It’s called “Valentines box” for 21,000 won.ย The shades don’t look that special but its super pigmented, has a good mix of textures (matte, satin, shimmers).ย It’s beautiful!
These seem to be new from Labiotte!ย Cute packaging but super cheap plastic.
This brand has super cute packaging too.ย If it was an eyeshadow duo or something, I would have gotten it.ย But it’s just gloss stuff blah.ย I also forgot to note which brand this was haha.ย Fail….
For lunch, Amy suggested this place which I honestly forgot what the name is.ย They have a lunch menu that was very affordable (around 13,000 won- 14,000 won a set I believe).ย This restaurant is kind of on top of a hill, so you’ll definitely be hiking up a hill for your food ;).
Amy ordered a pork dish with some veggies and a delicious spicy sauce.ย Tons of side dishes as well along with a seaweed soup that was light but umami.
I got almost the same set but I have the marinated back ribs.ย It was gooood :D.
After that, we headed over to the underground Gangnam shopping which was AMAZING but unfortunately, I had limited time T_T or else I’d would have been there for hours and hours.ย The prices are definitely way better then Hongdae so I highly recommend you guys hit this place up!
One favourite thing I loved about Korean shopping was their jewelry.ย For an average of $5, you can get really good quality earrings, both elegant and funky.ย You best believe I spent good coins on tons of earrings when I was there.
Later on, we headed over to a company that manages European brands to bring into Korea.ย They wanted to introduce me Sampar addict, kind of like a Korean spin off of the French brand Sampar.ย They also introduced me to a body soap from French called “Le Comptoir du Bain” which apparently is a very famous brand in France with deep history.ย I’m now quite interested in trying this brand.
One really interesting product from Sampar is their dry cleansing which I have never seen before.ย This product foams up and you can use this on a dry face and then just wipe it away.ย That is INSANE!ย I must get my hands on this and test it out.
This is one of their most popular products.ย Even if you haven’t heard of the brand, you must have seen their lip oil somewhere online before.ย Their pink version is the most loved, even by Kpop stars.ย
Their pink tone line cushion is also another popular product.ย I tested this out for myself and loved that it isn’t a stark white sun cream which always makes me look like I’m casket ready.ย Also this blends into a slightly brightened complexion and gives the skin a slight glow.ย Best part?ย This product isn’t super expensive! 19,000 won :D.
They also showed me their mists, pink one being their “poreless magic essence” which has rose in it and “glow magic essence” (not too sure what ingredients is in it).
The company also came out with Chupa Chups cosmetics which is such a mind boggle to me since these lolipops are ones that I grew up with as a kid.ย It is so odd to see it become a cosmetic brand but I definitely see what their direction is.ย The brand is aimed towards teenagers and the “lollipops” are actually lip tints.ย They did gift m e with some products and I definitely will show you guys in my haul video, so please look forward to that.
Sulwhasoo flagship store… don’t really need an introduction right?ย You know your in a rich people’s place when you see a Benz LOL.
I personally haven’t had the pleasure to test out the their products yet but I know Jude from fiftyshadesofsnail is a HUGE fan of the brand.ย That’s all I thought of when I was there haha.
The store was BEAUTIFUL. Damn if my house looked like this, i’d legit never get out of bed.
To my surprise, Sulwhasoo actually has a TON of product outside of the general skincare products you see.ย Example, they have these solid soaps I have never seen before.
*Edit: I’m checking the US site at the moment and they do have the solid soaps on the site.*
They even have tea.ย WHAT?
From what they said, this was a exclusive fragrance which was made with ginseng I believe?ย It was expensiveeeeeee doe.ย If I can remember correctly, it was like $250?
These were also some more fragrance products exclusive to the store.ย Never in a million years did i think Sulwhasoo had candles and hand creams. Wow…
The store is insane.ย Every little block contains herbal ingredients that is used in their skincare products.
Oh I’ve never seen this product either. WOW.
This I have seen before but never in person.ย Every year, Sulwhasoo comes out with an extravagant cushion case and this was this years.ย It is super heavy, super luxe and I expect nothing less.
These were the ones in the past years.
Another product I have never seen before and is exclusive to the flagship store.ย These lip balms were 40,000 won and I picked one up for my mom.
There were tons of cosmetics I have never seen before as well!
For dinner, I really wanted to try chimack.ย Unfortunately I don’t really drink so we got fried chicken and cola instead hehe.ย We stopped by this place in Gangnam called Kkanbu Chicken.
Koreans love their chicken, so it was a unique experience to be able to be there and EATTTT.ย It comes with a little garbage bucket along with pickles and pickled radish, which Koreans seem to really love.ย There was also a side of salt for you to sprinkle over the chicken.
We got the regular chicken a well as a spicy sauce.ย Unfortunately, the chicken was kind of tasteless and needed to be marinated for sure.ย Hopefully the next time I’m back in Korea, I’ll have a better chicken experience.
Since this was kind of my last day of freedom, I had to stop by Myeong Dong one last time to check out the pink hotel.ย Luckily this time they were actually open.
Their new collection is so cute! I wish I got something but at the same time, I got way too big of a collection T_T.
I kind of wish I went to their cafe, but i know you can’t get in unless you were buying something in the cafe and I didn’t have time to waste.
And that ends my fourth day in Korea, second to last day of my time in Korea.ย I honestly wish I was still In Korea and I made a promise to myself that I will definitely be going back in two years time.ย A girl’s got to work hard to play hard.
Your’s truly,
Christina
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