Korean beauty brand Holika Holika opens shop on Queen West
Product hoarders, take note: this new Korean beauty boutique will likely test your resolve. Holika Holika, a popular South Korean cosmetics brand, recently launched a new downtown Toronto location at Queen and John, near the MuchMusic building. (Its first Canadian outlet opened in Markham’s Pacific Mall in 2012). The little shop carries all the components of a traditional multi-step Korean skincare routine: cleansing oils, sugar scrubs, toners, “essence” (i.e. concentrated serums) and fabric facial masks infused with ingredients like snail secretions and placenta extract. Makeup junkies will find lip glosses, BB creams and rainbow-hued eye shadow palettes, most priced on par with mid-range drugstore brands. There’s even a special BB cream for men (minus the candy-coloured packaging), because who ever said guys shouldn’t flaunt flawlessly even skin?
M-Th 10-8, F-Sa 10-9, Su 11-8, 311A Queen St. W., holikaholika.ca
Meh…not a lot of colour choices for BB creams and foundations, and this is coming from someone of East Asian descent. Seriously, it’s either really, really light skin or really light skin. Nothing for someone like me who is more of a “medium.” Oh well, that still leaves me with a good 80 to 85% of the store.
hmm interesting, never thought Holika Holika was a big brand in Korea. Wonder why they’re trying to expand to North America rather than making their position firm in Korea first
I’d rather see Etude House start a flagship store here in Toronto… that’ll be exciting esp. for korean cosmetic fans like me with medium skin tone