K-BEAUTY HAUL

Seoul Travel Haul: All the Korean Makeup and Skincare Products I Brought Home

You can actually shop these Korean favorites right from the comfort of your couch.

The Daily Beast/Getty/Medicube/AprilSkin/Dr. Reju-All

By Elizabeth DentonUpdated Mar 26, 2026 5:12PM EDT

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I’ve been dreaming of going to Seoul since I was a junior beauty editor. 15 years later, it finally became a reality when I attended K-pharmacy skincare brand Dr. Reju-All’s Global Symposium at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, which brought together more than 300 pharmacists, dermatologists, and marketing executives from Korea and international markets.

It was heaven for a skincare obsessive like me. I learned about the next generation of retinol, what makes a Korean pharmacy product different from its other retail counterparts, and even heard from Lee Sun-jung, the marketing powerhouse who helped transform Olive Young (a popular Korean beauty and health chain) into what it is today.

Seoul Korean Beauty Haul — Elizabeth Denton.

But I wasn’t there just to learn more about skincare. I was also there to shop. I even checked an empty mini suitcase just for the occasion. I don’t get excited about shopping for beauty products in the States, but in Seoul, it felt like a sport—a really fun one.

At Korean pharmacies, like Ready Young Drugstore, skincare isn’t tucked behind glass or diluted by trend cycles. Instead, it’s clinical, intentional, and often surprisingly affordable. I found the viral Acnon Cream and Aclean Gel, two acne topicals available only by prescription in the U.S. I also spotted Urea foot creams, medicated hand treatments, and tons of hangover remedies.

Seoul Beauty Haul Olive Young — Screenshot
Elizabeth Denton.

At Olive Young, it’s the opposite kind of thrill: aisles of sheet masks, viral serums, and indie brands I’ve only seen on TikTok, all merchandised with the anticipation of play. It’s all about discovery here. There’s even an AI tool that analyzes your hair and skin and recommends makeup in your color palette. There are more than 1,300 Olive Young stores across Korea, with hundreds clustered in Seoul alone, so the discovery was endless. (Good news for Los Angeles residents: the first U.S. locations are coming to the city in May 2026.)

Within just a few days, I had already filled half my suitcase with things I’d never seen before: high-strength retinal creams, pharmacist-recommended barrier repair ampoules, and sunscreens that somehow feel more like skincare than SPF. It made shopping back home feel… a little boring.

Thankfully, many of these items are also available online now that brands are bringing their skincare and makeup to the United States. Due to FDA regulations, there are some formula changes (especially in the sunscreen category), but I’ve been happy with my restocks thus far. It’s important to ensure the place you shop is an authorized retailer of the brand, so you don’t get a potentially dangerous counterfeit item.

I’ve compiled some of my favorite discoveries and the products I’ll be repurchasing now that I’m home. Well, at least until I get back to Seoul.