Purchases in Korea

[Solemnsaint]

I am now in Korea and since I will be here for a good while, I have stocked up on all my favorite products. Is there anything shaving related that could be had here in Korea. More like things that are Korea specific. Anyone have any purchasing requests for me? I'll be more than happy to ship anything for fellow B&Bers.
-Mike

 

[canuckerr]

God Speed over there...

 

[Greglam]

Enjoy your time there! Are you there for military service or teaching English? Before I came to grad school I had planned to go to South Korea to teach. I love the food and culture but don't know of any Korea-specific shaving items but would be interested to hear of what you might find and perhaps try some so please keep this link updated.

Cheers!

-Greg

 

[gixxer]

I leave for Kunsan On 6 Dec, I have stocked up for the most part on all of my stuff and if I need anything the internet is my friend. I doubt they have any shaving type stores there.

 

[gearchow]

I am now in Korea and since I will be here for a good while, I have stocked up on all my favorite products. Is there anything shaving related that could be had here in Korea. More like things that are Korea specific. Anyone have any purchasing requests for me? I'll be more than happy to ship anything for fellow B&Bers.
-Mike

There has got to be Korean shaving related items, but I've never heard of it, and that isn't saying much. I bet you could find Japanese after shaves there?

You ought to post this into Aftershaves forum as well. I know some of those folks travel a lot and certainly The Nid Hog gets to Japan. Maybe they got some ideas.

And watch out for those Koreans. Man, they can frigging drink!

-jim

 

[Clovis Man]

I spent a year at Kunsan 1989-1990. Not a lot of fun.

Anyway, I would suggest you take things like soap or cream with you. Blades, too, even though it's pretty easy to mail-order stuff, as APO/FPO gets the same rate as within the United States. I doubt you'll find much on the open market there, at least not as far as shaving soaps & creams. The BX will carry basic needs, such as canned shaving cream and cartridges.

When I was there, I was using the shaving brush that had the shaving soap container in the handle -- can't remember if Schick offered it or somebody else -- but anyway, the BX quit handling the refills, making it necessary to buy a complete new unit when it ran out of shaving cream! And they carried 3-cell Mag Lights, but the only replacement bulbs in the BX were for FOUR cells!

I couldn't buy clothes in the BX, either, because it was all sized for the Koreans rather than us big Americans. Seems Ata-shi got caught dealing merchandise out the back door to Korean nationals, going against the SOFA and ration system. I think I remember the BX manager getting fired over that.

As for things that I would like to get from Korea -- I must be really bitter. I can't think of anything I'd like to have from there -- although it would be nice to visit again, for perhaps a day or two.

If you get the opportunity to visit Panmunjom, TAKE IT, you won't get that opportunity again. Unless they're shooting that day, of course. No smiley here.

 

[gixxer]

This is my third time going there, went to Osan first time for a year, then Kwang Ju for 4 months a couple years later. These days Korea is not all that bad, you can pay to get a stateside telephone number with your internet package. The BX at Kunsan is rebuilt and pretty huge, and I believe the one at Osan is the same or smaller unless they have renovated it since.

 

[Wil Dorenbos]

I am now in Korea and since I will be here for a good while, I have stocked up on all my favorite products. Is there anything shaving related that could be had here in Korea. More like things that are Korea specific. Anyone have any purchasing requests for me? I'll be more than happy to ship anything for fellow B&Bers.
-Mike

They should have Dorco, do not know of any other shave stuff from Korea.

 

[julian0808]

I was in Seoul for 6 months, all the Gilette parapehenalia is there but for us devotees, there is nothing much. There are some amazing potteries there producing all sorts of weird stuff. once you have overcome the language barrier, maybe they could custom make you a scuttle of 8!. Most of your shaving goodies can be posted but alas, like China, it falls into the 'Rest of the World' category which means the most expensive. On the plus side, Japan is less than a couple of hours away with all that feather has to offer. Whack-O-Kim-O is 40 kms away taking practice shots at the outlying (South) Korean islands.

 

[Luc]

This might help: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=149201

 

[Hex]

I asked my wife (Korean) to try and find me some on her weekly trip to the Korean supermarket. The closest she could come was this stuff.
http://www.ievecare.com/12419.html

I smeared a little on and I guess it can be used as an aftershave. It's a bit sticky but has a nice fragrance. Not part of my daily rotation though.

 

[lars7]

The link to the other similar thread, as provided by Luc, should assist.

To expand on what Hex said, I have tried nearly all the IOPE, Face Shop and Misha mens cosmetics products while I was in South Korea (4 years).

They're doing a good job, but keep in mind they are not top-of-the-range products.

In South Korea you'll find two main cosmetics chain stores: Face Shop (which is essentially an imitation of The Body Shop) and Misha.

The Face Shop has (or had should I say) around 300 little stores all around South Korea, many of them inside supermarkets (E-Mart, for example.) They make all sorts of things, soaps, shower gels, moisturizers, and a number of products for women of course. Prices are very reasonable, $5-$10 for an after shave/balm product for men, if i am not mistaken and depending on the size of tub/tube.

You will not be able (at least from what my experience taught me while I was there, from 2006 to 2009) to find real shaving supplies in these stores. Asians generally and by nature do not have high growth of stubble and tend to prefer considerably electric shavers (if you ever go to Japan do yourself a favor and drop in a Yodobashi electronics superstore, you'll be shocked on the electric shavers models they have there.)

I have heard a story that the owner of The Face Shop used to sell T-shirts in local open markets before developing the concept of these stores and expanding all over South Korea.

Misha stores are something similar, though I feel The Face Shop has a wider range of products. Koreans (and especially women) have an obsession with looking well after their skin, and there are specialist clinics in Seoul where they go for one, two or even three day treatments.

Almost everywhere you'll find that there is plentiful of skin care: for example, they have this strange concept (even for men) of 3-step moisturizing. They don't really use one moisturizer and that's it - instead, they use (a) lotion, (b) emulsion and (c) creme. The "lotion" is what we would call aftershave but a bit thicker, the "emulsion" is what we would call "balm" and the "creme" is what we would refer to as a thick creme (they don't actually call it creme, they call it something else but I just cannot remember it now, and it is not as thick as a creme...)

In addition to the above, they have two different, distinct, lines for all face moisturizing products: "normal" and "whitening", with the whitening one having the ability (supposedly) to assist your face in retaining its whiteness.

In addition to The Face Shop and Misha there are a number of other generic cosmetics offerings. Now comes the secret: the bottom line is that the aforementioned chains and the generic brand offerings do not vary that much from one another. After using/sampling most of them, you'll notice they are more or less the same, scent-, price- but also efficacy-wise. Therefore I would only assume they are made by the same factory (something like Creightons in the UK) and then re-branded or adjusted slightly in composition depending on the label they are about to be sold under.

Now we come to IOPE. IOPE has similar products in the 'ordinary' price range, but they also have a 'high-end' line (I think this is for women only) where their moisturizers are really good (we're talking here on face moisturizers [24h type] that cost about $100 per 75ml tub).

I did have bottles of almost all mens products from these brands, but they're all back at home in Greece, did not keep them with me here in expat land.

I do however have left some face masks, still to be used. Here's a picture:

These cost $1.50 each approximately, depending on the exchange rate. They're very nice and easy to use, and leave your skin soft and moisturized after use.

You'll find a very nice and wide selection of soaps at The Face Shop, they have soaps made from rice, give it a try, it's very good.

Enjoy your stay in South Korea and if wish to ask anything just give us a shout. It's a beautiful country (and I had to come to Eastern Europe in order to appreciate that), the food may be hard to get used to but all in all it will be a whole different experience.

 

[Solemnsaint]

Wow gentlemen. I din't even expect more than one response to my thread, but that is some great info! I'll check it out. If I find anything really neat then I'll offer to send it back for you fellows. Thanks for the responses. And as for Wack-o Kim-o, we'll keep him in line. He can only be so crazy before the world puts a stop to him and all his ilke. We dont like bombs being lobbed at us... I'll keep you posted.

 

[nathanb]

I have been to Korea (and lived there) a number of times. My wife is Korean. I have found some pretty good Aftershave and Balm sets. Normally she just buys them for me online. But I saw a large selection in the Home Plus (a chain of grocery stores there).

The best aftershave / balm set I have found is one called Exprim by Vonin.

I posted in the aftershave forum a while ago about it:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=133668&highlight=Exprim

While you probably will not find great soaps, creams, or even razors in Korea I think that you can find some decent aftershaves and balms. At least I have. Any time you go to a grocery store just look around and see what you find, there should be some decent aftershaves.