The new shop, Lovue (pronounced love you, so cute!) is right on 5th avenue in Koreatown. It's a block away from the 33rd St. Path station, making it super convenient for those coming from Jersey like me! I was a little early, so I went and got Starbucks (mostly so I could use the bathroom...) and happened upon an Amazon Books store. It was actually pretty neat, there were no listed prices - you just scanned the barcode and see what the price is on Amazon, and that's what you pay! Did some browsing and headed back over to Lovue for the start of the event.
I apologize in advance for the photos, I only had my phone with me!
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| The storefront! It is so, so cute. |
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| The store from the second floor! |
My first thought? OVERWHELMING! So many products, K-Pop blasting, giant screens where they played K-Pop videos, it was intense! I must have done 4-5 laps around the store just picking things up and putting them down. The store stretches pretty far back, I was shocked at how large it was! The best part about being able to check out the store the day before opening is that everything is so neat on the shelves, and testers aren't destroyed. The layout of the store is aesthetically pleasing - most of it is done by brand, but then there are walls of sheet masks and areas specific to a certain skincare step. Everything was arranged nicely - I saw a lot of color grouping. They had a large sink in the back for hand washing, and they even had some of the hand soap available for sale to try out at the sink. The store has several large, lighted mirrors as well.
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| The Great Wall of Cosrx |
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| Sheet and Modeling masks! |
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| Various Cleansers |
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| Sheet mask overload! |
Lovue has a ton of brands in stock, I saw the following:
- Cosrx
- Klairs
- Graymelin
- Papa Recipe
- Mizon
- Innisfree
- Thank You Farmer
- Missha
- belif
- Huxley
- Scinic
- JOne
- Benton
- Neogen
- Mediheal
- Elizavecca
...and a bunch more. Some brands only had sheet masks, while other brands had most of the entire line available. Some lines only had certain products - Cosrx had most everything aside from the super new releases, and their sheet masks. I didn't, however see any of the luxury K-Beauty brands like Sulwhasoo in stock. Prices were relatively fair, I think the only super outrageous markup I saw was belif creams going for $56, which outstrip Sephora's prices by a bit. The prices aren't as good as ordering from Korea, but they were definitely doable. Most sheet masks were between $2-$7, and boxes of masks were between $20-$30, all depending on brand. I think it's an okay tradeoff to not have to wait for shipping.
There was a second floor where snacks and drinks were being served. (The bulgogi was soooo good!) The Lovue team and the Beauteers team both thanked everyone for coming. They also whipped out an impressive gift box! The store team also let everyone know that there was 20% off store wide for the length of the event, which got a lot of people (myself included) very excited.
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| Being on a diet sucks, but I had a few bites! |
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| A bit sweaty, but enjoying myself! |
- Elizavecca hydrogel mask
- Scinic modeling mask
- A. True Spring Green Tea Watery Calming Cream
- Bizoo Daily Sheet Masks
- $50 to Dons Bogam Black
I'm very excited to try both the Bizoo sheet masks and the A. True cream! A. True had some other products that looked good, so I'll have to check them out another time. Clearly the best gift was the $50 IN FREE FOOD!!! I can't wait to check the restaurant out.
It was really, really hard not to go wild in the store, they had SO MUCH STUFF! I have a lot of unopened skincare, so I kept myself in check. Here's what I wound up with:
- Peripera Airy Ink Velvet in Elf Light Rose - Everyone raves about these, and three ladies in the shop recommended them. I was glad for the chance to swatch them!
- Klairs Rich Moist Soothing Serum - I wanted a serum or an essence, and this felt the best on my skin from the ten (at least!) I tried.
- Every Helloskin Jumiso mask they had.
- A'pieu falsies - I love East Asian brands of lashes, since I have small eyes and they usually run smaller/more natural.
- Ultru I'm Sorry For My Skin Relaxing and Pore Care jelly masks
- Package foot peel - this was cheaper than my usual TonyMoly so I'm excited to see if it's as good!
- Holika Holika After Working Overtime sheet mask - I actually have a lot of OT scheduled (including this weekend) so this just happened to work out for me.
- SNP Bird's Nest Aqua Ampoule sheet mask - Faceonomics raves about it so I wanted to try it.
I could go back and buy a million more sheet masks. My wishlist grew five miles today! I'm really excited to try all these new masks - some of the ladies at the store suggested a few, and they all had great skin soooo...why not?
Lovue is located at 324 5th Ave in Manhattan. Thank you again to everyone in the store and the crew at Beauteers for inviting me! It was a wonderful time - I will definitely drop in next time I'm in the city!
