The Amazing Techniques I Learned At Korean Beauty School

Photo: Courtesy of Joyce Kong.

The work of a beauty writer may seem like a walk in the lipstick park — and don't get me wrong, there are plenty of perks — but there's also the pressure to be an expert on everything and anything beauty. There are expectations to have the product knowledge of a Sephora buyer, the expertise of a licensed dermatologist, and the transformative skills of a professional makeup artist. To some extent, I can juggle these, but I’ve always clung to skin care as my speciality because, ultimately, that’s what K-beauty orbits around. Even eyeliner here contains eyelid-nourishing serum.

But, as a reporter, it's my job to be constantly educating myself and my readers. Which is how I found myself enrolling in a Korean beauty academy. For my mission, I went straight to the best, Jung Saem Mool. If you’re Korean, you’re sucking in your breath in awe. For the rest of you, I’m going to skip over having to attempt putting into words the sky-high reputation of the school's founding makeup artist by saying she’s like a Korean Lisa Eldridge in terms of career trajectory and influence. There isn’t a Korean celebrity’s face she hasn’t touched with her magic makeup wand.

Walking in barefaced and ready to try loads of cool new products, I was expecting a Disney-musical version of beauty school and not the gruelling hours upon hours of attitude adjustment it turned out to be. If I was thinking "insane YouTube makeup transformations" going in, I quickly realised this is not the Korean way. Going to Korean beauty school is an exercise in patience and self-control in learning how to put on makeup as though it’s not there. It’s a subtle art of looking exactly the same as you did without makeup but somehow way better. Toward the end, I felt like that guy in Jiro Dreams of Sushi who made egg tamago 200 times before getting it right.

Read through for a detailed account of the best tips I gleaned from my time at K-beauty school.