A while back I saw a video on BuzzFeed where four women tried a Korean beauty hack called Jamsu. Jamsu, which can be translated from Korean to mean “diving” in English, is a beauty hack that helps to set your makeup foundation and give you a matte finish. It is also cheap, as all you need for the hack is baby powder and ice water. Now if you just paused for a minute after you read “baby powder and ice water”, let me explain how jamsu works. You start by applying your foundation and concealer. Then, you cover your face with baby powder. The baby powder should be fairly opaque on your skin. Next, you take a bowl filled with ice water and submerge your face for 30 seconds. When you pat your face dry, your skin will be smooth and matte. Finally, apply the rest of your makeup.
I decided to try Jamsu for myself to see if it worked. I started by applying my concealer and foundation. I don’t normally wear bronzer or blush, but if I did I may have tried putting them on at this point so that they would also get sealed. Next, I patted my face down with baby powder. Like in the BuzzFeed video above, the powder did get everywhere. Honestly, it might be a good idea to wear an apron while doing this. Finally, I submerged my face in the ice water. I actually had to submerge it for more than 30 seconds because it was hard to dunk every part of my face with baby powder on it at once. Also, when I lifted my head out of the water, I noticed some flecks of baby powder that were stuck to my forehead and parts of my jawline, despite having touched the water. In the end I just wiped them off, but I did have a bit of a harder time with the baby powder.
Here I am after using the jamsu hack and doing the rest of my makeup. My skin was very smooth and evenly colored after doing the hack- it was almost glowing. My mom had been very skeptical when I told her I was doing this, but after she saw the results, she considered doing it herself. At first I could feel a film on my face, but it was very light and I did not feel it for long. One downside I noticed immediately was that the baby powder seemed to highlight the parts of my face that were dry. I noticed a bit more flaking and the baby powder also seemed to stick more to the dry parts of my face. If I was to do this hack again, I would apply moisturizer first.
I wore this look to a graduation party and had my makeup on for about four hours, which isn’t too long, but I do have oily skin. The makeup stilled looked fairly matte by the end of the night. It started to fade and look a little less flawless over time, but that was more the nature of foundation. I was nervous about dryness but when I looked in the mirror periodically, my skin wasn’t flaking, so that was nice. My mom also told me that her friends and family had been telling her that they thought I had nice skin, so either people noticed the difference in my skin or they really wanted my mom to like them. Here is how I looked at the end of the night.
I would do this hack again as it does seal in your makeup and give a smooth complexion. Yes, you do need to dunk your head in ice water, but beauty is pain. And I personally thought that the pain was worth it.
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