The History of Whoo is now available in Singapore! Which skincare range suits your skintype and age?

Now this may be a somewhat belated post, but hey, I was actually doing you guys a favour so that you didn’t have to wait in anticipation for so long (and yes, there was some procrastination along with the 13 days of being sick in a dark and dank room heh). As you can tell from the header, this post is gonna be allll about The History of Whoo which is now open at Tangs Orchard! Yes, it’s a luxury brand that’s on par with -ahem- brand S from another large Kbeauty company. I visited Korea a couple of months ago to find out more about this brand and what exactly encompasses its brand values 😀

Whilst waiting to get on the plane 😀

With the lovely Leanne (otherwise known as loveforskincare) – photo with seemingly flawless face taken with the awesome selfie cam Casio TR60).

7.5 hours later…

We haz arrived! All bleary-eyed from the trip but otherwise pretty excited to be inhaling K-air hohoho. We bundled up and trundled over to our hotel, The Plaza Hotel in Seoul.

 Le first view of the room – now on the left is the toilet, and on the right are the usual shelves / wardrobe stuff.  This is honestly the first time in my life that I’ve stayed in a hotel room that has its bed right smack in the centre.

And voila -this is what the room looks like! It’s rather pretty, and utilises the mirrors really well to create the impression of a larger space. That aside, I’m not much impressed with the layout cos it’s rather cumbersome, and there’s not much space to store the luggage on the floor.

The bathroom is rather spacious (but doesn’t have a bath tub – it’s just a rain shower area).

But I’m pretty impressed that it has Molton Brown toiletries 😀

Now taking into account that we’d travelled the afternoon and evening and taken a 1-hour bus ride into Seoul, it was almost close to midnight by the time we were settled it. But hey, why give up the chance to pig out on yummy K-food? Our little contingent of hungry grumpies bundled up and traipsed out for some nom noms in the area. Now what I love about Korea is that no matter what time, you’ll always find some little store open and serving good food. Here’s what we found!

Now that our tummies were sated, we trooped back to our hotel in a food coma. Time to snooze and awake all fresh for the next day’s activities with The History of Whoo! Woohoo (or whoowhoo? muaahahha).

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DAY 1: ALL ABOUT THE HISTORY OF WHOO

Now first things first – it’s pronounced “hoooo” in the same way owls go “hoo, hoo”.

The History of Whoo (or Whoo for short) is under the LG Household & Healthcare Division, and was created based on skincare fit for an empress – hence the name Whoo which is equivalent to the mandarin prefix of 皇后 and shortened to just 后.

Some words that are commonly associated with Whoo are: Imperial, luxurious, elegant, gorgeous – you get the gist.

Now as with every brand, they’ve got their star products as well as the super almost-miracle creams that will shave ages off your actual looks. The History of Whoo has the usual ranges (brightening, moisturising, men’s, premium men’s, special, makeup and makeup) for various skintypes. (not pictured here is their Brightening Cleansing Foam which I love)

One little peeve I have is the naming of the ranges – it can be tough for non-Korean speakers (which is essential almost all of Singapore), and even myself to easily grasp the concept of what is what. Below is a rouge gauge of what each line is about (but I’m pretty sure the beauty advisors can better educate you on that – head on down to the counter at Tangs Beauty Hall to find out more!)

Gongjinhyang: The basic care range which is divided into the following –

     Gongjinhyang Soo: For hydration and moisture

     Gongjinhyang Seol: For whitening

     Gongjinhyang Kun: For men

     Gongjinhyang Mi: Makeup items

Hwanyu: Rejuvenation (something along the lines of going back in time): Anti-ageing

Cheongidan: Rebalancing

Jinyulhyang: Restoring lost vitality and moisture

 

The History of Whoo’s star ingredient is called the Gongjinbidan – in short, it’s something like those miracle wonder pills that you see in traditional pugilistic movies where popping that black pill cures the heroine of every disease known to mankind hurhurhur. I exaggerate of course, but this is an extremely efficient combination of 6 items (deer antler, wild thyme, angelica gigas, cornus officinalis, acanthopanax, aspargus cochinchinensis) which will bring the following benefits to your skin:

• Improves blood circulation
• Improves immune system
• Repairs wounds (aids in the faster recovery of skin woes)
• Strengthens your qi (chi)
• Soothes the skin
• Rejuvenates the skin
• Antioxidants
• Absorbs toxins
• Improves skin transparency
• Brightens the skin

Phew~! That was an entire mouthful! And what’s more, these benefits are contained in JUST the Gongjinbidan – their products contain lots more than just one key ingredient of course.

Gongjinghyang: This is their basic care range. Best suited for those in their 30s.

Jinyulhyang: Best suited for those over 45 (Restoring vitality)

 

See that cute little lilac-tinted tub on the right? That’s Cheongidan (rebalancing)

 

Hwanyu: Best suited for those 55 and up (aka your mommas). This is the top of the line and is GREAT for anti-ageing and is said to shave 10 years off your skin (zomg!).

The Hwanyu range contains more than 70 oriental herbs as well as naturally-grown 35-year-old ginseng. The packaging has a phoenix motif on top, which was only allowed for the queen back then.

 

Something which I foresee being very popular in Singapore -the Pore Care Essence which helps to minimise pores as well as sebum secretion 😀

 

Their star product – the Bi Chup Ja Saeng Essence. Now this is suitable for all ages and is essentially is their booster product which you apply onto freshly-cleansed skin, and will enhance the effects and efficacy of everything else you pile on top of it. (review to come soon!).

First impressions: Lightweight, easily absorbed, great fragrance and absolutely no greasiness / stickiness.

Caught in the act doing something very stupid haha.

One wefie for the road before we move off to our next agenda which is something reallllly important – food nom nom time!

Us looking all squinty-eyed cos it was really bright!

After we stuffed our faces, it was time to have a leisurely stroll to the nearby Lacquer museum, where we were greeted by the sight of this…

 

…more The History of Whoo goodies at the museum of lacquered wood!

 

The Director/curator/founder telling us more about the beauty of lacquered wood….

… us thanking her for her time (awkward much since there’s only 5 of us and we weren’t used to having so much attention on us all the time hurhurhur). Once that was done, we moved on to viewing the other treasure located in the museum – this national set of their products!

In a league (or rather, showcase) of its own…

 

It comes in a specially lacquered box set (and I believe there are only 5 or 10 sets of these in the country), so this is purely for viewing purposes as well as political / inter-country gifting 😀

After this, we trundled off towards the dinner location. But before we got to eat, we had to werk for it. Kidding 😀 It was a really fun activity arranged for us – creating our very own brooch using semi-precious stones in the same colours as The History of Whoo’s packagings.

 

The raw materials…

 

… the slave hard labour…

 

…and voila – our finished products! can you guess which one is mine?

Tadah! My werk of somewhat art. Heh.

Got feel got feel? 😀

It may have looked simple but trust me, it wasn’t easy to get them lil pearls and beads to stay put, and for the glue to set. Plus, our canvas was sooo tiny –  heh. I know, rationalisation again 😀 By the time we were done, it was dinner time – can you imagine that it took us an hour to put this together? Tells so much about my creative (dried-up) juices heh.

The dinner contingent for the night – includes the top honchos of LG Household & Healthcare (zomg stress muchhhhh). We just spent the night chatting and drinking, and eating and drinking, and drinking, and drinking (yes you get the gist). It was a crazy and fun-filled evening, but hey, when in Korea, do as Koreans do!

Our beloved “Bae Yong Jun” sama getting down to mix soju + beer for us – the honour!

 

Gambai~!!!

Can you see where these photos are headed? 1, 2, 3…

… and yes! 4, 5, 6 and 7! It makes absolutely no sense! Woohoo! This is what drinking too much soju + beer does to you hurhurhur.

So after we were waiting outside after the dinner, this started out as a simple photobomb – I was trying to bomb the people behind me. But somehow, my beloved Carina was quick to catch on…

… and then it went from 2 to 3…

… and from 3 to 6… (the little fingers are Korean style to signify a heart!)

Well that escalated quickly – this is what happens when you have an awesome selfie cam that fits everyone! Thanks Casio for your TR60! xoxo

Once we were “dismissed” for the night, the girls and I headed over to Myeongdong. Just because. You know. 😀

Yes yes, I know we just had dinner, but there’s no way you can come to Korea and not eat this (Yoogane Dak Galbi). Plus, the other girls hadn’t eaten this before and I thought it’d be a great item to introduce to them.

And a last one for the night before we retire and hit the sack!

Obviously you may have noticed the absence of their makeup line during this introductory session – fret not, cos that’s what Day 2 is all about – Check  out my next post where I visited their flagship store! In the meantime, don’t forget to check out my review on their Essential Foundation as well as their Luxury Golden Cushion first!  xoxo