TonyMoly brings Korean beauty to Pakistan
Lahore: Korean Beauty has become somewhat of a mammoth entity with tons of players. While the market is dominated by many individual products, TonyMoly still manages to stand out under this umbrella. Overtime K Beauty has proved itself to be more than just a passing fad and its real staying power is evident in the way TonyMoly has expanded in the decade it’s been around. It now has stand-alone retail stores across Asia, Russia, Spain, Mexico and the US. This week, it finally made an official entry into Pakistan’s beauty and skincare market with a website and plans to open a store within a year.
The brand is known for its intrepid use of bizarre ingredients, cute packaging and an emphasis on skincare but the reason it’s been able to sustain for so long is because of its constant innovation. While many established Western beauty brands are still playing around with sheet masks (Garnier), the Koreans are fearlessly revolutionizing skincare, launching product after product into the industry. The K Beauty boom shows no signs of waning.
At the launch of the brand in Lahore, they had renowned dermatologist Dr. Haroon Nabi speak about the perils of items that are pushed in the local beauty industry versus what K-beauty promises. “If you’re eating natural products, why not put the same on your face?” and “if you wouldn’t eat it don’t put it on your face”. While we appreciate the sentiment and it applies to most of the cutesy K-beauty products like banana hand cream, face cream shaped like peaches, eggs, apples or green tea extracts – there are some skin care items made from ingredients that are the stuff of nightmares. Camel Milk Creamor, Bubble Donkey Milk Foam Cleanser, a collection of products containing snail mucin which is the goop secreted by snails; this is stuff none of us are eating. There is however an air of curiosity that surrounds these products that gets people going. Besides, with so much constant innovation they’re bound to land on the real gold mine sooner or later. I tried TonyMoly’s snail slime mask in the name of good skin and did notice that my skin was marginally more soft, supple and clear than before. Regular use may show more visible results.
“The only products doing well in Pakistan are Fair and Lovely and Faiza Beauty Cream,” said Dr Nabi at the launch. K-beauty is a far cry from the kind of substances used to make skin fairness creams focusing on natural goodness. Time will tell whether Korean beauty takes off in a big way in Pakistan, as it has in beauty circles. The good thing is that at least conversations about cruelty free, environment friendly and organic products are taking place.
The launch event also had a kathak dance routine by Nighat Chaudhry, a floral headgear presentation by Ali Xeeshan and a concert by Jimmy Khan. A well rounded event, except for the “fashion presentation” that could have been done away with, K-beauty made its way to Pakistan with a bang and we hope it doesn’t recede with a whimper.
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