Reply To: Permanent Makeup in Seoul

[steffie183]

I went to Be & Me last Chuseok to get my eyeliner retouched. I wanted a different style than the place I went to originally did. I talked to them in Korean over KakaoTalk, made an appointment and got a quote about how much it would cost including if they would be able to do this style since no other place I talked to would do it.

When I went there, the office looked very clean and nice but there were so MANY people! It looked like a free clinic! I’m talking so many people that even though there were multiple sitting areas for different sections, there still were at least 15 people standing around. I couldn’t help but think they just wanted to pack in as many people as possible to make as much money as possible. But I thought to myself, Chuseok is this weekend…maybe that is why it is so busy. I had another conference about the style I wanted and the worker didn’t seem to care about it at all. There were no examples and she didn’t seem confident, just told me to tell the technician and it will be done. The style I wanted was full on top, just a little on the bottom outer corners. Every picture they had were full lines. I was worried by this lack of caring but thought to myself, I will see how the technician feels since they will be the one performing the tattoo and if they are confident, I am good. Then there was a snag.

The price was DOUBLE what they quoted to me. I understand if I wanted a full upper and lower line it would be that price, but I was asking for just a tiny bit, maybe 25% of the lower line. This is Korea, where they are always making deals and negotiating these prices down. Nope. It was top and bottom, even a little, so it would be full price. Alright, if this was told to me initially, I wouldn’t have even come in. I felt a little lied to.

Next was the nail in the coffin of why I walked out. They wanted me to pay BEFORE the procedure. Umm….So if it looks horrible I have no way to negotiate with them to fix it? I have had eyeliner tattoos before, eyelash extensions, I go to a dermatologist, had eye repair surgery, etc. I have lived in Korea for 9 years. I have never needed to pay before any procedures! I told them that I had to leave and left. Maybe they do really good tattooing, but from what I saw of the girl who talked to me…and how they treated their customers….I was skeptical and not about to pay hundreds of dollars to have a permanent mistake.

I will update with the place for eyeliner I originally went to and I am currently looking for a good eyebrow place that are able to do non-Korean styles. While I love the Korean natural brow trend, it just wouldn’t look good on my face.