Skin
Korean skin menus, word by word — 7 terms worth knowing first
Translation apps turn the menu words for a course, regeneration, firmness and calming all into “care”. They are four different bookings, in two different kinds of building.
The single most useful thing to know before booking skin work in Korea is which door you are walking through. After that, the menu is a short vocabulary list — the same six or seven words appear on almost every price list.
This is a glossary, not advice. What each treatment does for your skin is a question for the place you book, in the room, with your face in front of them.
- 01Dermatology clinic and skin salon are two different businessesA dermatology clinic is a medical practice with licensed doctors. A skin salon (esthetic) is a licensed beauty business. Lasers, injections and prescriptions belong to the first. Knowing which you booked matters more than any other line on the menu.
- 02“Care” means a course, not a stepThe word Korean salons print where English says “treatment” — apps render it “care” or “management” — means a sequence of steps over 60–90 minutes, not a single mask. A menu line reading “hydration care” is the whole appointment, not an add-on to something else.
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- 03Deep cleansing and exfoliation are the opening, not the pointDeep cleansing and exfoliation (dead skin) are the preparation stage nearly every course starts with. If a menu lists only these two, you are booking a cleanse — the goal words below are what change the price.
- 04The three goal words: hydration · brightening · firmnessHydration · brightening · firmness (often written “lifting”). Almost every Korean skin menu is organised around these three, and the one you pick is what the whole course is built toward. Name the goal, not a description.
- 05Calming and regeneration are the recovery wordsCalming and regeneration are what salons put on courses meant for skin that has just been through something — sun, a long flight, a procedure elsewhere. They are the ones to look for when you have arrived and your face is not itself yet.
- 06Back care and body are not on your faceBack care and body are separate lines with their own times and prices. They are commonly booked before a wedding or a beach trip, and they do not come bundled with a facial course.
- 07A session pass is a package, and it is prepaidKorean skin salons sell single sessions and session passes / packages (a block of sessions), with the per-session price falling as the block gets bigger. A visitor here for four days should be reading the single-session column — the package price on the wall is not the price of one visit.
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- Scatter LoungeSkin & Esthetic · GangnamEnglish₩143,000Typical priceRequest to book
- SwaniSkin & Esthetic · MyeongdongEnglish₩150,000Typical priceRequest to book
- Kkong Saem AestheticSkin & Esthetic · GangnamEnglish₩154,000Typical price · varies by levelRequest to book
- Jooyeon AestheticSkin & Esthetic · GangnamEnglish₩225,000Typical priceRequest to book
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Pick the course you actually want, send up to three times, and let the salon confirm one — no Korean phone number needed.
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