Korean Ideas of Beauty

♥ Honey Thighs ♥

The term “Honey thighs,”  which isn’t a derogatory term in modern Korean culture (well I don’t think so) – although some netizens have found controversy with the term, as you can read HERE via All K Pop- instead, it’s a high compliment praising women who have immaculate ,thin looking thighs with no cellulite. K-Poppers blessed with “Honey Thighs,” include (the queen of Honey Thighs) UEE from Afterschool, Tiffany from SNSD (Girl’s Generation) and Hyuna of 4-Minute. Humph, people can call me Honey Thighs any day if it’s such a compliment!

♥ Ulzzang ♥

the Korean craze of Ulzzangs; you can read a full description of the meaning behind this look HERE, but in its simplest Korean to English translation it just means “best face.” However, don’t let these simple words define the, sometimes strange, culture of Ulzzang(ing?) as to look Ulzzang you must have BIG pupils, double eye-lids, fair/white skin, and a ‘cute’ nose and mouth- also, guys can be considered one too. If you google “Ulzzang,” you’ll find many tutorials on how to look like an Ulzzang, and here’s where the strange side of things comes in, because, there are some girls out there who aren’t natural Ulzzangs, but use heavy make up and even Photoshop to achieve the look. If you just google “Before and After Ulzzang” you’ll find some scary pictures. Furthermore, at times, they looks like manga girls come  to life, which just screams “Fetish!” to me. Lastly, the best Ulzzangs in Korea, in my opinion, are those who are naturally beautiful in this way and it seems that Korean culture agrees with me on this one, as many people have become famous simply for having an Ulzzang face- as you can see from the pics I’ve included above!

 Read my post about this ulzzang look :

Ulzzang Look = Perfect Face 

Makeup Tutorial  By The Ulzzang Pony (part 1)

part 2

part 3

♥ Circle Lenses ♥

Part of the DNA of being or looking like an Ulzzang are having big pupils- circles lenses, help you achieve that look by being a contact lens which really overemphasis and creates a bigger looking pupil, you can see some before and after pics of using the lenses HERE. Some Korean stars use these lenses on a daily basis- to the point that, without them, they look like a whole other person!

♥ Eye Smile ♥

In Korean culture, an eye smile occurs when you smile and your eyes naturally arch into a half-moon shape. In layman terms, you smile, but your eyes end up half squinting at the same time! Which rather seems odd when Koreans go to great lengths to make their eyes appear bigger and even have surgery to do so- all that effort gone to waste. But to be honest, I love me a Korean eye smile any day, since it seems to convey beauty, innocence and friendliness all in one go (I wish I had an eye smile, rather than a stink eye LOL), and you too can achieve an eye smile -even me- just smile and really squint, hard. I’m of course joking because if you try doing so you might come off looking fake, crazy or even show too much teeth, but come on, whose to say these Korean celebs aren’t practicing their “eye smiles” in such a way at home, in front of the mirror? 

♥ Aegyo-Sal ♥

Well, as strange as it may seem to us Non-Koreans who have a daily battle to get rid of our eye bags, South Koreans are actually fighting hard to gain some and if they don’t have any, they’ll ‘make’ some by surgery; but, hold on a minute, they don’t want just any kind of tired eye-bags, oh no my friends, they want some “Aegyo-Sal.” Eye bags that aren’t the dark, droopy ones we know of but little plump eye bags-. My question here though, is if you have Aegyo-Sal and get dark eye bags, will that mean you’ll get double the eye bags? Not a good look if so! Apparently these Aegyo-Sal babies mean the difference between normal looking eyes and eyes that look youthful and ‘charming’- looking at the above “With or without Aegyo-Sal” picture, do you think this rings true? For me, Aegyo-Sal is something very unique to Korea, and I’ve never seen a Korean without them. Looking at the above pictures, they do seem to make a bit of a difference by making people appear more youthful etc, but don’t these qualities all just tie in with the Korean love of Ulzzang type beauty?

to be continued.... 

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