Korea beauty culture. An honest observation.

Often, I was reminded by my male friends to get them Korean girls whenever I told them I'll be visiting Korea. Drama influence I might say. And me myself was very eager to see them, is it true all Koreans are just like in the movie/drama? Do they really that good-looking with flawless, dewy skin, big round eyes & red cherry lips?

It is true, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As for me, after spending 8 days in Seoul, it just came to me that Korean women do pretty and good-looking, however the level of this beauty is higher in the city centre. While the suburb women look like the average Asian women, these girls living in the middle of the city seemed more outstanding. This lead me to observe more in detail .

In city centre, there were tonnes of beauty parlour selling make-up and skincare products with various attractive packages. The girls seemed more than obsessed with make-ups when they even put on their mascara, lipstick, eye-liner and such during their absence in the public. It created some standard among them to compete to be the most beautiful between their girlfriends.  I had seen two girls touching up their make-up in coffee shop as if no one was looking, I saw every girls entering restroom reapplying make-up for at least 10 minutes before stepping out back to public and all of these girls when compared to Malaysian girls, well, even just applying compact powder in public restroom can be an alien thing to do.

If make-up is just a surface, then how do they look so perfect with nice cheek bone and big round eyes? Here comes the second observation- there are massive advertising on plastic surgery! It sounds rude to think that one's having surgery to look good but I just couldn't help myself from thinking that way. The advertisement was placed all around the city including in subway, in train, at bus stand, let alone free flyer. During our walk around the city centre, Itaewon, Gangnam, we had seen multiple storey buildings that specifically served as plastic surgery centre. And people went in and out from those building in broad day light as if nothing to hide, and nothing to embarass about 'fixing' a face.

This culture slowly demolishing the natural beauty among young Korean women and it hits me, architecture has nothing to do in influencing one's civilization/ culture. The culture itself that shaped the design. Look at the public restroom design - they have huge space only for powdering purposes. Well-lited, clean and comfortable.  Compared to Malaysia, we only have washing/basin area to touch up our make-up with poor condition of lighting. In Korea, even at staircase in a subway they did provide huge mirror for their citizen to have a glimpse on their appearance. They really care about their look. And that is why Koreans are good-looking.

Want to see pure, decent Koreans? Go meet them at those traditional cultural exhibition - they did hired people with 'original' faces. I think.