The Women Are the Secret Weapons of the K-Beauty Tourism World

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It’s a Friday night in Myeong-dong, Seoul’s luxury shopping district, and I’m sitting on a matte-black couch, surrounded by a fluorescent digital installation with flashing blue and orange lights that read “Dr. Designer.” I wonder: Does Dr. Designer claim that title because his Black Mirror–esque office is nestled between Loewe and Fendi or because he’s kind of a couturier of faces? My eyes bounce back and forth between Dr. Designer (whose real name is Go Woong-jin) as he explains my skincare treatment options in Korean and Lynn Jang, who is translating for me into English. While this is my first encounter with Jang, my K-beauty fairy godmother while in Seoul, I’ve been in constant communication with her United States counterpart, Jennifer Seo, the founder of Aneue Concierge (@aneueconcierge), a company that helps Americans navigate Korea’s dizzying aesthetics scene.

I first connected with Seo when I learned I would have about 12 hours of downtime on a work trip to Seoul. I wanted to use that time wisely by dipping my toe into the city’s cutting-edge aesthetics offerings. But between the language barrier and overwhelming options, I didn’t have a clue where to start. Seo and Aneue Concierge came highly recommended, so I reached out to schedule a call, letting them know I was interested in trying Rejuran, a skin-repairing treatment derived from salmon DNA that has since made its way stateside, but at a significantly higher price point than in Korea (and is not FDA-approved for injection). Instead, Seo recommended Re20, a new injectable skin booster derived from donated human dermal tissue. Within hours, I received a detailed schedule, which included a lymphatic massage, immediately followed by an appointment with Dr. Designer for Re20.

Ultimately, I did not go through with the Re20 injections; since my flight back to New York was a mere 12 hours later, the risk of swelling made it dicey, according to both Jang and Dr. Designer. I opted instead for just the lymphatic massage. On the tarmac waiting to take off the next day, I received a call from Seo to make sure I was satisfied with the experience. Working with Seo felt akin to the service you would receive at a five-star hotel—but for complicated overseas beauty procedures.

South Korea is home to some of the most viral beauty trends, products, and skincare treatments to infiltrate the United States—but the technology overseas costs a fraction of the price. As a result, there’s been a boom in beauty tourism in Seoul, with women using their savings and vacation days to stack everything from ablative lasers and facelifts to stem-cell harvesting and PDRN treatments in one trip. But these women, including celebrities like Kim Kardashian, aren’t Googling dermatologists’ offices or asking ChatGPT to schedule appointments—they’re calling concierges like Seo.

The K-beauty appeal is part of a larger cultural fixation with a surge in popularity over the last several years. “With the convergence of K-pop and K-dramas, which everyone listened to and watched during Covid, and then K-beauty causing beauty tourism to explode once Korea reopened in 2022, there’s a high demand and volume for concierge services,” Seo says. “But the big inflection point was in 2024, when the second wave of K-beauty hit, and it’s been continuing to increase from there.” After 15 years of traveling to Korea for personal trips and to visit family, Seo left her career in finance to start Aneue Concierge in 2019, and the business has grown beyond her expectations.

Just as for a top-tier travel agent, finding in-demand concierge services is more sophisticated than a simple internet search. Seo’s K-beauty clients often come through word-of-mouth recommendations, which is how I found her. We were connected by makeup artist Nam Vo, who has four aesthetics trips to Seoul under her belt and has worked with Seo.

“It’s about convenience and access,” Vo says. “I also don’t want to be herded into a factory clinic like a sheep. I might be cheap about other things, but not my face, and I use a concierge because I know the doctors are vetted.” This distinction is important, as factory clinics—high-volume assembly-line-style medical centers—are like the fast fashion of aesthetics, but riskier. “A few years ago, clients would have been okay to navigate the scene on their own, but now clinics know foreigners are coming, and with money to spend, so there’s a bigger opportunity to be upsold or to be convinced to do something you don’t necessarily need or want,” Seo explains.

Erin An, who is based in Hong Kong and runs K-Beauty Concierge (@k_beauty_ concierge), with a team in Seoul, says that with the vast number of practices, it’s no wonder some beauty tourists fall prey to shoddy procedures, unnecessary treatments, or being overcharged. “There are more than 7,000 clinics in Korea, so it can be overwhelming to determine which doctors are both trustworthy and right for your individual needs,” she says. “Many clinics also use aggressive social-media marketing, making it easy for international patients to choose a clinic that may not be the best fit.” Plus, most clinics’ websites are not in English and lack transparent pricing. An ensures that clients are charged “the same standardized prices they charge other patients, so there are no hidden costs or markups.”

In a world where so many turn to chatbot travel itineraries and beauty recommendations, beauty and aesthetic recommendations call for a human touch. Carmella Vong, a San Francisco–based marketing manager at OpenAI, worked with Seo for her recent trip to Korea. “Jennifer is the source of truth,” Vong says. “I wanted to do Ultherapy, and she was like, ‘I don’t know if you need that yet.’ I love that she’s blunt with me.” Vong went into the trip with a laundry list of treatments she wanted to try, but Seo helped her workshop it to best fit Vong’s goals, budget, and trip length.

The introductory call is the first step for concierges like Seo and An, who will go over every logistical detail, like budget and aesthetic goals. From there, the concierge takes care of everything, delivering a full itinerary with times, addresses, and pricing, and staying in constant communication throughout the trip. Some concierges, like Seo, can even help arrange private drivers, dinner reservations, and tourist excursions. “We coordinate the full Korean experience, complete with hidden spots and local favorites,” she says. “If a client wants to do a shopping tour or food-and-wine tour around Seoul, then we have guides who can assist with that on non-skincare days.”

Finding the right doctor is only half the battle; recovering overseas is the other. “For surgical cases and particularly when clients are traveling alone, our team provides on-the-ground support to ensure that the client is properly assisted and settled during the postoperative recovery period,” An says. In my case, an on-site liaison was with me the entire time to help with the language barrier and answer any questions. At Aneue Concierge and many other agencies, a client manager is included in the service. “Our client manager will be with you at every appointment to make sure the doctor is doing exactly what you’re comfortable with and to prevent you from feeling pressured,” Seo says. If you have a reaction to a procedure, the handler can get you back into the doctor’s office or coordinate medication. “It’s not one and done,” Seo adds.

Aside from the fact that having a hand to hold (both figuratively and literally) while you get a deep-plane facelift is comforting, concierge services often provide a more reliable way to find reputable doctors and clinics, as legal cases related to aesthetic treatments in Korea have been on the rise. In 2021, popular Korean influencer Kim Min-young, who goes by the name Aori on social media, shared photos of bruising and complications following a “health injection” and was sued for defamation by the clinic, which reportedly sought more than $900,000 in damages. (While the case against Aori was dismissed last year, her ex-husband was reportedly ordered to pay damages for criticizing the clinic on social media.) While you can often take a Google review at face value in America, reviews of Korean clinics are skewed because the law considers any negative public statement—regardless of its veracity—to be defamation. Concierge services and their human touch can provide a trustworthy source to help navigate a murky digital landscape.

Vanessa Lee, a Los Angeles–based aesthetic registered nurse and the founder of the med spa the Things We Do, has been to Seoul three times for both business and pleasure. On top of her extensive knowledge, she has enlisted An to help source clinics and treatment options. “Why I really love Erin is she’s ethical and does things by the book,” Lee says. “She also has a mix of more well-known doctors that are on social media and then deep-cut doctors who you have to know someone to get into their office. By working with Erin, I found practices I would never have heard about otherwise.”

While full-service and hands-on, concierge services like these are surprisingly accessible in the grand scheme of skincare aesthetics. Some concierges set a fixed rate, like Seo, who charges a base price of $1,500 for a package of services; others, like An, don’t charge the client and instead share a portion of a clinic’s revenues as a courtesy for bringing in clientele. “Most of our partner clinics are boutique or privately operated practices that may not have large international marketing teams, so we add value by helping them connect with international patients and supporting those patients throughout their experience,” An explains. Vo warns that some concierges coordinate with doctors and clinics to receive a kickback under the table, so it’s important to do thorough research before agreeing to work with one.

“Not all clinics are created equal in Korea, so you have to do your due diligence as a consumer,” Lee says, adding that one should check how long the concierge has been in business and how often it has been physically in Korea if it’s based elsewhere. “If a website has nonstop flashing specials everywhere, it’s probably not a good sign,” she adds. “But if you try and book an appointment and there’s nothing open in the next few weeks, that’s a healthy sign that they are sought after.”

But the most sought-after Korean aesthetics concierges aren’t just connected to world-class doctors. At the end of the day, they are sympathetic, warm, and human in a situation that is clinical and has real risks attached. “You’re not only working with doctors, but you may go under a knife, and there are needles involved; it’s so helpful to have someone that you trust, who has experience being in a medical environment and can act as a translator,” Vong says. “After my friend and I got Botox and Sculptra injections, Lynn came to lunch with us. We dragged her along with us the rest of the day. It was so fun.”