L’OVUE is a massive, two-story K-beauty store opened right in the heart of K-Town in New York City this month. L’OVUE is pronounced “love you” and I was fortunate enough to be invited to a blogger’s preview this month! I’ve updated my NYC K-Beauty Shopping Guide with this location making it the sixth K-Beauty retail store on 32nd street. I used to recommend coming to Chinatown for K-beauty needs, but this addition sky-rockets K-Town as my top recommendation. I think it can compete with the Everyday Beauty Lab in terms of sheer square footage because after all, Everyday Beauty Lab has four legit beauty counters for O HUI, Sooryehan, ISA KNOX, and The History of Whoo. However, L’OVUE wins in terms of having the most variety of K-beauty brands, carrying over 80 of them, with some I haven’t even heard of before! Click through for a quick tour! P.S. Their prices are VERY reasonable.
Getting There/Location
324 5th Ave, New York, NY 10001
If you’re unfamiliar with NYC’s K-Town, the main shopping and dining street is on 32nd street between 5th Ave and Broadway. It’s right by Herald Square so I always come to K-Town for a bite or drink, eat, and do a little window shopping. L’OVUE is located on the 5th Ave side, around the corner from the CVS. They are opened pretty late until 11PM most nights! Opened until 12AM on Fridays and Saturdays for now!
Pro-Tip: 35th Street has more Korean restaurants if you can’t stand how crowded it is on 32nd. I recommend Barn Joo 35 for updated Korean gastropub fare.
Recognize any of your favorite bloggers here? I’ve met some new IGers!
Brand Selection
The selection is amazing! There are over 80 brands as described on lovuenyc.com, there are all the usual suspects like CosRX, TonyMoly, Neogen, Heimish, Pyungkang Yul, Secret Key, Benton, etc. There were plenty of surprise brands that used to have exclusive distribution rights like Huxley (Glow Recipe), Thank You Farmer (Beautibi), and belif (Sephora) but these rights probably expired which means we can find them more readily available in other retail outlets! The store leans more in the skincare category than in makeup and there is a nice home fragrance selection too. There’s a beauty tools, nail art, hair care and body care section too – they really cover all the bases.
COSRX, and yes prices are in line with what you’ll find online! $5 Pimple Patches (original).
What makes me most excited about this store is the slew of new-to-me brands I’ve never heard of before. Brands like Garymelin, Dr.trea:en, 11 Village Factory, Tsururi, SSANAI and Lacvert.
The makeup section is quite small, there’s only one section in the middle that has an assortment of BB Cushions, lip products, blush and eye products. What they lack in color cosmetics, they make up for in sheet masks! There are TONS of well-priced options because you can buy a single mask or the boxed sets (always TRY before you BUY)!
Lastly, here’s some shots of their home fragrance section.
W.Dressroom New York. These prices are cheaper than what I found on Amazon!!!
Prices & Store Mark-Up
The first question I always get asked about shopping in a K-beauty retail brick and mortar store is “how are their prices?” Due to rent and high overhead, stores need to charge a premium in order to stay in business. The trade-off with paying the premium is instant gratification – there’s something about taking a product home and using it right away that feels so right. Buying products from online K-beauty retailers most of the time is cheaper but shipping costs add up and the wait time (depending on your country) can be 3 weeks to 2 months long! However L’OVUE offers pricing that is a lot closer to a product’s recommended retail price in Korea with a few exceptions. Some example prices to create some benchmarks:
- L’OVUE’s Huxley Oil Light and More (30ml) at $43.00 vs. Jolse‘s sale price at $35.58
- L’OVUE’s COSRX One Step Original Clear (Pimple) Pads (70 pads) at $17.50 vs. Jolse‘s sale price at $14.72
- L’OVUE’s Pyunkang Yul Essence Toner (200ml) at $19.00 vs. StyleKorean sale price at $14.00
- L’OVUE’s Dr.G’s Crystal Deep Peeling Gel at $28.00 vs. SokoGlam‘s price at $28.00
- L’OVUE’s Mizon All-in-One Snail Cream (75ml) at $26.00 vs. Amazon at $16.99
- L’OVUE’s Son & Park Beauty Water (11.49 oz.) at $25.00 vs. Amazon or Sephora at $30.00
- L’OVEU’s Mediheal N.M.F. Aquaring Ampoule Essential Mask Pack (Box of 10 masks) at $29.00 vs. Amazon at $14.77
L’OVUE offers pretty great prices taking into account that I didn’t factor in shipping costs for some of these items. You need to do your research and make sure you’re buying at the right outlet at the best prices. For example, buying the Mediheal sheet masks would have been a way better deal on Amazon since it’s widely available in multiple distribution channels. P.S. You can click on my photos and zoom in to see prices. I uploaded these files in larger sizes on purpose so you can do this!
Comment!
Have you been to this K-beauty store yet! Let me know in the comments what you thought of it or if you had any other questions I might have missed! Always love hearing back from readers!
