An Interview With A French-Turkish Influencer, Seda, Who Tells Us Everything About What You Should See & Buy In Korea After Her 1 Month Trip

Have you ever dreamed of spending a whole month traveling and shopping in Korea?! It is a dream we all wish to see come true! With K-Pop, K-Drama, K-Food, K-Beauty, and much more, there are so many reasons to have Korea at the top of your travel destination list. The country really has a lot to offer.

Seda is a French and Turkish influencer who lives in Annecy (France). She is a K-Pop, K-Drama, and K-Beauty enthusiast. As many dream of, she had the opportunity to travel to South Korea for a whole month. Since many of our readers are curious about traveling to Korea and K-Beauty items, we interviewed her to know what are the things she advises, her tips, and recommendations on products. It is all about her point of view and experience in Korea after preparing this trip for some time.

If you are looking forward to coming to Korea or are curious about what to do in Korea, make sure to read Seda's interview. It is also the perfect opportunity to get introduced to the bubbly and lovely Seda who is receiving a lot of love and support on her social media. As she is an influencer, she has been introducing a lot of content through her platforms.

 

Hello Seda. Thank you for doing this interview with Kpopmap. Can you introduce yourself to our readers? You have a lot of followers who are loving your posts. Please tell us about your social media.

Hello, my name is Seda, I’m 28 years old, I’m French and Turkish and I live in France. I’m a digital creator.
Thank you.
I have been on Instagram since 2019, at the beginning I started this page for professional purposes where I share makeup that I did on other people, but in the meantime in 2020 there were COVID-19 lockdowns. I started doing tutorials on myself since I was stuck at home and that's how the adventure began. Today I'm going to share more about lifestyle, makeup, skincare, and travel. What I like to do the most are aesthetic videos of my bedroom or short videos of makeup products. I also like to share my travels as I did for Korea. I also talk a lot in stories where I share recommendations for K-Dramas, K-Pop music but also food and beauty products.

 

Your Instagram is an aesthetic paradise with travel, beauty, fashion, and more. Do you have a particular curation style to create that signature “Seda” feed?

Yes, I pay attention to the aesthetics of my Instagram account and my signature will be very aesthetic girl!
I always try to take care of my Instagram account, it’s super important to me that it keeps this aesthetic aspect and above all that it represents me. Generally, people recognize my “Seda” touch with the way I make my videos: very aesthetic, refined, and cute.

 

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If France is the fashion capital of the world, South Korea is the beauty capital. Where do you draw your fashion and makeup influences from as an influencer?

I would have said France of course, also Korea and the United States.

 

You recently traveled to Korea and we are sure you have a lot to share about it. How did you decide to come to Korea? Have you been interested in the country for a long time? Tell us about your passion for Korea (K-Pop and K-Drama as well).

I had wanted to come to South Korea since the lockdowns in 2020 due to COVID-19 but at that time I had other plans. In 2023, I decided to come because it was now or never. In the meantime, I also stopped working so I had some free time ahead of me and I was afraid of regretting not being able to do it this year then you know the time passes, so you have to do everything you love so that you don't have regrets later.
My passion for K-Dramas and K-Pop came during the lockdown, I wasn't well at the time and it helped me a lot, hence the fact that for me it's a real passion with which I enjoy watching and listening.
Since then, I only watch K-Dramas. I must have watched so many that I can't even tell you how many I've watched. The list is way too long hahaha. I once finished a drama in one day. K-Dramas are really my safe place, after a day of work watching a romance drama is what I like to do. I can say the same about K-Pop, I can definitely say that I only listen to that at times. I’m CARAT, BLINK, and ARMY but I also listen to other groups like: aespa, IVE, TXT, NCT DREAM, ATEEZ, ITZY, Stray Kids etc…. In Korea, I was lucky enough to have seen some K-Pop groups. And in France, I have been two times at a BLACKPINK concert.

 

You traveled in Korea for a whole month. Many would be envious of this! How did you get ready for it? Do you have special tips for our readers who are planning the same?

So I prepared for the trip 3 months before going. We started by buying the plane tickets (we took a stopover because it will always be cheaper), then we looked for the Airbnb (we were targeting neighborhoods like Hongdae, Sinchon, etc). For people who are thinking of going, I advise you to make all your reservations a few months in advance, it will always be cheaper. I also prepared a detailed PowerPoint with everything there is to do in Korea.

 

We know you are traveling with a friend you met on Twitter. How did you end up traveling with her? Tell us more about it. Did you do all the travel planning together?

It's precisely thanks to her that I started because she initially wanted to leave for September 2023 and for 3 months in a university. In the beginning, that's what I wanted to do but ultimately we decided to do one month to first discover the country together. I never thought one day I would go to Korea with someone I met on Twitter! Honestly, I was a little scared at first that it would go wrong but ultimately we had a month without any worries and we were able to do a lot of things. She also really likes Korea and loves the culture, which is why throughout the trip we got along well on a lot of things. We planned everything together remotely because in France we live 7 hours apart haha.

 

Would you say you planned most of your trip, or it was a day by day experience? Tell us why you think this is the right way to travel for you.

As I said before, I had prepared a long PowerPoint with all the places to visit, cities to visit, etc. Once we got there, we decided one day what we were going to do with our day and it was super cool because we did everything we wanted to do.

 

Can you tell us which tourist spots you visited in Seoul? Among them can you recommend the best ones to our readers and tell us why.

OMG, we've done so many places: Itaewon, Myeong-dong, Namsan Tower, Yeouido Park, DMZ, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, National Museum of Korea, Bukchon Village, and more but my favorite is Gyeongbokgung Palace. I recommend so far because you can spend a day experiencing the hanbok experience.
I really like going to Seong-su in Seoul, it’s one of my favorite neighborhood. There are a lot of independent stores and often pop-up stores. It’s super interesting, it allows you to discover a brand. There is too a lot of super cool aesthetic coffee, I love it. We also had cat cafe in Myeong-dong and the Shiba-inu cafe in Itaewon, which was a great experience that I recommend to readers. The thing I also loved doing was street-food at Myeong-dong, you have so many choices you can eat whatever you want.

 

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Seoul is a dazzling city, but traveling around Korea is an unforgettable experience. Where have you been out of Seoul? Can you tell us more about it and how did you like it?

Yes, we have been to Busan. I wanted to visit this city so much and I have great memories of it. The people, the beach, the sea, this city had my heart haha. I felt so peaceful in Busan. We had the chance to visit Gamcheon village and we went to BTS JiMin's dad's cafe. If you have the chance to go there, I recommend their almond latte, it was super good.
We also went to the DMZ, it was such an interesting experience. We went to the border. I admit that I was a little scared haha ​​but we were able to experience observing North Korea in the distance. I think that's one of the things to do here too.

 

You have been to so many diverse and pretty places. How did you search all these places online? Tell our readers how to look for the dreamy cafes and attractions in Seoul like you did.

Ah ah, it's a secret. I'm joking, of course. Often these are recommendations from friends who have already been. I did a lot of research on Instagram, vlogs on YouTube, and then in K-Dramas too.

 

Your social media feed is so pretty. Do you generally have things you particularly like to post? Which places gave you the best content for your social media?

I love to post pretty aesthetic photos, pictures of me with a view behind me, and then videos of tidying up my room and makeup. I think the best content is often my aesthetic room and my travels.

@seda.eks Monday reset ✨ #mondaymotivation #mondayreset #morningroutine #resetwithme #cleantok #aesthetic #thatgirlaesthetic #pinterest #selflove #pourtoi #fyp #parati #keşfet ♬ DOWN (Juicy Juicy) - JO YURI

We know you are a CARAT and an ARMY! You have been to the SEVENTEEN pop-up store opened in Seoul and BTS JiMin’s birthday cafe, can you tell us about your experience there? Did you have any other K-Pop related experience?

The pop-up store of SEVENTEEN was great even if there was lot of people, it was still a good experience. And it’s one of my favorite groups, I couldn’t miss their pop-up store. The birthday cafe was great, it was cool to see that we were all there for JiMin (BTS) haha. We've also been to "IDOL radio", Gangnam Festival, and TMA, I couldn't have asked for anything better, I saw a lot of groups that I loved.

 

Your beauty recommendations range from affordable to luxury, so there’s something for everyone. On your recent trip to South Korea, what were some of your favorite new affordable and luxury K-Beauty products that you were introduced to?

The affordable one I'd say the fabric mask from VITA-C and a luxury product, I would have said my lipstick from the HERA brand. Ah, there are a lot of products that I could recommend. First of all, for people who are going to Seoul for the first time, go to Olive Young! You will find lots of things there. As well as the "Chicor" store, where there will be more luxury brands. I discovered pads I didn't know about, Koreans only use that!

 

If you could only use 1 K-Beauty product for the rest of your life, which one would it be and why? What were your top 5 must-buy products in Korea?

I'd say my COSRX sunscreen, I can't say it enough but protecting your skin is super important.
My top 5 would be:
1. Sunscreen COSRX
2. Ginseng Essence water Beauty of Joseon
3. Eyeshadow palette from MUDE
4. Mascara from Etude House
5. UNOVE shampoo

 

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Korea is one of the best destinations for beauty treatments and a glow-up. Did you try any services like personal color class or any beauty treatments (simple skin care to more)? Can you share a bit more with us about it.

Yes, I did a glow booster facial and injections for my dark circles in a clinic in Gangnam it was a great experience and I really wanted to test it.

 

Korean perfume brands are currently on the rise. Have you tried any Korean perfume brands recently? Do you have any recommendations?

Honestly, I didn't know it was so well known, so I didn't necessarily make time to test it.

 

To lightly close the interview, can you tell us what you miss the most about Korea back home?

Everything haha, really everything. That's why I would come back in 2024 for a longer duration in Korea.

 

We hope you can travel to Korea soon again, Seda! Thank you for answering our questions.

If you are interested in following Seda, you can do so here on her Instagram @sedaa.eks or her TikTok @seda.eks.