There is no such thing as “UL ZZANG MAKEUP”
I think there is a HUGE misconception of “ul zzang (얼짱)” outside of Korea. Ul zzang is way outdated in Korea and they have been demystified a long long time ago. It is not like a specific set of girls that are distinguishable like “go gyarus (meaning high school girls)”, “hime gyrus (meaning princess girls that specifically target to look dolly and princessy)” or “yamanba (the extreme culture of ganguros in Japan)” and so on. There is no set rule of ul zzang, and in the beginning, there were like the “5 top ul zzangs” or “first generation ul zzangs” but that was way back in early 2000s.
So what does ul zaang mean?
it just plainly means you have a very nice face = your face is the best.
you can make anything a “zzang”. “moem zzamg” means best body, “bal zzang” means best feet, “doo zzang” means best brain and so on.
“ul” is the first letter of face combined with “zzang” which is a slang for “the best”.
These ul zzang girls have had their prime days in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when photoshop wasn’t widely used and not a lot of people knew how to detect what was fixed with photoshop or so on. They would blur pictures, enlarge their eyes, make their boobs look bigger shrink their figures and so on to a point where they looked like dolls.
The trick was basically “photoshop” and had nothing to do with “makeup”.
here’s an example.
First off, here’s the raw picture. Do i look any different? it’s a picture from November 2007 LOL
I have a lot of baby fat (or just ordinary fat?? -_-) on my cheeks and a pretty long face.
I am going to shrink the cheeks and shorten my face.
Next, enlarge the eyes to a reasonable size.
If you go over the top, it’s going to be obvious and you don’t want people being suspicious of your photoshoppingness, so moderation is the key point.
Now, airbrush like crazy because you want to make your skin look like it’s perfectly flawless
Ok, the lips are looking a bit weird for the face.
so lets go ahead and fix that too
And the lower chin a bit..
now manipulate the lighting and make is really bright
so you can look like you popped out of a fairy tale
Now make it a bit more blurry and glossy
[[ Blur (gaussian blur) + screen + render the percentage ]]
fix up your mistakes
and there you go!! an ul zzang is born!!
I am not trying to bring a specific individual down, these pictures were all posted by herself to the public or are newspaper pictures that were made public. I didn’t point a gun on this girl’s head and forced her to photoshop herself and go public, this is a result of what this person decided to do.
Stephanie
"popped out of a fairy tale" lol. This was very informative! I was never sure what a Ul Zzang was before. Thanks for clearing it up. Don't stop, you are the Korean Pop Culture Guru. Check out my blog julujewelry.com
♪(ﾟ▽^*)ﾉ⌒☆
hahah, i thought it was interesting, straight info coming from someone who's actually korean.
wow @ the lady at the end.
she looks alot older than her pictures… o-o
anna
I wouldn't say she's that different from the last few pictures. She definitely photoshop'd her pictures, but she's still very pretty. There's actually a thing as 'bad angle' or 'bad picture'.
Citrine
It looks like a bad angle to me…she (and you) both look pretty good in the raw picture anyway…
lisasuar
i think media has really made girls feel like they`re not pretty enough, and making them feel like they need to photoshop their pictures to be pretty. its really sad. i wish girls can have confident in themselves. its reallly sad that because of this ulzzang phase, it makes normal/decent looking girls envy not so decent looking girls cus its all fake! 🙁
xSplendidStar
Ohhh I now know the facts 🙂 Thank you for posting this up xD You're great! <3
Uinisan
Yep, I kept seeing all these vids on YT displaying how to: Ul Zzang make up. But I never understood what the look was really meant to portray… Now I know it's meant to be a perfect face. To be honest I dont know how to use photoshop so my pics will never be Ul Zzang hahahahha.. But I'd rather keep it that way, coz you're right the before & after can be shocking sometimes…So I'd rather show the real me 🙂
Thanks for clearing up the misunderstanding.
Ana Kessel
i had these very thoughts when people asked me for an " ulzzang" tutorial. To me, it seemed more like a PS tutorial than anything with makeup, i think one aspect of it is that alot of people still cannot detect photoshop on faces, so when they see a perfect skin, big-eyed girl who is an " ulzzang" they assume they are wearing some godly makeup or something. And then theres those who claim makeup on these girls makes a huge difference because they don't want to accept they arnt "natural" like they think, they dont want to accept their idol is ps'ed.
hanidee
LMAO! Thank you so much for doing this! I get so annoyed when I see ulzzang type tutorials. Its crazy the lengths some girls go to alter their face with PS. I hope more people read this and stop asking for these types of tuts.
Linh N.L.
wow… the things photoshop can do BUT you still look wonderful without the uh… "ul zzang" lol natural is best!
<3Elle
Miss Shopcoholic
very informative post! the last 2 pics are quite shocking!
serenity.
nice post! i am also a tiny bit ticked when i see people trying to emulate "uljjang makeup". it's true that a lot of the female uljjangs in the very beginning (goo hye sun and park han byul days) crazy altered their pictures. I don't remember her name, but there was one girl who looked absolutely gorgeous in her pictures, but some reporters got a real picture of her and she was, for lack of a better word, a troll. however, goo hye sun is a natural, true beauty but, above all, angles have a lot to do with the way someone is presented in a picture! 🙂
Aika
Very informative, Cat! I always enjoy reading what you have to share <3
Pat
So, this ulzzang thing always freaked me out…because some of the people that call themselves ulzzang don't even look human lol.And yeah, nice post, I knew that they used a lot of photoshop but didn't know it was to that extent O__O
That last lady was a shock haha.And you already look pretty without all the photoshop 🙂
By the way, I found out about your blog the other day and it's great!
Unknown
wow……….
haha nice post!! btw just wondering who is this actress?? she looks so familiar!! whats her name?
Angela
wow that girl looks kind of different in person. her skin is kind of bad. What photoshop nowadays can do.
sparklemidori.blogspot.com
Annie Dong
Wow, interesting post. I can't believe Photoshop can do alterations that look so natural! If you didn't post this, I would've thought every girl in Korea or online were just natural beauties LOL…
Senita
Whoa…that's something different! Aw she seemed so natural in the pics…Hehe nice photoshop skills!
Samily
LOL your article humours me so frigging much XDXDXDXD
i'm actually sitting in my school library right now and trying to giggle inconspicuously so as to not garner any more weird looks from the ppl sitting next to me and/or get tossed out by grumpy librarians.
It's so true though, you can't really do ulzzang makeup since ulzzang is all about pro-photoshop skills and decent makeup skills in any style XD. If I were to be honest, before I found out what the real definition of ulzzang was, when i first saw some pictures i thought "professional camwhore? ooooookay……." LOL.
~Mel
haha.. wow girl.. didn't realize you are pretty great in your PS skills! =D definitely love this post and helps me understand what's all the craze on ul zzang. =P
lingling
i'm pretty excited to do a uljjang tutorial, using photoshop XD and this entry really inspired me to go through with the idea lol
Zoe
I so love this post, it was so fun to read^^I always thought that that girl has the best face structure and skin ever but after seeing the press conference pictures I couldn't believe that it was the same girl^^
Love ur blog*
The Hungry Wolf DC
your post is hilarious! i remember back in middle school there was the whole "ulzzang" craze. and the before and after pictures of you were both pretty! i actually prefer your "raw" photo better tho haha. too bad i can't say the same about that lady…
Samily
Hahaha hilariousss, but so true, PS is the way to ULZZANGGGGGGGGGGG-nesss…… who needs makeup when these ulzzang have PS???
Aaah, the miracles of PS…….but aie, show the your real face, not a PSed fake ver.
Oh and if you see 2 comments from this account XD one is me, Emily and the other is probably Sam LOL so don't be confused!
Anonymous
Who is the actress at the end?
Anonymous
WOW thanks for all of that! It was fun to see lol It is amazing what photoshopping can do, but I'm sure alot of actresses Korean or not does this to their photos, its kinda to make ppl feel like they are "perfect" or like you said "popped out of a fairy tale".
clara
wow how did you make your eyes bigger there? haha. would be interesting to know. 🙂
Catalina
aww, thanks for the interesting inputs 😀 the actress's name is gum hyo min (금효민). Please don't get me wrong, I don't think she is ugly, I just think she looks too different 🙂
Mariam Badidu
seriously?
Anonymous
i love how you pinpoint the one girl out of all the ulzzangs to represent that all ulzzangs are fake. so whats with goo hye sun and park han byul??? those are the original ulzzangs. and i think u give yourself too much credit by thinking that ur a korean whatnot guru b.s. since i mean ur post is very anti and negatively biased towards ulzzangs.