Makeup Artist Nam Vo Went to South Korea for a Week of Cutting-Edge Skin Treatments

Makeup artist Nam Vo has just returned to New York City after eight days in Seoul. For Vo, and the four friends who joined her, the vacation involved classic girl’s trip fare: spa days, gossip sessions, and sampling the local cuisine. But the main activity on the agenda: getting snatched.

Vo and her friends all had unique aesthetic goals, and Seoul—specifically the Gangnam neighborhood where many of its beauty clinics are located—seemed like the ideal place to achieve them. South Korea’s beauty industry is one of the most competitive, experimental, and advanced in the world, with a seemingly unlimited supply of transformation providers. Equally appealing for Western tourists: plastic surgery, aesthetic procedures, and skin-care treatments are typically priced far lower than they are in their home countries. (Think $500 for one Sofwave tightening treatment instead of $2,500.) And in many cases, some of the technology being used isn’t yet available elsewhere in the world, making it a playground for beauty enthusiasts.

Vo—who is known for her work with celebrities like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Chrissy Teigen and her community of glowy-skin loving #dewydumplings on social media—visited Seoul for the first time last year. Her friend Eunice Park, MD, a New York City-based board-certified plastic surgeon who was born in South Korea and still visits often, had acted as her guide. “That trip was so relaxing and more spa-like, with lots of pampering,” says Vo. “This time I went in hard. I wanted to see a visible change in my face.”

On the top of Vo’s wishlist was a stem-cell fat grafting procedure. “I’d heard through the grapevine and on social media that this is what Korean celebrities are doing instead of fillers,” says Vo. “An influencer friend, who will remain unnamed, got it right before I did, and her results were amazing.”

Vo, however, didn’t want to take TikTok’s word for it when her face was on the line: “A lot of beauty tourists want to go budget friendly. But the idea of going to a ‘factory clinic’ made for a TikTok clientele, to a doctor whose qualifications you don’t know, who will herd you in and out like you’re on a conveyor belt, was not a path that made me feel safe,” she says. “I’m not saying that you can’t get good results that way, but I’d personally cut costs by staying at a cheaper hotel, or skipping Michelin-starred restaurants. Anytime there’s a needle or laser involved, I want to know that the people who are working on me are highly qualified.”

Vo recommends using a reputable concierge, like Jennifer Seo, the Korean-American founder of Aneue Concierge. After doing the same for herself during annual trips to Korea, in 2019 Seo began curating bespoke itineraries for beauty tourists as a side gig to her day job as an investment banker. (Last year, Seo pivoted to making Aneue her full-time business.) Seo’s concierge service is priced at $500 per category of treatment: non-surgical skin care (including tightening treatments like Ultherapy), medical exams (like allergy and hearing tests), and beauty services (head spas, nails, massages).

Over the years, Seo (who is based in California) has built a network of trusted clinics and doctors in Seoul, all of whom are board-certified by the Korean Dermatological Association. Many are renowned in the Korean dermatology world, with large and loyal followings to show for it. But “most importantly, these doctors have delivered effective, excellent results and aftercare,” says Seo.