Makeup makers find solid foundation in Korean men / Ultracompetitive society leaves little room for blemishes
(10-24) 04:00 PST Seoul — 2003-10-24 04:00:00 PST Seoul -- The handsome young men walk past each other in the blinding sunlight.
Their shoulders lightly brush, and they turn their heads for a closer inspection.
"Wow, he's got great skin," murmurs one, while the other casually informs him, "It's just that I've changed skin lotion."
The scene is from a television advertisement, hawking what is euphemistically called a "color lotion" for men. Actually, it's a liquid foundation designed, as the ad says, to "cover the imperfections."
Cosmetics merchants in the West still fantasize about the day that men will wear makeup -- and presumably cough up as much money as women on their appearance -- but in South Korea, the future is here.
Color lotion was introduced last year with a lavish advertising campaign starring androgynous World Cup soccer star Ahn Jung Hwan -- the David Beckham of South Korea. The lotion chalked up $4 million in sales in the first six months, surprising even its manufacturer.
Meanwhile, the chairman of one of the country's largest cosmetics companies recently published his confessional memoirs with the title "The CEO Who Wears Makeup."
"Why shouldn't men want to look beautiful and take care of their skin?" asked Yu Sang Ok, 70, the head of Coreana Cosmetics. "Especially as they grow older, they have to wear makeup if they don't want to look shabby."
In fact, Korean men have been touching up their appearances long before the term "metrosexual" was coined by trend-spotters in the West to describe heterosexual men who willingly spend money on their looks.
Most politicians older than 50 dye their hair. President Roh Moo Hyun and his predecessor, Kim Dae Jung, are distinguished by prominent heads of jet black hair -- as is North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, although his regime is sufficiently secretive so that one cannot say with certainty whether his hair is dyed.
Kim Min Yoo, an Estee Lauder salesman at a department store, says that prominent figures have been using makeup as well, but discreetly.
"It's always existed. Men would wear a little of their wives' or girlfriends' makeup. It is just that now it is out in the open and respectable, " said Kim, who wears his hair streaked with copper highlights and admits to applying a little powder and eyebrow pencil on special occasions.
South Korea is rightfully famous in Asia for its pursuit of beauty.
ORIGINALLY FROM HERE: http://articles.sfgate.com/2003-10-24/news/17511875_1_lotion-south-korea-north-korean-leader
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