Soft brows, tinted lips and cherry cheeks — Korean makeup is great because not only does it enhance your features in a natural, subtle way, but it’s also relatively inexpensive to achieve. This beauty trend is all about making you look like an (almost) bare-faced beauty, not turn you into someone else. That’s plastic surgery.
So although K-beauty typically involves a ton of skincare products for a 7-step regime, it’s pretty much the opposite for makeup. There’s no need for Kim Kardashian contour kits and bold eyeshadow colours that reach your brows.
You only need a few key items and you’re good to go. Plus, because dolling up is such an important part of K-culture, there are Korean makeup brands at every price point — including the super budget tier for the cheapos that we are. Here are 3 Korean makeup brands for makeup as cheap as under $10, and 2 online stores that stock affordable K-beauty products.
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Korean makeup brands with makeup under $10
If you want to head to a brick-and-mortar store in Singapore, these 3 brands are your best bets for affordable Korean makeup:
| Korean makeup brand | Cheapest makeup product | What you can buy with under $10 |
| Tony Moly | Easy Touch Waterproof eyebrow pencil $2.90 | Eyebrow pencil, false eyelashes, lip tints, eye shadow primer and foundation |
| Etude House | Soft Touch Auto lip liner $4.90 | Lip liner, eyeliner, eyebrow pencil, eye shadow, lip tints, and lip concealer |
| Innisfree | Double eyelid tape $3.50 | Double eyelid tape, nail polish, eyeshadow, brow mascara, loose powder, gel eyeliner, lip balm and concealer |
As you can see, you can find almost every type makeup product for under $10. If you’re willing to shop online, you can probably shave even more off the price tag.
Tony Moly — eyebrow pencils from $2.90
| Makeup from Tony Moly | Price |
| Easy Touch Waterproof eyebrow pencil | $2.90 |
| Lovely Eyebrow pencil | $5.60 |
| False eyelash | $5.90 |
| Delight Magic lip tint | $8.50 |
| Easy Touch Auto Eyebrow pencil | $8.90 |
| Face Mix eye primer | $8.90 |
| PIKYBIKY Art Pop Cover foundation | $9.90 |
| Delight Tony tint | $9.90 |
Tony Moly is one of the most affordable Korean beauty brands, targeting the younger crowd of broke students (and “giam siap” adults, like us). I like that their products are all made in Korea anyway, and not tested on animals.
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They have a reasonably wide range of products for under $10 — while some of the others only have eyebrow pencils and lip tints, Tony Moly even has and eyeshadow primer at $8.90 and foundation at $9.90, which is awesome.
You can literally get a full makeup kit for your brows, eyes, face and lips for super cheap here.
Innisfree — double eyelid tape for $3.50
| Makeup from Innisfree | Price |
| Double eyelid tape | $3.50 |
| Nail polish | $4 |
| My Eyeshadow, matte and glitter | $8 |
| Skinny Brow mascara | $9.50 |
| No Sebum mineral powder | $10 |
| Skinny Fixercara | $10 |
| Gel Liner eyeliner | $10 |
| Canola Honey lip balm | $10 |
| Essential Cover concealer | $10 |
Innisfree is much more popular and well-known than Tony Moly, probably because it’s one of the many brands under Korean cosmetics giant, Amore Pacific.
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Innisfree focuses on skincare and makeup products that use natural ingredients from Jeju, like green tea, orchids and volcanic scoria.
It’s the most affordable brand under Amore Pacific, with most things under $20. That said, even if you have a tighter budget (like we do today), you can still get eyeshadows ($8), eyebrow mascara ($9.50 to $10), and even gel eyeliner ($10).
Etude House — lip liner pencils for $4.90
| Makeup from Etude House | Price |
| Soft Touch Auto lip liner | $4.90 |
| Drawing Eye Brow pencil | $5.90 |
| Styling eye liner | $5.90 |
| ET.Look At My Eyes eye shadow | From $7.90 |
| Oh M’Eye Line liquid eye liner | $8.90 |
| Bling Bling eye stick | $8.90 |
| Dear Darling tint, water tint and water gel tint | $8.90 |
| Wonder Fun Park Dear Darling Soda Tint | $9.90 |
| Mini Two Match lip colour | $9.90 |
| Kissful Lip Care lip concealer | $9.90 |
Also by Amore Pacific, Etude House is in the same tier as Innisfree. From what I know, they’re more popular for their makeup, while Innisfree is more loved for their skincare line. Makes sense mah, I’d appreciate Innisfree’s natural ingredients for stuff like moisturisers, and Etude House’s fun colours and quirky packaging for things like eyeshadow palettes.
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You can also get almost everything you need from Etude House under $10, with the exception of foundation (from $15.90, Active Proof Liquid Fitting Base). I personally use the eyebrow pencil ($5.90) and lip tints ($8.90), both of which I love.
Online stores to buy The Face Shop, Missha, A’Pieu and more Korean makeup brands under $10
Now, if you know anything about K-beauty, you might’ve noticed that I left out some popular brands like The Face Shop and Missha. They too, are known for being relatively affordable and have physical stores in Singapore.
They are, however, slightly more expensive and don’t fit under our $10 budget… UNLESS you shop online.
There are quite a few sites from which you can shop for Korean cosmetics, including Qoo10 and Shopee, but those aren’t specialty stores (they sell everything and anything).
Here are 2 K-beauty-exclusive online stores to check out:
Althea
| Best picks from Althea under $10 | Price |
| Coringco Eye Contact single eye shadow | $3.30 |
| Etude House Drawing Eye Brow | $3.50 |
| Tony Moly Delight Tony Tint | $4.20 |
| Missha 4D mascara | $5 |
| The Saem Saemmul Real Tint | $5 |
| The Face Shop Air Cotton makeup base | $5 |
| Coringco Heart Bounce gel eyeliner | $6 |
| Missha Cotton blush | $7 |
| Althea Watercolour Cream tint | $7 (UP $12) |
| Nature Republic Botanical cream concealer | $10 |
Eyeshadows from $3.30 and mascaras at $5? Althea’s prices are literally cheap enough to make anyone skeptical. In fact, if you just Google “Althea reviews”, you’d find that quite a few local bloggers and beauty junkies have come out to write reviews about the site.
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I have personally never ordered from the site, but judging from the online feedback, it seems quite legit. The products look authentic, and well… they actually arrive.
According to their website, Althea’s stocks are shipped from South Korea, and they have a 200% authenticity guarantee. If find out your makeup is fake, at least you get paid double the price you forked out. Also, they have a solid returns policy: as long as it’s within 30 days and you have not opened the product, you can ship it right back to them and they’ll refund you (shipping costs will be reimbursed).
Shipping is free for orders above S$29.
Hermo
| Best picks from Hermo under $10 | Price |
| It’s Skin Babyface Powdery Wood eyebrow pencil | $4.87 |
| Tony Moly Lovely eyebrow pencil | $5.96 |
| Missha The Style Perfect concealer | $8.25 (UP $10.50) |
| Elianto Dazzling lip gloss | $8.46 (UP $8.96) |
| The Face Shop Freshian Volumizing Mascara | $8.59 |
| The Saem Water Candy tint | $8.11 (UP $8.62) |
| The Saem Saemmul liquid eyeliner | $9.71 |
Hermo is another online makeup marketplace. It’s based in Malaysia, but provide free shipping to Singapore customers (for orders above S$25, else it’s $10).
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Technically Hermo sells all sorts of makeup, but they carry enough Korean makeup brands to be worth a mention. Plus, if it’s your first time and you sign up for their e-newsletter, you get $12 off your first order.
Hermo has the usual suspects (think The Face Shop, Innisfree, etc), but also other brands like Secret Key, The Saem and more.
Do you have any other affordable K-beauty recommendations? Tell us in the comments below.
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