When I saw the prompt, I remember Korean series I saw sometime back titled "Record of Youth" and I remembered it because of a particular aspect of the Koreans they portrayed so much of, "Beauty and skin care". I have seen a lot of kdramas that made me understand their perspectives on beauty but this series stood out.
One funny view I've had about the Koreans is that, we can't tell the guys from the girls because of their developed skin care products. I may be overexaggerating as I do hear there is also the plastic surgery option that some do over there but it's just to tell how flawless I think their skin care products are and they do appreciate them.
I remember a time someone said he doesn't understand why most Korean artists and actors don't grow beards, they can easily look like girls if they put on female wears and the makeups. But instead of me trying to understand why that is, I find myself wondering how good their shaving cream must be to hide away even the tiniest hair.
When we talk about world's big developments, the beauty world is one major aspect that keeps developing as I do know that there were no much beauty care products then as there are now. In this age, there are even total transformation products but the most impressive ones for me are the skin care products the Koreans do have.
I watch so many kdrama, watch live performances of my favourite kpop artists, it's evident how little effort they make to look so good on camera because their products are available and doesn't fail them. There was even one lip care product I saw in one of their series that was also used to glow up their jaw and neck, I liked it so much and always wanted to get one.
Now, coming to what my reality (my locality) says abort beauty products. We're actually not left out in making ourselves beautiful with really good products but sadly, there are really bad products you don't want your skin to get in touch with because some products messes the skin up totally, with no remedy in sight and it gets scary.
There are different kinds of beauty and skincare products here in my country, the cheap and expensive, the inorganic and organic, the natural and unnatural. It all depends on what works for you but sadly, not many of us here do utilise the help of a genuine dermatologist to figure out our skin types to know what would work best for us.
So the many trials until we get it right and the high level of fake appearances alongside high morals against using too much of these products. My locality still preaches natural look over beauty products but it doesn't stop our ladies especially, from using these products. Over all, I think there's an untold high standard with beauty products produced there in Korea.
Images used are AI generated