Korean Makeup Must-Haves and Luxury Dupes

Korean makeup is fun and constantly innovating with new trends. Best of all, Korean makeup is pretty affordable with top-quality ingredients.

These are a few of my absolute favourite Korean makeup products that I use and love:

• Lips

A girl can never have too many lip products and I tend to keep a lip product in every purse in case of emergencies ;) I really like Korean lip products because they are very functional, with high colour pay-off but moisturizing formula and they have amazing colours.

I’m sure everyone is aware of Benefit’s lip tints and fortunately for us, Korean brands offers several quality dupes at a more affordable price point and with more shades! A highly recommended lip tint is from the brand PeriPera (available here). Other great brands include Etude House’s Darling Tint (another option here).

Another interesting product are two-tone lipsticks that help you achieve the lip gradient trend.

And to top it all off, a cute lip balm in the shape of a Peach!

• Brows

Koreans take their brows seriously. The most popular brow tend is the “straight-brows” look which is said to make you look younger (some great brow pencils here).

I really enjoy brow-mascaras, which are a great way to tint your eyebrows to match your hair and really easy to use. Great options from Pony (amazing Youtuber and makeup artist), Etude House (also here) and if you are looking for budge-proof, long-lasting options, they have you covered as well with the “Tattoo” range from Clio.

• Eyeshadow

When it comes to eyeshadow, I enjoy Korean brands because they often have interesting shimmer options and different product types. For instance, reddish-brown hues for fall, this cute quad from Holika Holika is perfect.

My go-to are eyeshadow sticks which are really convenient for travel and quick and fuss-free (some options here, and also great for that bright inner corner).

• Primer

Korean primers are a total game-changer, with a product for every skincare concern and look (matte, glowy or poreless) that you want to achieve.

For pore control and blurring effects, Etude House Beauty Shot Face Blur and the Face Shop’s velvet primer.

For optimal goddess glowiness, VDL’s primer has been touted as the very best.

For oil-control, Aritaum and Banila Co do great primers.   

• BB Cream + CC Cream

Last but certainly not the least, the most famous Korean makeup product of all-time is BB Cream, a revolutionary all in one makeup base / suncare / skincare product that revolutionized the beauty game. Popular brands include Missha (which has released several series of BB Creams) and Etude House (my favourite is the mineral line because it works well for my sensitive skin).

CC Cream is a later evolution of BB Cream, and is used as a base to even out skintone with more emphasis on the skincare component. 

Overall, I love how well Korean makeup products work, their unique functionality and the pretty packaging certainly doesn’t hurt!

Check out my previous post on Korean Sheet Masks 101.