From Seoul to Soho: Soko Glam Bloomingdale's Pop-Up | Beauty in the City
With the rising popularity of K-beauty in the US, there comes a rising number of K-beauty businesses run by entrepreneurial women. And that's definitely something I can behind... and throw money at 😜
Earlier this year Glow Recipe opened a month-long pop-up downtown (
which I visited and wrote a post about here
) and later opened up another pop-up uptown...ish at Saks. The latest addition to the NYC K-beauty scene is the Soko Glam pop-up in Bloomingdale's!
If you're not familiar with Soko Glam, here's the quick low-down:
The company was founded by
(and her husband) and aimed to introduce the Korean approach to skincare to a global audience. In addition to the shop, she's also written a book titled
The Little Book of Skin Care: Korean Beauty Secrets for Healthy, Glowing Skin
and is the editor in chief of Soko Glam's accompanying blog:
. At the end of last year, she worked with Neogen to come up with their Green Tea stick cleanser and then this year she partnered with Cosrx to formulate their exclusive-to-Soko-Glam vitamin C serum. Basically, she is #skincareaddictgoals.
To learn more about the brand and Charlotte, check out their
page on their site.
Onto the pop-up!
Time & Place
The pop-up is located in a cute booth in the beauty department on the first floor at Bloomingdale's SoHo at 504 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
If you've ever been in a department store, you're probably familiar with the layout of the beauty section. Various counters with brands galore. At larger department stores, usually found within larger cities, you'll sometimes find mini shops or booths lining the walls of the beauty department. In cities like New York, ya gotta take advantage of every square foot available 😉
Their hours are the same as Bloomingdale's
(I don't want to list them here since they seem to differ week to week.)
The pop-up's grand opening was the weekend before last and I heard it's set to be open for at least a few more months (but maybe more-- who knows!)
Set-Up
The space is split up into 5 sections and is organized by category. For the pop-up, Soko Glam decided to condense the 10 step routine they usually market into 5 steps: Cleanse, Exfoliate, Treat, Sheet Mask, and Moisturize. I think it was a smart approach since it makes the 10 step Korean Skincare routine more attainable and understandable to the average consumer.
They also had a small panel of makeup items but tbh I didn't give them much time as I was more interested in the skincare.
They also had a monitor running videos of various models demonstrating how to work out each step. The sales associate who was working at the shop while I was there was also very kind and helpful (I believe her name was Helen!)
It's so easy to have your experience colored by a judgemental or rude sales associate so I'm always so thankful when they're approachable and kind.
Selection
They had a decent variety of brands and products for each of the 5 steps. Every single product, asides from the sheet masks, had testers out! This is a big perk as it's hard to try most K-beauty products in person before committing to purchasing a full sized version. I didn't ask for any samples but I'm sure they would have provided them had I asked.
Each product was individually priced. As expected, the prices were a bit higher than what you would pay if you bought the items directly from a Korean e-tailer. Personally, I don't mind this because a) you get the satisfaction of having the product immediately after you purchase it and b) you don't have to worry about the authenticity of the product. Also the way I see it, part of the markup also goes into their curating of the brands and products they decide to carry.
I do wish they sold the two products that Charlotte Cho collaborated on: the Neogen cleansing stick and the Cosrx vitamin c serum. Their sheet mask selection was also somewhat limited. They had 6 shelves for sheet masks yet they only had a few varieties.
Sorry for the grainy photos 🙈 While the space looked cute in person, I didn't find it to be the most Instagram-friendly (the yellow light is slowly killing me.)
Step 1: Cleansers
Step 2: Exfoliators
Step 3: Treatments
Step 4: Sheet Masks
Step 5: Moisturizers
Rando Makeup
I was lookin' like a hot mess in the 100-degree weather so I wasn't really selfie ready, hence why 90% of me is cut off 😅
Mini Haul
Even though I don't need any more skincare products, and I especially don't need any more sheet masks, I couldn't visit the pop-up and leave empty handed. It would be a crime against skincare bloggerdom.
I was good and only got two sheet masks. I justified the purchase by telling myself they were hard to come by sheet masks. Both of them are also available on the Soko Glam website--
1 Ultru I'm Sorry For My Skin mask
and 1
.
Hopefully, I'll be reviewing them on le blog soonish!
They were also offering free minis with every purchase if you followed them and tagged them in an Instagram post or story! There were 4 different options and the sales associate let me pick out two. I ended up going with the Neogen rose real water cleansing water and the R:ep bio fresh mask.
I'm a total sucker for mini anything and was thrilled to add these to my
hoard
stash.
Bottom Line
If you don't have endless amounts of time to shop for Korean skincare in Manhattan, I wouldn't really recommend the spot as the selection is small and curated. You'll have more options by visiting the vast number of shops in Koreatown or further downtown in Chinatown.
On the other hand, if you're a Soko Glam fan or are a local (or local-ish in my case) the pop-up is a cute stop! While you're there, you could stop by the Space.nk booth because it is absolutely decadent 😎
Aaaalso, don't forget to use your Bloomingdale's Loyalist card when you're there (it's their free loyalty program!) Bloomingdale's as a whole has been running more beauty promos for their loyalist's lately and is worth keeping an eye out for. I believe on the opening weekend of the pop-up, they had a promotion where you got $25 worth in points for every $100 you spent on beauty products! And you can mix and match with brands!
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