Beauty Shopping at Seoul’s Best Drugstore With Model Ji Young Kwak

It’s a whirlwind afternoon backstage at Seoul Fashion Week, where makeup artists are hurriedly swatching blushes and BB creams to prepare the girls for Miss Gee Collection. But here, perched easily on a chair before rehearsal, model Ji Young Kwak is all ready to go—her own natural flush and near makeup-free face being a perfect fit for the afternoon’s show.

It’s been seven years since Kwak made her runway debut, at a special Seoul outing by Phillip Lim. “I remember the heels were so high that during the fitting, they made us all walk, and only those who could walk did the show,” she says. Now a part-time New Yorker, who spends six months a year in the East Village, Kwak has gone on to become one of Korea’s top modeling exports, walking shows from Rodarte to Roland Mouret this past season. “Carven was great,” she recalls. “I love that show because we always walk so fast—it’s fun!”

So, what does the 24-year-old keep on her beauty bucket list for her time in Seoul? First, a stop by Cheongdam’s Aura salon, a Korean model go-to, for a special perm that leaves her with the barest second-day wave. Then, it’s off to what Kwak calls her ultimate beauty destination: Olive Young, a chain of Korean drugstores that stocks “beauty treasures,” from honey hydrogel masks to hyaluronic-packed lipsticks. “You have to go to Olive Young!” Kwak says, explaining that the shop is like a CVS or Citypharma, but wholly devoted to beauty. Here, she shares five of her favorite finds, from a healing hair essence to a high-heel wearer’s secret weapon.