Mori girl look by Hyojin Cho (Hyojin Cho)
Two East Asian makeup looks are drawing attention in Korea, offering opposing takes on what a modern face should look like.
The first, known as mori girl, takes its name from the Japanese word for “forest” and evokes the image of someone who has just stepped out of the woods. Japanese actress Yu Aoi helped popularize the look, which centers on a sheer apricot blush swept in a straight horizontal line beneath the eyes for a translucent flush.
Hyojin Cho, a beauty YouTuber with 1.96 million subscribers, broke down the technique in a recent video.
“It’s about a really natural, pared-down, fresh feel,” Cho said. She placed blush directly under the eye, extending into the dark circle area and across the center of the cheek.
Skin should look slightly translucent rather than fully covered, she said, recommending that viewers apply blushers and eye shadows with their fingers rather than a brush. A touch of white mixed into the color products adds brightness, and brows should be drawn in a straight, hair-by-hair pattern.
Eye makeup stays minimal. A light wash of shadow adds shaping, and the same blush doubles as eyeshadow to tie the look together. All color products should sit on a coral and pink base, Cho said, and the cheek and eye areas should be blended so they appear connected.
The look extends the clean girl movement that emerged last year, which favors natural features over heavier styling.
Illit’s Wonhee with Douyin look (Ilit)
In contrast, the Douyin look from China leans into drama. The style emphasizes detailed, almost cartoon-like lashes, heavy glitter and a blurred lip line. Named after the Chinese version of TikTok, the technique uses highlighter, glitter and lashes to draw sharp focus to color points across the face.
Wonhee, a member of K-pop group Illit, recently posted a Douyin-style makeup short on the group’s official YouTube channel, helping push the look further into Generation Z and Generation Alpha circles.
The method starts with placing the base product in six concentrated spots: between the brows, down the bridge of the nose, around the nostrils into the laugh lines, below the cheekbones and at the chin. Rather than thinning the product across the face, the spots stay thick.
A lip product is then applied at the same stage as the base, dotted onto five sections. These cover the center of the eyes, the cheekbones, beneath the arch of the brow, the middle of the nose bridge, the nostrils and the chin. Placing blush on the nose bridge and tip helps unify the face in a single tone and mimics natural color.
The product placement looks unusual at first, but blending with a puff reveals the intended effect. The bright base and lip color spread together to mimic the look of a natural flush. Areas typically left untouched, like below the brow bone and around the nostrils, add dimension.
yoohong@heraldcorp.com