K-Beauty Shopping in Seoul: Which Olive Young, and Tax Refunds

The short version for K-beauty shopping in Seoul: start with Olive Young in Myeongdong, but pick your store first. There are nine Olive Youngs in Myeongdong alone. The two big ones that foreign shoppers crowd into are the two-floor “Myeongdong Town” and the three-floor “Central Myeongdong Town,” which opened in March 2026 (per CJ Newsroom). They are 200 meters apart, so you can hit both in one go.

Bring your physical passport and the tax comes off at the register. You need to spend 15,000 won or more in one purchase and leave Korea within three months (per the Korea Tourism Organization).

K-beauty shopping in Seoul: which Olive Young to pick

Here are the four big stores this post covers, side by side.

If it’s your first time, Myeongdong Town is the easy pick. The address is 53 Myeongdong-gil, Jung-gu, and it’s close to Exit 8 of Myeongdong Station (Line 4) or Exit 5 of Euljiro 1-ga Station (Line 2). It’s open every day from 10:00 to 22:30 (per the store’s global guide).

According to the official floor directory, skincare, sunscreen, sheet masks, and main registers occupy the 1st floor, while makeup, hair care, health supplements, and snacks sit on the 2nd. The foreigner lounge and the tax refund desk are on the 2nd floor too. Staff speak English, Chinese, and Japanese, and WeChat Pay and Alipay work. A paper bag is 100 won and a reusable bag is 500 won.

Olive Young says this store had the highest sales of any Olive Young in Korea last year, and 95% of that came from foreign customers (Korea Herald, 2026.3.27).

Central Myeongdong Town is bigger. It has 1,000 brands and 15,000 products over three floors, with 22 registers. There’s also a “mask library” with over 800 sheet masks, and staff who speak English, Chinese or Japanese wear flag badges (Herald Business, 2026.3.25).

Opening reports conflict between March 26 and March 29. Located just 200 meters from Myeongdong Town, you can find the entrance easily by searching “Olive Young Central Myeongdong Town” in Naver Map.

According to on-site Myeongdong foot-traffic reports, the area becomes intensely crowded on weekends; aiming for a weekday morning arrival allows you to browse without shuffling through dense crowds.

Checkout lines and busy hours

At busy times you can wait more than ten minutes in line at Central Myeongdong Town (The Guru). Staff direct the line in English, so you won’t be wondering where to stand.

Seoul’s real-time city data suggests Myeongdong is easy to walk through around 5 p.m. on a weekday and fairly packed around 1 p.m. Skipping the lunch rush is the smarter move.

Late-night visits offer little relief. Field foot-traffic observations during holiday evening rushes show aisles remaining jammed even past 10 p.m., with only the men’s grooming and upper makeup corners offering brief breathing room.

Seongsu is for browsing

Olive Young N Seongsu opened in November 2024. It has five floors and is the biggest Olive Young. The address is 13 Yeonmujang 7-gil, Seongdong-gu. The skin scan, which checks your skin condition, and the “Pick Your Color” personal color session are both free, but a November 2025 article says the day’s slots were gone within 20 minutes of opening. The same article says three out of four foreign visitors to Seongsu stop at this store (Herald Business, 2025.11.17).

If you want the free skin scan, be there when the doors open.

Always confirm real-time operating hours in Naver Map before heading out. If you already have a set shopping list, Myeongdong delivers the fastest checkout throughput. If you prefer discovering emerging indie brands and testing experiential zones, Seongsu is the better fit.

Daiso and duty-free shops

Most Daiso cosmetics cost between 1,000 and 5,000 won (Korea JoongAng Daily, 2026.5.5). The Myeongdong Station store grew to 12 floors in 2024, gives tax refunds on the spot and has multilingual staff. The elevator line is long, though.

Duty-free shops sell without VAT or the individual consumption tax (Korea Tourism Organization). How you pick up your goods and which documents you need differ by shop, so read the official guide of the one you plan to use first.

Sephora closed all its Korean stores and its online shop in May 2024 (Korea Herald, 2024.3.20). If an older travel post mentions a Sephora in Myeongdong, it’s gone now.

Getting the tax off at the counter

Myeongdong Town does immediate refunds, so the tax comes off when you pay. You have to show your physical passport and spend 15,000 won or more in one purchase. Sanitary goods, shopping bags and dried fruit are excluded. If you don’t have the physical passport, or you’ve stayed in Korea more than six months, you take the receipt and claim the refund at the airport (per the Myeongdong Town guide).

Tax refund limits established by the Korea Tourism Organization permit immediate refunds on single purchases under 1,000,000 won, capped at 5,000,000 won total per visit. Flagship Olive Young branches process immediate point-of-sale deductions when you present your physical passport (Creatrip tax guide). As detailed in HaniSeoul’s tax-free documentation, smartphone photos and paper copies are strictly rejected because the terminal scanner must read the physical MRZ code along the bottom of the passport. While legacy visitor guides cite an older 30,000 won minimum threshold, current official policy sets the qualifying spend at 15,000 won. Always retain your receipts until completing departure customs.

The dedicated tax refund desk is situated on the 2nd floor (store layout observations). For airport processing steps, see how to get a tax refund in Korea.

Unopened items can be exchanged within 15 days, but refunds only work at the store where you bought them (per the Myeongdong Town guide). With nine stores in Myeongdong, check which store your receipt is from.

Should you wait for a sale?

A news report says the December Olive Young Sale (Koreans call it “Olyoung Sale”) runs from November 30 to December 6, but Olive Young hasn’t posted an official notice yet (Insight). Over the past year, Korean Naver searches for “Olive Young Myeongdong” peaked in the first week of June, during the summer sale. Expect the stores to be just as busy during sale weeks.

Membership discounts are harder for foreigners. The domestic membership needs a Korean phone number in your name, while foreigners can join the Olive Young Global Mall membership (per the Myeongdong Town guide).

The oversized shopping bag itself has become a popular souvenir. Heavy-duty tarpaulin reusable bags cost 3,000 won; flagship Myeongdong branches stock them consistently when neighborhood branch supplies run out.

Packing for the flight

To carry liquids like toner, cream and gel onto the plane, each container must be 100 ml or smaller, and everything has to fit in one clear 1-liter zip bag (per Incheon Airport). Liquids bought duty-free can go in your carry-on as long as they stay sealed in the duty-free bag.

Per Incheon Airport aviation security regulations, cabin restrictions apply strictly to container capacity rather than remaining liquid volume. Even a half-empty 200 ml toner bottle will be confiscated at security screening. Pack all full-sized bottles securely in checked luggage from the start.

You can get between Myeongdong and Seongsu by subway, and our T-money card guide covers the transit card. More Korean culture stories are in the K-culture posts.