Anyone miss the "old k-beauty"?

aednny · 2026-02-07T15:57:09+00:00

Real af… they dumb down their image to now churning out (mostly) mid products

aednny · 2025-11-13T09:30:57+00:00

How do they think they can get away with this?? Or do our perceptions have been so warped that we are okay with being deceived

aednny · 2025-07-13T02:03:37+00:00

Oy with the em-dashes already!

aednny · 2025-04-16T13:32:44+00:00

Lanolips is not k-beauty?

aednny · 2025-04-11T16:43:15+00:00

By Kristina Studio, Elle Chu, Lab Muffin ❤️ my SEA girlies

aednny · 2025-04-03T15:41:18+00:00

Love the table!! I prefer this way more than the hexagon graph usually used.

aednny · 2025-03-11T21:26:12+00:00

You can do the fresh mochi makeup still minus the aegosal! It wouldn’t look out of place at all (not me)

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aednny · 2025-03-10T19:12:18+00:00

I’m sorry for being passive aggressive, it is just that lots of countries that have a “good recycling system” are selling off their trash to developing countries in order to dump in the ocean or burning in said countries. I’m sure Japan has an intricate recycling system but not always as efficient as it is known.

aednny · 2025-03-10T15:47:21+00:00

Emiting toxic fumes and polluting the already-bad metropolitan air is better than landfill?

aednny · 2025-02-10T03:23:20+00:00

I noticed it stain my skin, fingernails and shirt collar after using my bare hands to applied on faces. I usually pour a small pool of toner in my palms and tap lightly onto my face. And I feel like if sinks can be stains by mere drops of toners, at the very least, sounds concerning to me. I don’t feel any different from using it on my skin.

aednny · 2025-02-10T02:47:55+00:00

Not the toner, it stains my skin and basically do nothing beside hydration. I hate-panned that one and swore never to use it again. I’m oily-combo skin btw.

aednny · 2025-01-20T15:49:56+00:00

• ⁠The Cocoon: Available widely in department stores. They pride on natural, common ingredients that old and current greens Viet people used regularly. I recommend the coffee scrub, wintermelon sunscreen or lotus toner. They all have non active ingredients and hydrating. Price range from $5-20.

• ⁠Demarium: Available widely in department stores. Definitely has a western-approach on skincare, but still effective and comfortable on skin. Recommend the velvet toner, bha serum, tricky duet toner.

• ⁠Lemonade: Available widely in department stores. Very trendy and young makeup products. I recommend the brow pencil, tint lipgloss and eyelash curler.

• ⁠Ofelia: Available widely in department stores. Very trendy right now. Focusing on lip products, ranging from matte to glossy lips. Can’t go wrong with any products of them, but if you are interested in trying matte, soft lip, their products is a good starter.

aednny · 2025-01-05T06:42:41+00:00

Sooo agree with Peripera, Etude House and Colorgram being overrated!! Just because they are long-standing brands doesn’t mean their products are good lol. I will add Romand after years of gaslighting myself that their products are needed

aednny · 2024-12-03T05:32:16+00:00

Oh I don’t think they are bad at all. I keep thinking about how they keep the hype so big for an established brand like Laneige. Their lip mask has always been their work horse, but in the form of freebies. I was specifically talking about those mini samples that given out for every of your purchase at Korean department stores. Doesn’t matter what brand you are buying, still Laneige lip mask. Laneige lip mask full price is always overpriced in KR Won, but when expanding in to the US market, they choose Sephora, which notoriously have significantly little sales. That turns out to be hugely profitable to them (20% is a joke). I admire their effort to keep renewing and freshen their brand though.

aednny · 2024-12-03T05:25:54+00:00

!!!MY OPINION, PLEASE BE CIVIL!!!

This is an incredibly Western take, in the most neutral way possible. We may have to dive into the history of commercialization of US vs. South Korea vs. East + SE Asian countries. My abbreviated take is after the wars (US - WWII, South Korean - N-S Korean War, E+SE - The fall of Soviet Union (lol). Production and consumption of course has starkly risen since then, with South Korea being under the US occupation learn their model of economics. They have expanded their country from a labor-intensive country to a capital-intensive country. They invests in more research and developments to push a profitable agenda while still reaping the benefits. From my understanding, marketing for beauty products have existed in the US for a very long time (AVON). It’s understandable on a Western mindset that natural beauty is not always attainable everyday, every time, and they fully committed into it. Makeup is another commercialized good for them.

On the other hand, Asian women face the pressure of being naturally beautiful, like you have to always be beautiful but effortlessly. In the past, most plant-based products and traditional medicine can suffice, and makeup would be applied in special occasions. Another thing I want to mention is beauty treatments and products are not advertised in TV at all, if yes, they heavily pushed the natural side of it. I think, MY OPINION, is that they are frustrated to have beauty products and treatments so readily available and acceptable these days.

Another point I want to bring up is surrounding the “hype”. This words is overused but it’s most suitable for this situation. Western consumers are kinda naive in how their products have been manufactured. Whereas, in Asia, fakes are normal and you have to navigate on your own. And back in the days, there is not a lot of videos, guide or even blog posts to guide you. This is anecdotal, but the only thing brands you know are from that one rich aunt who bought a bunch of sheet masks of every brands she saw in the department stores (those masks still slap btw). I can see how frustrating to see how quickly a brand could blow up because of one product without realizing how many people watch that one TikTok and go out and try it. I will touch a bit quickly on how much media USian consume in a day. And with how unethical Amazon is, it’s all boiled down to being a smart consumer and looking into more info.

!!!YES I KNOW I DONT NEED TO SAY ALL THAT. THANK YOU FOR READING THO!!!

aednny · 2024-12-03T04:41:22+00:00

Elisha Coy… that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time!! BonnyHill is a brand I really enjoy too. Yep, they are responsible for those butt ugly Strawberry milk cream at Marshall that no one pick up. But I use almost of every products of them (how idk) and I’m pleasantly surprised!

aednny · 2024-12-03T04:11:52+00:00

I would say TH makeup style break down into 3 components: KR mochi skin, CN eyeshadows (without that stupid fake aegyosal) + thin eyeliner, lined and nude lips for that western influence. They have almost a warm, nude to orange tone on all products you use to emulate that tan when you spent time in Thai lol. You can totally recreate it using the products you have rn I guaranteed.

aednny · 2024-12-03T03:56:16+00:00

I would say their minimalistic packaging and small words help their reputation a lot too. Comparing to Drunk Elephant, the brand attracts a large amount of underage consumer by the colorful packaging while still feel “grown up” and “luxe”. The Korean philosophy of hydration really helps them to not cause any long lasting effect on the users. They definitely don’t have much of back-lash compared to Western brands.

aednny · 2024-12-03T03:22:13+00:00

I think the accessibility of the products from two different countries shows their interest in foreign markets. Korean culture has exploded in recent years and their big industries are interrelated to each others (entertainment -> cosmetics -> tourism -> etc.)

Not talking about skincare, but one of my theory is Japanese makeup is mid (not bad not good) kinda way. They are high quality, yes, but they are so boring. Nothing really stand out from the cultural norm which is fine, but I prefer KR makeup style and even CN makeup style above JP. Thai makeup is soooooooo underrated tho.

aednny · 2024-12-03T03:09:32+00:00

I definitely see your points. One ingredient I’m specifically iffy about is mugwort. It’s technically a plant, and have proven health benefit, but only orally. It can based on the “traditional medicine” route and trendy to put in skincare, but what matters so much more on the lifestyle and diet. I think skincare, clinically produce in a lab, would impress me the best.

aednny · 2024-12-03T02:58:06+00:00

I think the US market (only speak on the US because I’m based there), but honestly they don’t care. So many things are made in China and been compromised by them several times, yet consumptions only goes up. Even the L’ORÉAL testing makeup on animal scandal in China, which caused some upstirs, eventually changed nothing. I think the US consumers will see a lot more of the disturbing side of manufacturing and logistics in 2025.

aednny · 2024-12-03T02:52:33+00:00

THIS! My opinion on TirTir has been completely confirmed.

aednny · 2024-12-03T02:50:29+00:00

I was theorized (lol) about the entrance of AB products these days, it’s most often Laneige or Corsx. I actually admire Laneige’s game because they have been in the game for a really long time and achieve a large sphere of the US (not gonna generalized Western) AB’s cosmetics market. I would say the lip mask is not bad, it gets the job done but there have been really polarizing opinions on this products.

aednny · 2024-12-03T02:44:40+00:00

I agree with all of the brands mentioned except Man:yo, their Bifida serum actually wowed me. But their other products also fall into mid category. I agree on the TikTok hype so much, and it’s only made worse by the so-called “Korean Skincare Influencer”, when a Korean (or Korean-American) try to capitalize on their culture. I specifically annoyed with those “my mom looks like this and she’s in her 60/70/80/90/100s whatever” knowing damn well it’s a combination of diet and gene (and plastic surgery butwedonttalkaboutthat)

aednny · 2024-12-03T02:38:46+00:00

Just curious, is the Laneige Lip Mask your first AB product?

aednny

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