What’s hot in Seoul?

Believe it or not, snail mucus is. Exactly how you extract it from snails is beyond me. My boss thinks they make the snails sneeze (but how??) Actually, if the Chinese can extract mucus from frogs (hashima), I’m sure the same process will work for snails, right? For the record, Phillip and I used to think you get frog’s mucus from holding a female frog in front of a male frog and opening her legs…

Anyway, all the Korean brands are putting snail mucus into their beauty products. I got conned into buying some last weekend by The Face Shop saleslady. She took one look at me and said that the women “in my age group” should go for snail mucus. And guess what? This is the first time somebody correctly guessed my age group. Nobody (and I really mean nobody) can tell that I’m in my 30s but these Koreans can. I supposed it’s because they are so super sensitive about aging.

So I was told that snail mucus is good for getting rid of wrinkles, smooth and regenerate the skin, heal scars and so on. For some brands, like Missha, they claim to feed their snails red ginseng to preserve the quality of their mucus. Hahaha! Anyway, I was sold and bought some snail mucus BB cream and you know what, it’s actually quite an awesome product. It’s not drying (like most BB cream) and it really blend into your skin (doesn’t make you look like a geisha) and gives you a nice dewy look. But of course it was a bitch to get it off your face at the end of the day – you need to add extra 2 more steps to your beauty regime. That said, it’s worth the trouble because since it’s so hard to get off, you can imagine how lasting it is. I was sweating like a pig eating BBQs after BBQs in Seoul, but my BB cream stays intact.

What else is hot? Well, I’m glad my JB DVD uncle gave me the latest K-Pop hits last week before my trip because I did my homework playing that in my car before I left and lo behold, I know all the songs that were playing on the streets in Myengdong. What’s especially hot is that 2NE1 song (I Love You) and needless to say, PSY’s “Gangnam Style” which btw, has 147 million views on youtube! To educate my boss on Korea (since it’s his first trip to Korea), I made him watch the video and he was absolutely in love with it. In fact, he did something quite unexpected during our training. He did that gallop move during his introduction speech which got everyone rolling on the floor.

Seoul rocks.