How a panda led me to K-Beauty and sheet masks

Hi everyone. I thought I’d tell you the story of how I was first introduced to Korean and Asian Beauty.

One of the things I love most in the world is travelling. Anywhere and everywhere. I prioritise travel above most other things, a fact highlighted by my bank balance far too much of the time :)

My love of travel has a tendency to inspire me to learn all sorts of new things. Travel hacking (finding cheap-ass premium-class flights) being one of them. Once I find something I love I burrow into learning everything I can about it.

For me, finding out about Korean (and Asian) Beauty inspired me in a similar way.

My first trip to Japan a couple of years ago was my very first experience of Asian Beauty. In fact, it was on our flight out of Australia, when I was presented with an amenity kit that included a gorgeous package of the luxe (and expensive) Clé de Peau Beauté line, which included serums and essences. Thing was, I didn’t then know what an ‘essence’ or ‘serum’ really was. I was used to the ‘cleanse, tone, moisturise’ routine that had done virtually nothing for my face for a couple of decades. (I certainly didn’t know anything about the wonders of low-pH cleansers like this one from COSRX. So I popped that package in my bag and made a mental note to look into it all when I got home.

This is Japan Airlines first class. Get your Qantas points on and get on this flight guys – I still reckon it’s one of the best first class experiences in the world!

And then, in Don Quixote (an odd name for a huge Japanese cut-price store), I saw them. Sheet masks. Interesting. Strange. In Hello Kitty packaging. In all honesty, not nearly as cute as the Mediheal Line Friends masks, nor as effective, but at the time a revolution to me.

All I thought was, well, I don’t know what they are, but I need them right now.  In the bag they go, I’ll learn more about them too when I get home.

And then, obviously, I decided I wanted to hold a panda (ha, 'obviously' for possibly only me!) There’s only one place you can do that, you know. In China – just outside of Chengdu to be precise. It’s really surprisingly hard to find out how to get to do this. But TOTALLY worth it.

I may even explain how we did it in a future post. But where was I?

Oh yeah, since I'd ‘travel hacked’ our flights to Chengdu we ended up having to spend a compulsory stopover in Seoul (it's complicated). And as it turns out, when I say we 'had' to stay in Seoul, I mean OMG we were so damn lucky we got to stopover in Seoul! It was amazing. And truly the mecca of Korean Beauty. K-Beauty shops as far as the eye could see. I shopped. And shopped.

From that day forward I was hooked. My skin has never been better, my beauty routine has never been so fun and the products I bought in Seoul didn’t break my bank.

The research started. The online shopping commenced. The distress at continually having to pay huge international shipping costs and wait over six weeks for my coveted products to arrive started to set in. Hmm.

And that was how the Sheet Mask Shop began. I buy direct from Seoul in bulk so you can get the same great products I fell in love with without the international shipping costs and long wait times.

I want you to have your pretties in your hot little hands as soon as possible – come on a K-Beauty journey with me!

Some more Panda photos because how could I not?