K-Beauty in Seoul: Travel Guide for the Best Spas & Treatments

Indagare’s Diana Li is just back from a “skin pilgrimage” to discover K-Beauty in Seoul, South Korea. Get her expert guide to the city’s best spas, clinics and treatments—from cutting-edge facials to traditional rituals—and her report on what to know before you go, what’s worth it (and what’s not) and the products to bring home.

I’ve been completely swept up by the K-Wave—the extraordinary grip of South Korean culture on the world, which has been spreading since the 1990s. What started with the 2003 thriller film Oldboy has now expanded to Squid Game and Parasite, musical groups like BTS and BLACKPINK and, most recently, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning KPop Demon Hunters. The world has fallen in love with K-Everything—and K-Beauty, I’d argue, now reigns supreme.

Seoul is the undisputed beauty capital of the world. In 2024, a record 1.17 million tourists traveled to South Korea for medical purposes, and the vast majority of them came for skin care. Dermatology treatments accounted for 57 percent of visits, while plastic surgeries constituted just 11 percent.

With three daily nonstop flights from New York’s JFK airport (at 15.5 hours), I had no more excuses to delay my Seoul pilgrimage any further. I arrived, auspiciously, the first week of March, during Jeongwol Daeboreum, the first full moon holiday of the Korean lunar new year.

The Korean devotion to skin care isn’t just a fad—it runs centuries-deep. Before setting foot in a modern skin clinic, I wanted to understand some of the beauty culture’s roots, which is how I found myself at Yeo Yong Guk, a traditional Korean medical spa on the second floor of a nondescript office building in Seoul's Songpa district (the city has 25 districts, total). There is nothing flashy about the spa—it’s completely no-frills—but the atmosphere is calm and herbal-scented.

Before my 70-minute intensive facial (priced at 130,000 Korean Won, or about $90), my specialist conducted a Sasang constitution assessment—a traditional Korean medical practice dating back to the 19th century that classifies each person into one of four physiological types. Mine, I learned, is Soyang: strong spleen, weak kidneys and skin that runs warm and benefits from cooling botanicals. Every product used in my treatment was chosen accordingly.

Yeo Yong Guk takes its name and philosophy from a novel written during the Joseon Dynasty by scholar An Jeong-bok, which declared: “A woman taking care of her face is like a king governing a country.” During the Joseon era (1392–1897), skin care was considered a form of self-discipline and moral virtue. Beauty rituals using fermented rice water, ginseng and specific herbal formulations were sophisticated and codified, not frivolous or vain. Korea’s modern obsession with skin care is not a trend. It is an inheritance.

The following day, I made my way to AMRED, a cutting-edge skin clinic that opened in 2019 in the heart of Cheongdam, a glossy neighborhood in Gangnam (think the Beverly Hills of Seoul). The clinic is favored by celebrities and was recently featured on Eugene Levy’s The Reluctant Traveler on Apple TV+. With over 500 dermatology clinics in Seoul alone—and endless Instagram reels and online reviews assessing them—choosing one felt overwhelming, but I did what any seasoned Indagare traveler should do: I trusted our local partner on the ground. (When you plan your trip to Seoul with Indagare, our team ensures that you receive the VIP experience at AMRED—or whichever clinic is best matched to your personal goals.)

The name says everything. AMRED is “derma” in reverse, a nod to the clinic’s mission to reverse aging and rewind the clock. To continue the wordplay, AMRED's signature “Dersign” concept fuses dermatology with design.

AMRED global business director Kevin Jang—whose business card reads “Anti Aging Club”—personally welcomed me and my friend Paloma to the space, taking us on a tour of the VIP lounge and AMRED’s brand-new stem cell lab. The clinic is expanding rapidly to meet demand; a new downtown outpost will soon be focused on holistic wellness, so clients can “find their inner beauty along with their outer beauty,” said Jang.

Approximately half of AMRED’s clients travel from abroad for their treatments, and the clinic has perfected the art of making international visitors feel entirely at ease. Here, step by step, is what that looks like:

Step One: 3D Face Scan

An assistant gently removed every trace of my makeup, and suddenly there was nowhere to hide. Bare-faced and vulnerable, I placed my head inside an orb-like scanner that photographed and mapped my face in its entirety—every pore, line and sunspot traced with the latest technology. Two minutes later, my skin had no secrets left.

Step Two: Consultation

With the full picture in hand—and a fresh protein shake delivered from AMRED’s in-house elixir bar—we settled in for a masterclass in modern skin science. Consultations at AMRED are one-on-one and run for a minimum of 30 minutes; ours stretched well past an hour. My friend Paloma and I chose to do our consultations together with Dr. Chulhee Lee, a Seoul-born doctor who grew up in New Jersey before returning home, so we could compare notes and bounce questions off each other.

Dr. Lee began with a survey of AMRED’s skin care landscape. They offer two main categories of procedures: 1. Injections, including stem cell-derived therapy (Corecell), thread lifting, Botox, skin boosters like Rejuran, collagen boosters, hADM treatments (Re2O, Juvelook, CellRedm) and fillers; and 2. Lifting, which includes technology like Sofwave, Onda, Thermage, Ultherapy, EMFACE, Titanium, Alltite, TuneFace and more. In essence, all lifting machines do the same thing: trick your skin into thinking it’s been injured, so that it repairs itself, flooding the skin with new collagen and elastin. The difference between the various methods is how deep they reach and what type of energy they use to create that controlled response. Dr. Lee walked us through a cross-section diagram of the skin’s layers to show exactly which technology penetrates where.

One revelation from our discussion: most of these machines originate in Israel, and their real power comes from sequencing—layering multiple treatments strategically, sometimes running two machines simultaneously. AMRED has refined this choreography to a perfect science. Other clinics may charge lower rates for treatments, but at AMRED, you are getting access to a doctor who thinks beyond individual procedures to architect an entire program. Dr. Lee’s role, ultimately, is to filter the overwhelming menu of options down to the handful that are right for you—your goals, your skin type, your pain tolerance, your timeline. He answered every question we had—from, “What's the difference between Thermage and Ultherapy” to, “On a scale of one to 10, how much does this hurt?”—with the patience of someone who has heard it all before.

Step Three: Individualized Treatment

During the course of two hours of treatments, I never had to leave the room. Doctors, machines and assistants come to you, one after another, while you remain in your bed in comfort. It is the opposite of the factory clinic experience that exists elsewhere in Seoul, where patients sit in curtained-off rows in shared rooms. After I settled in with a welcome amenity kit—recovery cream included—my treatments unfolded in carefully orchestrated succession, each procedure layered in the precise sequence AMRED’s team had designed for my skin. Here’s what I had:

• Whitening IV Drip: A vitamin-infused drip delivering high-dose ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and brightening compounds directly into the bloodstream for maximum absorption and a lit-from-within glow.
• Aqua Peel: A gentle vacuum-suction treatment that deep cleans and unclogs pores, removing blackheads and impurities without irritation.
• Lhala Peel: A next-generation Korean “skin-filling” peel that dissolves dead cells and replenishes the skin barrier without any peeling, redness or downtime.
• Corage: A non-invasive lifting treatment using resonance energy technology to stimulate collagen renewal and firm the skin; it’s painless, with no downtime.
• Astrodome Facial: A futuristic, Korean-developed dome treatment combining LED light therapy, near-infrared and oxygen anion mist to soothe, hydrate and restore the skin.
• Numbing Cream: Applied for 30 minutes.
• Titanium: A painless lifting treatment using titanium-tipped energy delivery that tightens skin with immediate visible results; it’s the procedure of choice when you want to look your best, fast.
• Potenza Microneedling with PDRN Salmon: Microneedles create controlled micro-channels in the skin while simultaneously infusing PDRN—a regenerative compound derived from salmon DNA—to accelerate collagen production and repair.
• Aftercare: A recovery protocol of calming serums and recovery cream to protect and accelerate results in the days following treatment.
• Plus: One treatment I didn’t have but want to note is Re2O, currently the most buzzed-about injectable in Korean dermatology. Derived from human-donated skin tissue, it replenishes the skin’s own structural scaffolding—not adding hydration or stimulating collagen, but rebuilding the biological foundation itself. File it under: for next time.

Two other beauty experiences that belong on any Seoul itinerary:

• Christian UNV is Seoul’s most coveted head spa (with Zendaya's stamp of approval). You don’t necessarily need the full VIP upgrade here, but do carve out time for the signature scalp treatment; it is deeply meditative and the perfect recovery for your procedures at the skin clinic. Pro tip: make sure to select “yes” on your intake form if you want a beautiful Instagram story-ready video of your head spa treatment.

• The House of Sulwhasoo Bukchon is part flagship store, part cultural monument and arguably the most beautiful beauty destination in Seoul. Housed in a restored 1930s hanok building in the city’s most historic neighborhood, it’s where Korea’s most storied luxury skincare brand brings its hanbang philosophy—centuries of botanical and ginseng-based herbal wisdom—to life. I couldn’t leave Seoul without their legendary Concentrated Ginseng Rejuvenating Cream, bundled into a set with the First Care Activating Serum and Rejuvenating Cleansing Foam, all wrapped in traditional bojagi cloth.

I have a feeling my Seoul skin pilgrimage won’t be a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, but rather will become a ritual I return to every few years. Already, a handful of girlfriends have asked to join the next trip, and I suspect I’ll find every excuse to strategically select Seoul as an extended layover en route to Asia.

After my time in Seoul, I continued on to explore in Japan. From my nightstand at the Bulgari Hotel Tokyo, I picked up Wabi Sabi: The Wisdom in Imperfection by Nobuo Suzuki and landed on a passage that lingered: “For a Japanese, everything is more beautiful when it bears the marks of the passing of time… In fact, wounds or flaws distinguish what is unique from what is commonplace. This is equally applicable to the wrinkles or scars of a person and to the rust on a saucepan or kettle.” It was a quiet counterbalance—a grounding reminder, even—as I reflected on Seoul’s (and my own) pursuit of perfection.

You will pass an Olive Young—Korea’s best-known store for all things skin care and cosmetics—on what feels like every corner in Seoul (think Sephora meets CVS, but at a fraction of the price, with ingredients you can’t get in the U.S.) It can be genuinely overwhelming to shop here, so my advice is to skip the neighborhood outposts and go straight to the Olive Young Myeongdong flagship, where a dedicated global bestsellers section does the editing for you. Every item displayed there has earned its place.

Here's what I brought home, for myself and for everyone on my gift list:

• Beauty of Joseon: the hottest Korean skin care brand right now, rooted in Joseon Dynasty hanbang ingredients; everything is worth trying but the sunscreen is particularly good.
• BIOHEAL BOH Probioderm 3D Lifting Cream: a probiotic-powered firming cream that plumps and tightens.
• Torriden Dive-In Low Molecular Hyaluronic Acid Masks and Serum: deeply hydrating sheet masks and a hyaluronic acid serum for serious moisture replenishment.
• Biodance Bio-Collagen Real Deep Mask (and Biodance Pore Perfecting Collagen Peptide Cream): a cult-favorite overnight bio-cellulose mask that visibly minimizes pores by morning.
• Round Lab Birch Juice Toner: a lightweight, calming toner beloved by Korean dermatologists for sensitive skin.
• MEDIHEAL PDRN Lifting Pad 100P: exfoliating pads infused with salmon DNA for skin regeneration, and Madecassoside Pad for blemish-prone and post-procedure skin.
• Mediheal PDRN Face Masks: regenerating sheet masks packed with salmon DNA; buy the packs of ten—they are the perfect gift.
• CNP Anti-Pore Blackhead Perfect Clear Kit (Steps 1 & 2): a two-step pore-cleansing system that makes for a satisfying before-and-after.
• SKIN1004 Centella Ampoule: a soothing, barrier-repairing hero ingredient now available in the U.S., but at a fraction of the price in Seoul.