Hi, welcome!
I’m Kreamy Vegan, your vegan and sustainability guru. I was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, and although I travel and have lived in many different places in the world, I still have a great connection with Korea and its culture.
In fact, traveling and living in many different parts of the world led me to realize what Korean culture really was. I learned that taking care of our skin and health was a huge part of Korean culture that I didn’t see in many other parts of the world.
My Experience in the Health & Beauty Industry
I have always been into health and beauty and learned so much about how to take care of our body and mind. I have been working in the healthcare and beauty industry, as well as running a K-beauty brand in Norway for several years.
Various Korean Makeup Looks
Being a Korean woman all my life and working in the industry for a while, I am very happy to talk about Korean makeup looks and how to do Korean makeup with you today on my blog. Specifically, I’d like to talk about everyday natural Korean makeup looks for you to try among so many Korean makeup looks.
For instance, if you are looking for K-pop idol makeup looks, there will be so much information depending on the style of the K-pop idol and the trends. On top of that, trends keep evolving and changing so quickly in Korea. So I won’t be able to cover all of that in one blog.
To start off, in today’s blog post, I want to introduce you to the classic natural Korean makeup looks that will wow everyone in Korea. People in Korea will think that you know your stuff!
So let’s get started with an introduction to Korean Makeup Looks.
Introduction to Korean Makeup Looks
The K-wave has swept the world.
K-wave includes K-pop, K-drama, K-beauty, Korean food, and more.
As a result, people got curious about the Korean beauty routine and makeup looks too. They look at these Korean celebrities who look like they are not aging one bit, or K-pop idols who show crazy dance moves and have flawless porcelain skin.
What is Korean Makeup?
So what is Korean makeup? Well, there are a lot of different types of Korean makeup looks.
When you look at K-pop idols, they have strong features and unique makeup looks. There are everyday makeup looks that people wear on a regular day on the streets in Korea.
While there are countless makeup looks, there are still some key features to Korean makeup: Flawless and youthful skin.
Whether it is colorful and strong makeup on K-pop idols or natural and simple everyday Korean makeup, Korean makeup has a huge emphasis on clean and healthy skin.
Korean Makeup Tips for Beginners
So if you are a complete beginner to Korean makeup, always remember one thing: Take good care of your skin.
By taking a look at our skin, we can learn so much about our health. So taking care of your skin comes down to taking care of your health and yourself, essentially. So if you are new to K-beauty and beauty routines in general, check out other blog posts I have about taking care of your skin.
Basics of K-Beauty on Kreamy Vegan
When you take good care of your health, your skin will just glow. We call that kul-pibu in Korean, which means “honey skin.” It refers to skin that is so healthy that it glows like honey.
So with this huge emphasis on healthy skin, most Koreans wear natural and effortless makeup. That is the key to everyday Korean makeup looks.
Then let’s get started with how to achieve this natural Korean makeup look.
Natural Korean Makeup Looks | How to Do Korean Makeup
To let you really get to know about natural Korean makeup looks, I broke it down into several features that make the Korean makeup look the real natural Korean makeup looks. (How many times can I say “Korean makeup looks” in one sentence?)
Taking care of your skin is the first step to the Korean makeup.
Korean Makeup Style Key Features
1. Clean and Moisturized Skin
As I kept mentioning throughout this blog post, clean and moisturized skin serves as the foundation for achieving the desired aesthetic. Here’s why it’s important and what to look for.
Smooth Canvas: Korean makeup has a huge focus on achieving a smooth and flawless complexion. We are all humans and we can have pimples, but there are ways to achieve a smoother canvas on your face by doing a proper skincare cleansing routine. Learn more about it in my blog post Three Pillars of Skincare in K-beauty, which shares beauty tips for beginners.
Hydration: Moisturizing our skin is not only important to our skin health but also the key to achieving the kul-pibu, the coveted honey-glow skin in Korea. When your skin is well-moisturized, some of our wrinkles and rough texture look less visible. The best part is that it also prevents our skin from getting more fine lines and dry patches.
Natural Radiance: Natural radiance is naturally achieved when you take care of your skin by creating a smooth and clean canvas and moisturizing well. You don’t have to get a highlighter with pearls to achieve this natural radiance (although you could) but it looks the most natural when your skin is well taken care of.
We will cover more in detail about how to achieve this kind of skin below.
This is a very unique makeup technique in Korea. This is also a popular method of wearing your lip products in the Ulzzang makeup style that is popular among young girls.
2. Gradient and Moisturized Lips
Gradient Lips Technique: Gradient lips, also known as ombre lips, are a very popular makeup technique in Korean beauty. This technique involves creating a subtle gradient effect on the lips, where the color is deeper and more vibrant in the center of the lips and gradually fades out towards the edges.
These gradient lips have existed in Korea for as long as I can remember – even back when I was in middle school in Korea, girls would wear their lip tints only on the center of their lips.
Moisturized Lips: After touching up your lips with the gradient effect, you can wear lip gloss over. But you don’t have to. The key point here is to moisturize your lips well before pulling this off, otherwise, it would look pretty cakey and fake as if you drew something on your lips.
When done correctly, it looks very soft and natural! Your lips can also look more full and pouty.
Don’t worry, I’ve made countless mistakes with this Korean lips technique in the past. I’ll give you tips on how to achieve it later in the post.
This is how we Koreans look without makeup! We have no hair on our bodies, including eyebrows and eyelashes… They are so light and thin. So we don’t like to wear a lot on our eyebrows and eyelashes, it is so far from how we naturally are.
3. Natural Eyebrows
In Korean makeup, natural eyebrows are one of the most important features. You can tell by their eyebrows whether that person is from Korea or from other places.
I will go more in-depth about differences between the Western makeup and Korean makeup in the blog post below, but here is one difference. Unlike the bold and defined eyebrows you see in Western makeup trends (especially on Instagram and TikTok,) Korean makeup highly prefers the natural shape and look of the eyebrows.
I think it is also because we Koreans naturally have less hair on our bodies, and we have light eyebrows to start with. We like to shape and touch up a little from what we have, but not completely change the shapes or colors. I’m honestly like Monalisa! I have no hair on my body including my eyebrows hahaha.
Soft and Round Arch: Korean makeup typically favors softer and more rounded arches and shapes on eyebrows compared to the sharp and defined arches in eyebrow makeup from other parts of the world. It contributes a lot to the whole soft and youthful look of Korean makeup looks.
For the same reason, no concealer is needed around the eyebrows. You want the whole subtle soft look, not the eyebrows trying to steal all of your attention.
Light and Natural Color: To achieve natural eyebrows in Korean makeup styles, use the natural color eyebrow pencil to lightly fill in the gap. Use eyebrow products that match the natural hair color or are slightly lighter for a softer look. The goal here is to touch up your eyebrows to enhance the natural beauty you’ve got!
Soft Texture: Try to just fill in the gaps of your eyebrows very softly. Sharp or harsh edges are hard to draw nicely, and it’s not much preferred in Korean makeup looks. Just a little bit of subtle filling and grooming techniques to compliment the shape of your face with your brows is what we are looking for.
You want very natural eyeshadows on your eyelids and underneath your eyes. Apply eyeliner only to slightly enhance your natural eye shape.
4. Subtle Eye Makeup
The same approach of subtlety applies to eye makeup in Korean makeup looks. You want to achieve a soft and subtle eye look with the whole natural Korean makeup look, and again, I think this is because we Koreans have very little hair to begin with. We don’t have naturally defined eyebrows or long thick eyelashes! People usually have very light eyebrows and thin eyelashes.
Neutral Eyeshadow Shades: Choose neutral, or natural eyeshadow shades for your skin tone. You want to mimic the natural shades of your eyelids, just a little more enhanced. Use different shades of soft browns, taupes, or beiges.
Subtle Eyeliner: Instead of using a thick eyeliner pen to draw cat eyes, use dark eye shadows, eyeliner pencils, or gel liners and draw the eyeliner to slightly elongate your natural eye shape. You could smudge the eyeliner to make them softer and more natural.
Optional: Highlights You could highlight with a shimmery or satin eyeshadow in the inner corners of your eyes. You could also very lightly apply a coat of mascara. But make sure both the shimmery eyeshadow and the coat of mascara look natural.
Most people skip mascara for everyday makeup looks in Korea, which is a stark difference from Western makeup! Most of my European or white American friends of mine would only wear mascara to achieve effortless everyday makeup. In Korea, you could do everything else but mascara! Again, this is because we don’t have naturally long and beautiful eyelashes, so we don’t feel like eyelashes play a big part in our appearance.
5. Soft Contouring
Last but not least, there is a different shading technique in Korean makeup looks. To finish off the Korean-style makeup, you need soft shading around your face to achieve a more youthful look.
In Western makeup, the chiseled jawline and cheekbones are sought after and people put shading and bronzer to show more prominent cheekbones. It is quite the opposite in Korean makeup looks.
I think this is also because people already have quite chiseled cheekbones and it’s not very special to have high cheekbones. As a matter of fact, people think that having high cheekbones makes you look rough, and having strong cheekbones or jawlines is usually not preferred.
When doing Korean makeup looks, take a very light shading product that is close to the shade of your tone but slightly darker. Then contour around your face to achieve a round and youthful look.
Optional: Blush Using blush is optional in natural Korean makeup. But you could certainly use blush that can enhance the youthful look. I also use powder blush to set the makeup on my cheeks. Otherwise, when there is wind blowing on my face, my hair gets stuck all over my face! The key to using blush is also to use it very, very lightly so that you see it in some light. Using blush to a visible level should be avoided. We call it “sweet potato on fire” 불타는 고구마 in Korean when someone’s cheeks are so red.
You’ve done a great job with having a clean and moisturized canvas on your skin, so why would you want to put too much blush that will take away your attention from your perfect skin?
Summary of Korean Makeup Looks
There you have it, all the key features to achieve the Korean makeup looks. Typical Korean makeup looks are natural and subtle, with a huge focus on clean skin and youthful looks that can enhance your natural beauty.
I remember this statement one of my friends said when we were in college in Korea. She said, “Everyone looks beautiful when they have nice skin.” And I think that quite sums up the foundation of K-beauty and Korean makeup culture.
Instead of trying to have one facial feature dramatic and colorful, try to have nice skin with a little touch here and there to show the beauty you’ve got.
So now that we covered the main features of Korean makeup looks, let’s discuss the differences between Korean makeup to other makeup styles in the world, like Western makeup and Japanese makeup. That way, you really get to compare and get to know Korean makeup better.
Korean Makeup Looks Comparison
Korean Makeup vs Western Makeup
1. Skin-Tone
Transparent Skin in Korea, Deeper Skin Tone in Western
2. Facial Structure
In a Korean makeup look, people want to lightly brush their outer face and around their cheekbones with a contour color that is similar to their natural shade color for a soft, round, and youthful look.
In Western makeup look, you’d want to use a darker contour or bronzer to enhance your facial structure to achieve a chiseled, strong, and mature look.
3. Overall Features
Soft Features in Korea, Defined Features in Western
Let’s think of our facial features from top to bottom.
When you think of every single feature, whether it be the eyebrows, eyeliners, nose, cheeks, lips, or facial structure as a whole, try to soften it up in Korean makeup looks. If you want to have Western makeup looks, try to have every single one of them very defined and stronger than they naturally are.
Korean Makeup vs Japanese Makeup
1. Skin Makeup
Flawless Skin in Korea, Thin Skin Makeup in Japan
2. Lip Colors
Deeper Colored Lips in Korea, Lighter Colored Lips in Japan
I lived in Japan for nearly four years. And this is something that I noticed after coming back to Korea from Japan: People like to wear red lips (or more vivid colors in general) in Korea than in Japan. In Japan, people prefer very light-colored glossy lips whereas in Korea, people prefer red moisturized lips.
So in Japan, I would buy lighter color lip gloss to put on my lips. When I came back to Korea, I would get a red lip tint and would wear it on the center of my lips, making a subtle gradation. I wouldn’t use too much gloss over it though. Just wearing lip balm over my lip tint worked great.
I thought of why this would be the case, and I think maybe the fact that Korean people love eating hot and red food might be why. We love putting gochugaru (Korean red chili flakes) in a lot of our foods, making our food red. When you eat spicy red food, your lips get naturally red… So perhaps people grew to love red lips in Korea. Just a thought.
3. Blush Usage
Little to No Blush in Korea, Prominent Blush in Japan
Another difference I see between Korean makeup looks and Japanese makeup looks is the usage of blush!
In a Korean makeup look, blush is something that you could include or not. Even if you add blush to your whole makeup look, you want it to be very light.
However, in Japanese makeup, blush is something that determines the whole mood and the look of your makeup. The blush color is still pastel-toned and very soft, but it takes the centerpiece in Japanese makeup. You can apply soft blush on wide areas of your cheeks.
4. Eyelashes
Little Eyelashes Makeup in Korea, More Eyelashes Makeup in Japan
In Korean makeup, you often skip wearing mascara on your eyelashes. However, wearing mascara or wearing fake eyelashes is much more common in Japanese makeup.
My Thoughts on Natural Korean Makeup Looks
I hope you enjoyed this post about Korean makeup looks. We covered all the key features that make up Korean makeup looks and how it is compared to other makeup styles, like the ones in the Western and Japanese cultures.
Every single style is great in its own way, and none of them is better or worse than the other. We are just learning their differences. Then we can all choose the one that fits our preferences and styles.
So what did you think? Does natural Korean makeup look like something you’d like to try? Let me know!
I’ll come back with another blog post on how to actually do this Korean makeup. Until then, stay gorgeous.
Here’s another Korean makeup style called Ulzzang makeup that is very simple and therefore popular among young girls.
Ulzzang Makeup | How to Do Koran Makeup | For Beginners
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