Store Visit: Besfren Beauty in Korea Town, NYC

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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.

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Besfren the dessert and ginseng shop on the corner of 32nd At and 5th Ave. Keep walking along 32nd to find the Besfren Beauty entrance.

 

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To the left, to the left. Everything you (will) own in a box to the left.

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!

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Buy 1 Box, Get 2 Boxes for Free – 1 Box priced at a very reasonable $35. Leaders, Mediheal and Surmedic brands.

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Cutest little bunny mascot.

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Beautiful wall. There’s Oozoo, Dr. Jart, Jayjun, Skinfood, Mediheal, Papa Recipe, A by BOM, AHC, Banobagi, L’AFFAIR, Innisfree and even the popular Japanese Saborino facial wipes and Perfect Silky Masks.

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More mask wall.

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Donginbi, Elizavecca, Skinfood, Neogen, Code 9, It’s Skin, and Tony Moly.

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Etude House, Missha, Skinfood, Redergen.

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Facial mists, Leggings, Pochi coin purses, TVL, Skinfood gummi bear hand gels

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Donginbi and Llang sets (that are also Buy 1 Get 1 Free!!!!

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Popular Japanese Sleeping Mask up top, facial cottons, Aqua Peelers, misc beauty tools, hair putty, foam makers and men’s products.

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View from the back of the store

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A’pieu, more Skinfood, Skinmiso, COSRX, Elensilia, The Saem and some popular Innisfree products

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Haircare and color: Dariya hair color, April Skin, A’pieu, Tsubaki. BB Cushions: April Skin, Milky Dress, Skinfood, Missha and Dongingi and a ton of CC and BB Creams on the bottom

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Too Cool For School and Etude House makeup, My Melody wet tissue holder, (there was a Gudetama and a Hello Kitty one too). It’s Skin Macaroon lip balms, Innisfree No Sebum powder, Rilakkuma hand creams and more cute stuff

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My favorite section, lippies! Etude House, Innisfree, #CE, Tony Moly, Too Cool For School – all VERY reasonably priced.

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HI! Sink for washing off swatches or just NYC subway grime.

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!

4 Comments

  1. pinkmagnolia921 .
    August 15, 2017 / 10:55 PM

    I love Besfren Beauty!

  2. Athena Politou
    January 14, 2018 / 4:30 PM

    I’m visiting NYC in Spring and this makes me all giddy with excitement. Living in Europe Asian Beauty is practically impossible to find in store (save for a handful overpriced products at Sephora) so this store looks like HEAVEN. I love your blog btw, I found it through reddit!

    http://athenianchic.wordpress.com/
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