5 Ways Eastern Makeup Is Completely Different Than The West's

Beauty standards are different everywhere, including the kind of makeup we apply and how we do it. In the tutorial “East Meets West,” makeup artist Lisa Eldridge teaches us some of the key differences between makeup in the West (primarily Europe and North America) and East Asia (Japan and Korea, in particular).

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Eldridge explains that she is a former creative director for the Japanese beauty company Shiseido, so she’s spent a while studying beauty trends in Japan, Korea, and the U.S. “It’s always so vastly different,” she says in the video.

Here are some of the makeup tricks she’s picked up from East Asia that might surprise those in the Western hemisphere.

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Base is for brightening.
In Korea, the goal of applying foundation is to make your face look brighter, which means the shade is often a bit lighter than your skin tone and the finish is shinier than what you’d see in the West. Japanese makeup used to include more of a matte base, but Eldridge explains it has picked up Korean influences and become dewier.

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Hiding undereye circles.
In Korea, undereye circles are considered youthful, cute, and “puppyish,” Eldridge says. Sometimes, women will even shade under their eyes instead of using concealer. The Japanese are more likely to use concealer under the eyes to brighten them, like many Americans and Europeans do.

Using concealer.
Japanese and Korean women often don’t use concealer on top of foundation. Instead, Eldridge says, they’ll often take a makeup cushion and spread their foundation around in areas they want to hide.

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Eyeliner is very minimal.
Eyeliner in East Asia is usually brown and often very thin. The line hugs the lashes and doesn’t extend past the corners of the eye.

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False lashes are more popular.
While false lashes have started to pick up in the West, many women in Japan and Korea have been using them on a daily basis for years. They also come in a wider range of styles, with finer ones being more popular.

In the video above, Eldrige does her face up according to each culture’s conventions. The results are different, but equally stunning.

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To watch the full video pictured above, click here.

By: Suzannah Weiss