Design Your Own Lip Colour at Etude House

Enter the Etude House. One of the most popular make-up brands in Korea, known for their fun pink and white interior. Most importantly, it is home to the COLOR FACTORY! Here, you can find the right foundation, lipstick shades and more for your skin tone and you can also customize your lipstick case. This is a great activity to do one afternoon with your girlfriends or if you are visiting Seoul. Read about the experience below!

How it Works

The Myeongdong Etude House is THREE stories high! That is a lot of make-up! The Color Factory is located up on the 3rd floor. When you arrive, you are greeted by a consultant who will ask for your reservation information. Then you will be seated at the table and be asked to fill out your information like name, nationality, etc. After that they use this handy device to scan your skin colour. *If you are wearing make-up they will wipe it off so that they can get your true colour (btw, I'm Canadian and this is how we spell the word!).

If you have a darker skin tone, like I do, this device probably will not be able to find your skin tone. Instead, they scan the inside of your wrist, even though it's not the same skin colour!?! After scanning they show you your results. For my skin tone cool summer colours like medium pinks and dark plum colours would look best on me. On the device you can see what shades would look best on your face, cheeks, lips and eyes.

Related: Make Your Own Perfume in Seoul

Next, we moved over to the mirror for the colour draping. I know You are probably wondering what I mean by draping. Draping is the method of holding up cloth to your skin in order to show how each shade makes your skin look. For example, if you are matched with cool summer shades then they would hold up the cloth with those colours against your skin, so that you can see how good they would look on you. They also do the same thing for the shades what don't suit you well. You can actually see the difference with this method. In my case, warm summer tones would be least likely to look good on me because they bring out the yellow and orange in my skin's undertone. 

Now this is the fun part, you get to start choosing shades. There were literally over 30 different colours to choose from! I love that they had so many options, although I found it quite difficult to choose colours. I had the option of choosing 5 different shades to try on. I chose two, the consultant chose two and my friend chose one. ​The colours are scooped out onto a piece of paper and then labeled so the codes are not forgotten. Then you get to try them on! I found that I pretty much like all the colours but I only wanted to buy two.

About to try on the chosen few lipstick shades

Here is a good look at all of the shades. As you can see, there are lots of options to chose from.

Look at all these lipstick shades!

Once you choose your lipstick shades then you can choose your lipstick case. Just like the lipstick shades, there are tons of cases to chose from. They are all really fun and cute. I decided just to keep it simple and chose my favourite colour, purple and pink. Then, you go back to the table and write what you want inscribed on it, double check your colours then pay for your lipsticks.

Look at all these cute cases!

Related: Make Your Own Two-Toned Lip Bar at Laneige

They tell you to make the lipstick it'll take 30 mins, so you have the choice to walk around outside or just sit and wait. The laboratory where the lipstick is made has a glass window so you can watch some of the process.

Or, you can play with the other shades they have on display. They have colour wheels available so you can take samples of the shades on the wall. You can also mix your own shades by adding the blending colours on top of the different shades.

30 minutes later..... YAY! My lipsticks are finished! How cute are the cases?

Making a Reservation

Do not go into the store to make a reservation as they will not accept it, as I so rudely found out. You can either call or book online. The problem with calling is that no one ever answers the phone. However, for the online reservation they only show up to two weeks in advance. It still may be difficult to get an appointment because they fill up quickly but it's best to check regularly.

Cost

The prices for making your own lipstick varies on how many lipsticks you are looking to make:
One Lipstick Colour is ₩20,000
Two Lipstick Colours is ₩35,000
Both options are 60 mins long, including the wait time for making the lipstick

Locations

Myeongdong Flagship Store
Address: 64-2, Myeongdong 1-ga, Jung-gu Seoul
Phone #: 02-3789-5463
Closest subway: Myeongdong Exit #6 or Euljiro 1-ga Exit #5 or 6

​Garosugil Store
Address: 541 Sinsa-Dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 1F/B1
Phone #: 02-549-7202
Closest subway: Sinsa Exit #6