Store Visit: Besfren Beauty in Korea Town, NYC

I’m rolling out more 360 Photos to add to my NYC K-Beauty Shopping Guide! Besfren Beauty opened around September 2016 and it’s written out phonetically to sound like “best friend” beauty. This is one of the newest kids on the k-town beauty block! The interior has gorgeous marble walls, an actual sink to rinse off swatches and plenty of rotating sales (as well as kpop videos) to keep you coming back. It has an amazing sheet mask wall and they sell plenty of singles, with some on Buy 1 Get 1 Free promotion. New, trending items come in all the time and the owner says that they try to keep the prices close to the suggested retail prices in Korea. I can certainly vouch that this store is very reasonably priced as some lip products from popular K-beauty brands are marked much less than the branded brick and mortar stores across the street. For this and many more reasons, I became a regular customer at Besfren Beauty, including the Besfren (dessert & cafe) right next door! Come check them out in my photo tour!

Getting There/Location

Besfren Beauty
315 5th Ave (on 32nd Street)
New York, NY 10016
MaskSheets.com

Besfren Beauty is located in K-town, NYC which is easily accessible by the F, M, B, D, N, R, Q, W trains that stop at Herald Square. K-town normally references the entire block of 32nd Street between 5th and 6th avenues although there are plenty of Korean restaurants and businesses surrounding this block too. If you walk on 32nd street, you’ll also pass by The Face Shop, Nature Republic, Skylake, and what used to be the Tony Moly Flagship store (now it’s a Kosette shop that houses multiple k-beauty brands). You’ll first see the Besfren dessert and ginseng cafe on the corner which was built in 2015 and Besfren Beauty’s entrance is along 32nd Street. There’s an ultra small shelf of K-beauty products inside the cafe but don’t be fooled, go next door for the behemoth of beauty.

 

Here’s Besfren Beauty to the left of the dessert shop! By the way, you must grab their famous chocolate chip cookie that was featured on Business Insider!

360 Photo Tour!

I bought a 360 camera that can take 360 degree photos and video and this will give visitors a way to virtually visit a shop! On desktop you can click the play icon and use your mouse to view around. On a phone browser or a webVR enabled desktop browser, you’ll see a VR button in the bottom right — select it and your viewer will render the content in full 3D mode inside your VR gear. Go ahead and turn your phone around in a 360 circle! You’ll move around to see a full view of the store! How cool is that?

Photo Tour & Recommendations

The first section your eyes will be drawn to is the shelf of sheet masks on promo and the entire wall of boxes and singles to the right of the store. There’s been a heavy promo period for boxed Leaders sheet masks (10 sheets/box) that are buy 1 Get 2 Boxes Free! It’s best to browse their website at www.masksheets.com to get a idea of what they have and narrow down your choices of what you want to swatch, test, smell at the store. There’s free shipping over a $40 order so don’t feel bad if you can’t visit New York City!

Store Experience

The store is gorgeously lit and spacious. The only time it was deathly crowded was when we had an Asian Beauty Blogger meetup and rolled 25 people deep! Prices are clearly labeled and employees leave you peacefully alone to browse. There’s a Besfren Beauty loyalty program although I’ve forgotten what the point/reward system is like by now (I’m on a no-buy until the end of time). There are plenty of testers and employees are helpful when asked questions. The fully functioning sink is amazing because NYC real estate really limits the space stores get to have. There are tons of promotions throughout the store and new items are always coming in. Better yet, I always stop by the dessert and cafe shop next store for something sweet too!