How Daiso Became a K-Beauty Pilgrimage — The Sub-5,000-Won Skincare Visitors Pack Home

Card spending by foreign tourists at the Daiso store by Myeongdong Station jumped 70 percent this January-March compared to the same period last year. Daiso is Korea's flat-price variety store chain, selling everything from stationery to bathroom goods — and lately, it has expanded hard into skincare and makeup, turning into a near-mandatory stop for visitors filling out a suitcase.

Daiso used to be mostly stationery and bathroom basics, but over the past two or three years its skincare lineup has grown considerably. Products built around ingredients favored by premium brands — PDRN (a salmon-derived compound) or retinol — now sell for 1,000 to 3,000 won, and word spread on social media that these are cheap enough to try without regret if they don't work out. That said, sharing an ingredient name with a premium product is no guarantee of matching results, so it's smarter to treat these as low-risk experiments than as proven equivalents.

Larger stores near tourist zones, like the Myeongdong Station branch, carry a wider cosmetics selection, and popular items can sell out by mid-morning. A practical approach: pick up one item early in your trip, test it for a few days, and if you like it, swing back before you fly out to stock up — easy on both your luggage weight and your wallet.