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K-Beauty review: Etude House Silk Scarf Damage Protein Ampoule Treatment

September 30, 2016/in Beauty, Fashion /by Tamar Herman

I was in Seoul last summer and bought far too much K-beauty products so I’m still discovering random items in odd corners of my bedroom. I recently found a vial of Etude House Silk Scarf Damage Protein Ampoule Treatment. When I had seen it at an Etude House store sitting there in a hot pink […]

From ‘Genie’ to ‘Wolf’: Dsign Music believes the future of music begins with K-pop [INTERVIEW]

September 26, 2016/in Features, Interviews /by Tamar Herman

Fans can wax poetical for hours about the positive aspects of the music coming out of South Korea nowadays, but more than just avid lovers are looking to K-pop for its innovative industry. Music producers, songwriters, and industry insiders from around the world are turning towards Korea to see how they can get involved. According […]

K-Beauty review: Etude House Silk Scarf Damage Protein Ampoule Treatment

September 30, 2016/in Beauty, Fashion /by Tamar Herman

From ‘Genie’ to ‘Wolf’: Dsign Music believes the future of music begins with K-pop [INTERVIEW]

September 26, 2016/in Features, Interviews /by Tamar Herman

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K-Beauty review: Etude House Silk Scarf Damage Protein Ampoule Treatment

September 30, 2016/in Beauty, Fashion /by Tamar Herman

I was in Seoul last summer and bought far too much K-beauty products so I’m still discovering random items in odd corners of my bedroom. I recently found a vial of Etude House Silk Scarf Damage Protein Ampoule Treatment. When I had seen it at an Etude House store sitting there in a hot pink box and looking like I should inject the product directly into my head, I was already sold. Now, months after a botched dye job had left my once virgin-dyed-hair insanely dry at the ends, it was time to test it.

So what is an ampoule anyway? When I bought it, I just liked the shape of the product and assumed they were trying to say, “This will be a fun way to make your hair feel nice.” So I bought one for me and one for my little sister. After a quick Google search, I discovered that Wikipedia defines an ampoule as “a small sealed vial which is used to contain and preserve a sample, usually a solid or liquid.” The Etude House one is a vial in the form of an injection needle, so the Ampoule Treatment is, in fact, technically an ampoule. According to Etude House’s website it “contains 9 kinds of protein other than keratin protein and 17 kinds of amino acids that fill up dry and damaged hair with both moisture and nutrition and coats hair for firm and volumized hair.” (Does it contain keratin plus nine other kinds of protein? I have no ideas based on the English blurb…)

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Pros

It smelled really nice! Since I sat with the ampoule on my hair for about 20 minutes, this really mattered to me more than the actually feel of the product, which itself was actually more dense than I expected. Because the ampoule is limited in size rather than in a tub or tube, I didn’t really feel it before putting it in my hair so I thought it may be a gel or liquid, but once I pressed on the pump it turned out that it was a really silky cream. The pearly white color of it gave the product a luxurious, girly feel that’s typical of Etude’s products. Sometimes I feel like the company spends too much time on packaging in a disservice to the product itself, but once I put it in my hair it felt like it was doing its job. I’ve used a few argan oils and conditioning treatments before, but this somehow combined both of those things into one: the Silk Scarf Ampoule Treatment was dense enough that I felt it had some weight (and I could act as if it was really filled with the vitamins it claims to have,) but it seemed to melt in my hair. Kind of reminded me of melting butter on a hot bagel, not going to lie, since it went from being pretty thick to oily slick really easily.

Cons

Because of the vial packaging, I couldn’t actually see where I was squirting the ampoule. I didn’t want to first put it on my hand and then pat it on to my hair since there was a relatively small amount of product, but I ended up squirting far too much out on the top of my head and it was quite greasy the next morning. (It probably wouldn’t have the same result with someone who has thicker hair, but I naturally get greasy relatively easily. Not this quickly normally though.)

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Overall

The packaging and product itself was pretty and fun to use, which is always a win. I really did feel like the ampoule helped the bottom of my hair restore itself after the treatment- it’s been knotting considerably less, which was something several conditioners hadn’t been able to do. (I hadn’t tried any treatments prior to this and instead was just trying to drown my ends in conditioner…) A few days later, my hair still feels less dry than it did previously.

Aside from my hair’s natural grease going into overdrive when I over-saturated the top of my head, this was a pretty great experience of something I bought on a whim because it looked bizarrely cute.

You can get the Etude House Silk Scarf Damage Protein Ampoule Treatment on Amazon or the company’s website. (Although the latter has some convoluted shipping fees since it’s coming from South Korea.)

Etude House Silk Scarf Damage Protein Ampoule Treatment

Have you tried out any of Etude House’s Silk Scarf line? What’s your favorite hair care product? Share your thoughts in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.

This review was not sponsored by Etude House, but KultScene is always looking for affiliate and sponsors, particularly for product reviews. Email contact@Kultscene.com for more details

From ‘Genie’ to ‘Wolf’: Dsign Music believes the future of music begins with K-pop [INTERVIEW]

September 26, 2016/in Features, Interviews /by Tamar Herman

“You have two-thirds of the world in Asia, why should you just stick to the millions of people in the US and Europe?” Jenssen asked during our phone call last week. “It’s a really small market. Everyone wants to be a part of that new [market]. When everything opens up [in Asia], it will be a huge thing for music.”

Korea and Asia as whole have already been a huge thing for Dsign Music, which has created hits for everyone from Girls’ Generation and TVXQ in Korea to EXILE and Namie Amuro in Japan to Jolin Tsai in Taiwan and, wait for it, Ricky Martin himself. K-pop fans owe a lot to Dsign, considering that the Norway-based production team created hits like Girls’ Generation’s “Genie” and “I Got A Boy,” EXO’s “Wolf,” f(x)’s “Rum Pum Pum Pum,” and Red Velvet’s debut single “Happiness.” Their latest Korean single, Baekhyun and Suzy’s “Dream” peaked at number one in South Korea and number three on the Billboard World Digital Songs chart. Dsign’s most recent Korean songs were featured on Apink and Red Velvet’s latest albums.

Also on KultScene: Meet iDR, The Producer Behind Some Of K-Pop’s Biggest Hits

But before “Genie (Tell Me Your Wish)” came out in 2009, Jenssen had no idea what was going on in South Korea, or the fact that Dsign would end up creating some of the most popular songs. “It was actually our publisher who called us one day and said ‘Hey, you know they still sell a ton of records in Japan and Korea?’ We were like, ‘we don’t even know what it is,’” Jenssen said with a laugh. “We knew where it is but we had no ideas about the music. We had no clue.”

After “Genie” topped charts around Asia, Jenssen and his team went to see Girls’ Generation perform at the Tokyo Dome. “We had four TV interviews while we were at the stadium and there were thousands and thousands of people walking around the stadium. Then we realized, ‘Okay, we want to do more here.’”

Jenssen also credited iTunes and Spotify for opening up Asian music to western listeners who had otherwise had little access to non US or European-based music industries.

Since then, Dsign has been integral to K-pop’s foundation. They work closely with SM Entertainment, which tends to work closely with many western producers, but have also produced music for non-SM acts like Lee Hyori (“Bad Girls”), Spica (“Tonight”), Rainbow (“Energy”), Boys Republic (“Video Game”), and 9 Muses (“Hurt Locker”). Jenssen runs the day to day business aspects of Dsign, but has plenty of a role in the creation of their songs; his voice can be heard for a split second at the very end of Girls’ Generation’s single “Beep Beep.”

When creating songs, Jenssen revealed that it’s not just music that international producers have to pitch to Korean companies, it’s the whole concept. “Music in Asia is all about the video, the dance routines, the marketing, and how you put the package together,” he explained. “A good example is [EXO’s] “Wolf.” You get all the kids in Seoul to go around with their hands up in the air making ears and howling ‘awoo!’ They sold a lot of merchandise based on that song because it’s a concept song. And you kind of understand everything when you see the video and see how everybody reacts to it. Other songs are also concept songs, so sometimes we’ll write down ideas for the video too to ensure that the concept sticks through to the end.”

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Jenssen emphasized that foreign producers are learning that K-pop is based around the synthesis of intense concepts with the rhythm of US music, like hip-hop and R&B, and the melodies of Europe, where electropop is still prominent. But it’s not just K-pop emulating western styles according to Jenssen, who highlighted Selena Gomez for pulling off the most K-pop-like sound in the English-language music market. “A lot of new stuff in the US now is sounding more like the K-pop we’ve been doing for like five years, with a bit more stuff happening with several more parts in the song. When we won the YouTube award for Girls’ Generation with ‘I Got A Boy’ it was described as the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ of 2013 because it had all these parts in it. That’s something that K-pop is well known for.”

And Dsign Music believes that Korean music, and music industries throughout Asia, offers a new frontier in particular because of its immense export rates, which Jenssen said emulates the current model for English-language music. “Most of the income stream from the US artists comes from the rest of the world. Same with the UK. So the UK and the US have been always the winning part in the sales numbers because of the overseas sales just like Korea’s building its way to being the musical export market of Asia.”

As for Dsign’s future in Korea, Jenssen, unfortunately, said that they have more songs planned for later this year, but due to South Korea’s secretive approach to promotions he’s not allowed to give any details.

What do you think about Korea’s role in the future of music? Which is your favorite Dsign Music-written song? Share your thoughts in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe to the site and follow us on Facebook,Twitter,Instagram, and Tumblr to keep up with all of our posts.