Not So Free Cosmetic Samples

We were in Myeongdong, Seoul's shopping mecca, and we wandered upon this interactive display. Let me first say I love the cosmetic stores in Korea. There are so many of them and each one is a little different focusing on either cute packaging, all natural ingredients, or even hipness like the store "Too Cool for School" as pictured below. In most cosmetic stores in Korea if you buy something they will give you free samples of their latest products they are trying to push. I especially love the cosmetic stores in Myeongdong because they give the best free samples. I can walk out with a free facial mask, two vials of wrinkle cream, maybe a mini face wash and some cotton pads after only spending a few dollars. There's no such time as bonus time here because it happens everyday, take that Estee Lauder.

I should mention in Myeongdong cosmetic stores get you into their store usually by placing these girls at the entry who have loud headset microphones and are yelling for you to come on in. The girls are skilled too. They speak Korean, Japanese, and English and are not afraid to target the person passing by. Hello American girl, come on in, come check it out, you get this free! I'm a sucker, what can I say.

Well "Too Cool for School" was trying a different approach. They had this booth set up where someone stood behind holding out their hand.

If you put a 100 won coin (less than 10 cents) into the hand out would pop two samples. Of course people walking by, would occasionally slap the and mess with the guy behind the scenes, but he took it with grace. A crowd gathered soon after a few of us bystanders decided to partake in the stunt.

Here's what I got: a face wash sample (the small blue packet) and a BB cream sample (BB cream is sort of like foundation, but better, it's super popular here). Not bad at all, especially since it included a mini show.