Every country has their own respective beauty, culture, hot tourist spots and quirks. But one thing that is never left out of our itinerary is shopping! May it be for pasalubongs or your own personal haul, we all want to know which places are the best for shopping in each country. :) 
As for me, I was able to find quite a few in South Korea! Let me take you on a shopping tour in Busan and Myeongdong, Seoul. ^_^

During our five (5) days stay in South Korea, our tour guide Unnie Jackie was very enthusiastic about a lot of things and that included our shopping stops in each day. Though we were all equally into culture and exploring the beautiful parts of Busan and Seoul, I think she just didn't want us to leave empty handed and to have a bit of her country with us when we went back to Manila. ^_^ Which made me wish that I had a bigger luggage with me! Sad life of a cabin sized bag! Haha!
BUSAN - GUKJE MARKET
After our wonderful visit to Gamcheon Culture Village, we hopped on our bus and headed to Gukje Market for a little shopping and also where we would have our lunch. 


Gukje Market is filled with endless shops and street food. Whether you are on the lookout for clothes, shoes, Korean beauty products and more, it's a place you'll surely enjoy! :)
The first shop that caught my fancy when we just entered Gukje was BODA...

The place is a wasteland for all the characters that we love! They also have a familiar toy vendo from Japan - Gachapons! :) I got a few cute things here and shared it on my 'Korea Haul' video on my YouTube channel! Just >>>CLICK HERE<<< if you want to watch! :)
Saw also a few IG worthy stores to take photos at! I was freezing here, so didn't bother taking off my mask anymore! =P Thank you, Jackie for capturing this!♥
One thing that I noticed in almost all corners of Busan and Seoul is that they will never run out of beauty stores! From Nature Republic, The Face Shop, Tony Moly, Holika Holika, etc. All their homegrown brands are to be spotted. You can easily see that skincare is really big for them. :)
Next stop was us was the Kakao Friends store - the characters are based on the KakaoTalk emoticons and they've become beloved characters in South Korea ever since!♥

When there are cute stuff, I am sure to be there to document and take loads of photos! >_< Queen of quirky things! This particular Kakao Friends store that we went to is pretty huge! It had around 3 levels of shopping bliss! Needless to say, Sarah, Jackie and I stayed here for most of our allotted shopping time. :)

The price range of the stuff here go for 1,000 to 99,000 Korean Won. :) Which is around Php 48 to Php 4,700 when converted.



Everything is so cute! I wanted to take home all of them!
The last floor of the Kakao Friends store is a cute APeach Café, which sadly I wasn't able to try, because our time was limited. But at least I was able to take some photos. :)
APeach is actually my fave Kakao character...
"Apeach has the setting of escaping from a peach tree after learning that he became monoecious due to a genetic modification. He is a playful character, and also an adolescent character in his late teens to early twenties."



I'm hoping that when I get the chance to go back to South Korea, i'll have more time and i'll surely try this out! :)
SEOUL - MYEONGDONG
If ever you go to Seoul, never ever forget to stop by Myeongdong. It is one of Seoul's main shopping and tourism district. Definitely one of the best places to shop for mid-to-high priced items!


One of the things about going to another country is the huge variety of sneaker designs that they have. The streets of Myeongdong is also filled with sneaker stores. Sarah and I were able to visit some of them. :) Best part also about some store in Seoul is that they're already tax free! If not, you can get your tax refund at the store itself. ^_^
Lotte Young Plaza is a shopping center that you can also find in Myeongdong. You can find trendy fashion finds and cute stuff here. :)
Sarah and I making our way to Lotte Young Plaza using the underpass!
Before going up, we spotted these at the underpass and we just had to stop by and grab a few BTS merchandise for Sarah's daughter Nikola. ♥ :) You can find a lot of these on the streets too! I was tempted to get stickers and a few post cards! >_<
Now to Lotte Young Plaza! Just like Kakao Friends, Line Friends is also widely popular in South Korea and there are also tons of stores dedicated to them! I'm personally more into Line Friends and totally went crazy for this store. :)


How could you resist these cute merchandise, right?? I love the Line Friends character Brown and Cony! Seeing Brown in these cute animal onesies is 100x more cuter!!♥♥♥ My kids also love them, so I got some merch for them too!

There's a store inside Lotte Young Plaza called Flying Tiger and I know I've heard of it before, but this is the first time that I've seen it in person. It's not originally from Korea, but actually Denmark. But even so, they have the cutest and affordable stuff!




The store is like going on a treasure hunt with the random things you can find inside from house decors, stationery supplies, party decors and so much more! If you notice the prices are really inexpensive, so this is one of the stores you'll love. :)
There are so many more cool stores that you can see inside Lotte Young Plaza, but we wanted to check out more on the streets of Myeongdong, so off we went!

Photo-ops with one of my fave Kdrama actors - Song Joong Ki! Hello Oppa! :)

Spotted this on our way back and super cute! Goblin! Wish we had a dog!

This is the last store that i'll be talking about on this post, but if you are in Myeongdong, make sure you drop by Olive Young and I'm sure you won't regret it! Especially if you're the type who is into skincare and makeup. :)
This Korea's no.1 health and beauty store. Think of it as Watson's or SM Beauty here in Manila. They  provide health products, food, cosmetics and personal care.  

This specific store that we went to is quite big since it has two floors. :) We stayed here for about an hour, I think? Got so distracted with all the beauty products!♥ New happy place!
Sarah, Jackie and I tried swatching some Peripera Ink Velvets here. ^_^


Of course, this caught my attention! How cute is this cushion case?? It's limited edition and totally reminds me of the trendy Fendi Monster collection. :)
One of my favorite face mask brand - 23 Years Old!

We some of their masks in Watson's Manila, like the Badecasil Dermaseal and Cocoon Willow Silky Mask. I swear by these! They may be a tad more expensive than the typical masks, but I find them effective and would hoard these if I could!
I have a strong affinity for cute packaging whether they be food or beauty products, so here are some that I spotted in Olive Young...



When in Korea, it is a must to try their Banana Milk drink! You can find it in almost all convenience stores and I love it! :) So, when I saw this collaboration by Round 'A Round, I freaked! ^_^ Too adorable!! The lotion really smells like the real Banana Milk too!

Jackie on the lookout for more skincare products! Cos Skincare is life! :) After this we headed for the counter and made our way back to our hotel, which was only a few blocks away. :)

There was one particular store that I wasn't able to visit and until now I'm so bummed about it. That store is none other than Style Nanda. I'm sure you, guys are pretty familiar with it on Instagram and that was on my bucket list even before I knew I was going to Korea. But everything was a blur for me when I was there that I never had the time. :( It seriously haunts me even in my dreams! Huhuhu! But again, I'm hoping i'll have the chance someday! :) 
And that's it! If ever you're planning to go to South Korea and want to know some of the stores or shopping areas that you can go to, this is a little glimpse of it! ^_^ Till my next South Korea post!
You can read about my other Korea trip post here: http://www.artsyfartsyava.com/search/label/ArtsyAvainKorea 
Thank you so much again Korea Tourism Organization and Philippine Airlines for this awesome trip!♥