Korean TV show: Get it Beauty

Eugene: The host of the show

Get it beauty is one of the popular TV show which began airing in July 2010. The main aim is to promote popular Korean cosmetics products along with interesting cosmetics tips hosted by three hosts most of the time and professional make-up artists are introduced in every episode who does nothing but fills you up with interesting ideas and easy make-up skills. As you can see on the photo on the left, one of the most popular host is Eugene who was a member of popular female band S.E.S. 

I was unaware of the show until I was invited to participate in the TV show with a bunch of other foreigner female students from several other universities. Every Get it beauty episodes provide you with new beauty tips. Here is a little information about Korea's cosmetic company. Comparing to other countries in Asia, Korea is a major producer of cosmetics products and obviously a huge market for cosmetics. The local Korean cosmetics brands are Holika Holika, The Saem, Tony Moly, Banila co., It's Skin, Laneige, Aritaum, Etude House, Innisfree, Nature Republic, Skin Food, The Faceshop and Hanskin House. Some of these brands are mid-priced and some luxurious brand are found in high-end department stores.

SES: Eugene in the center

What I learnt from the sitting there for long exciting hours? First question was, "What do girl's from foreign countries want to learn about Korean make-up?". Most of the girls who went there were interested in learning how to get natural look with the make up on which we mostly see in most Korean soap operas and dramas. To answer this question, one of the professional artist was invited who worked with most Korean K-pop celebrities like Girls Generation. Obviously, getting a natural look was not a single-step process especially for an audience like me who doesn't know the ABC about cosmetics. 

Later in the show we had a "blind test" on five different BB creams followed by complete makeover of one random girl from the audience. For the second part of the show, they brought in a hairstylist, fashionable and young, who selected two random girls from the audience. While the makeover was going on in the backstage, they announced the result of BB cream blind test and what brand they were. The results were quite surprising since the most expensive BB creams got the lowest or close to lowest scores and the cheapest was rated best. At that moment, I realized how BB cream is different to Korean girls and to foreign girls. We could clearly see the difference between how people from different culture and nature prefer different thing.

Me and Eugene

Now, what the hairstylist did was taught the audience how easy it is to have a natural hair style everyday without any help from a hairstylist. The girls were seated on the chair and he worked on their hair very smoothly and created "poop" hair (똥머리) which is very popular in Korea and popular to many foreigner audience through Korean waves.  The name "poop" hair basically means a hairstyle that looks like a lazy bun which might look like "poop" in cartoons. The girl with long straight hair was given simple and big waves at the lower parts of her hair which turned out natural and made her look completely different. Towards the end of the show, the girl whom they sneaked out without audiences' notice was revealed which surprised everyone on the set. She was totally transformed with new cute bob hair cut, perfect make up and  most of all, she was glowing. Well, I guess that is the magic of make-up. 

Finally, we were presented with MISSHA products such as BB cream, essence and Mascara that vibrates when you press a button. The best one that I am still using is a facial essence called "TIME REVOLUTION". It was a wonderful time for two reasons: first, I got to meet a celebrity Eugene, talked to her and had a photo taken with her, and the second, I got more friends in Korea after the show.