If you’ve been keeping up with beauty trends, the term “K-beauty” must have come across your search at some point in time. A quick scan online will yield legions of articles to explain the “Korean 10-step skincare routine” and many other unique features of K-beauty, there are a myriad of beauty bloggers who review and rave about the latest items from K-beauty, and more recently, there have been more and more online stores that supply Western shoppers with Korean beauty products from abroad. In step with the growing interest in K-beauty, Toronto’s South Korea trade and investment office, known as KOTRA Toronto, in partnership with the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Montreal, organized a full-day event to bring K-beauty even closer to Canadians.
On November 10th hundreds gathered in the Grand Salon Opera of the Hyatt Regency Montreal Hotel in downtown Montreal to pick up new skincare products, collect free goodie bags, and to meet Morgan Stewart, the K-beauty Youtuber behind the channel The Beauty Breakdown. Described as the “BIGGEST K-beauty celebration of the year in Montreal”, My K-Beauty Trip to Korea: K-Beauty in Montreal featured an open marketplace with vendors from 30+ K-beauty brands, a live DJ, a photo booth, a lucky draw for a 9.7-inch 6th generation iPad and a round-trip ticket to Korea, among other amazing prizes, and of course, a make-up demonstration from popular YouTuber Morgan Stewart. Best of all, the entire event was free (although an RSVP was needed to secure a goodie bag).
Korean beauty, or “K-beauty” for short, describes the products and beauty practices that originate from Korea as well as the overall philosophy and ideology that backs them. K-beauty is unique in that it is highly customizable. This is evident in the Korean 10-step skincare routine, the multilayered routine that is often touted in K-beauty blogs (spoiler: it’s often not actually 10 steps long). K-beauty offers a huge variety of products, each targeted toward a specific skincare concern: dull skin, hyper-pigmentation, wrinkles, dehydrated skin, acne, excess sebum… the list goes on and on. With the modularity that the Korean 10-step skincare routine offers, you can put together a personalized routine that addresses the needs of your skin. Another characteristic of K-beauty is its focus on nourishing the skin rather than simply “fixing” all of your skin problems. As a result, many products are designed to work over the long-term to give you the healthy, naturally glowing, and youthful look that K-beauty strives for.
Over 30 popular K-beauty brands attended K-Beauty in Montreal: My K-Beauty Trip to Korea, including Missha, A’pieu, Holika Holika, Soo’Ae, SOS Beauty, and From Nature. More than simply bringing together a multitude of K-beauty brands, however, the open marketplace also allowed K-beauty enthusiasts to purchase beauty products at discounted rates (of 10%, 20%, or even 30% off the original price). To top it off, the first 100 people who spent $100 or more could pick up another special gift box (valued at $70). All of the products that were featured at the showcase are available on kotraomni.ca, a site created by KOTRA Toronto to help Korean suppliers reach smaller Canadian vendors and individual customers.
For those who were less inclined towards spending big bucks, there were plenty of opportunities to pick up freebies as well. Visiting the information desk could score you a free sheet mask, and lining up for Morgan Stewart’s talk guaranteed you another goodie bag. Attendees had the chance to collect tickets for the lucky draw from other booths set up at the venue too. The Visit Korea For Me booth (the KTO’s website for independent travellers) gave out free lipstick in addition to an extra lucky draw ticket. In addition to sponsoring the grand prize for the lucky draw, Air Canada gave out coupon codes for 15% discounts on trips to Korea too. At the very least, the Hyatt Regency Montreal did serve complimentary drinks and refreshments in the afternoon (which were a much-welcomed treat after queuing in line after line and trying to squeeze to the front of the tables in the open marketplace for an entire morning).
With the large crowds that this event managed to draw, it’s not too much to expect similar (and bigger) events to take place in the future.
Information sources:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/k-beauty-in-canada-my-k-beauty-trip-to-korea-tickets-51775597205#
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/what-is-korean-beauty-k-beauty
https://kotraomni.ca/pages/about-us
Video credit: The Beauty Breakdown (YouTube)
Images belong to the author of the article