Hongdae makeup studio for a snap shoot: matte skin at Comma Hair

It was such a hot summer this year... but I wanted to record how I spent it meaningfully, so I booked a summer-concept snap photo shoot 🌿 Here's my review from [Comma Hair & Makeup], known for great natural makeup among Hongdae shoot makeup studios, where I got my hair and makeup done and then took some pretty snap photos!

• 📍 5 Donggyo-ro 25-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 2nd floor
• ⏰️ 09:00–18:00 (earlier appointments can be arranged before store opening)
• ✔️ Reservation required, on-location makeup available

I booked the makeup studio after confirming my snap shoot reservation a month in advance. Doing things early is always best~~!!

Where is Comma Hair & Makeup? 5 minutes from Hongik University Station Exit 2

The location was easily accessible, about a 5-minute walk from Hongik University Station Exit 2! Not only was the route to the shop convenient, but

since my shoot wasn't in Hongdae, I had to take the subway over, so being close to the station really cut down on travel time 👍 Comma Hair & Makeup is on the 2nd floor of the building!

The entrance to Comma, a Hongdae hair and makeup studio. You can enter 10 minutes before your appointment time.

Inside Comma Hair & Makeup: 4 rooms, a changing room and individual lockers

The bright, clean interior overall made an impression! There was a comfortable waiting area, and with 4 rooms total, it was a Hongdae makeup studio where you could get your hair and makeup done privately. Besides the rooms, there was a separate changing room too.

There was also a restroom inside! Comma Hair & Makeup — such a clean, great Hongdae makeup studio.

It was convenient that you could store your belongings in an individual locker!

Nibbled on a few snacks while waiting.. the oatmeal chocolate flavor was so good I'm thinking of keeping some as office snacks.

Makeup with director Suyeon: the color products in room 2

Moved to room 2 where director Suyeon was! As you'd expect from a makeup studio, color cosmetics were spread out everywhere. I'm a bit of a makeup nerd myself so I quietly scanned the shelves — there were plenty of high-end products, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of familiar Olive Young and drugstore brands too?! A lot overlapped with palettes I already own, which made me really happy 😃 Base and skincare products were kept separately on the side wall!

Before the makeup

I only had sunscreen on when I arrived, so the director cleansed my face first.

Honestly, I'd just finished a certification exam I'd been preparing for that day and had only slept about 3 hours, so my face had some serious dark circles haha. My skin is naturally on the fair side so it shows up even more — that day I basically looked like a panda. Trusting the director completely.

Why reference photos matter: studio lighting and the snap shoot concept

I always make sure to bring references when I go to a makeup studio. First I showed her the lighting mood of the studio where I'd be shooting

and I also brought a makeup concept. This time, AKMU's Suhyun recently covered a famous J-pop song by Seiko Matsuda, and the actress Cynthia who appears in that music video looked so clean and refreshing that I fell for her look...💙 Of course it's just an aspiration ^^ Copying it doesn't mean I'll actually look like that! But I brought it to convey the overall vibe and color tones I wanted. So we decided on makeup with as natural and clear a feel as possible ✨️

The hairpins were so cute 🤣 Director Suyeon carefully matched even the direction of my part. First she trimmed my stray brow hairs, thoroughly cleansed off the sunscreen, and prepped my skin with moisture-rich basics. After checking my skin type (combination oily-dry), she used products suited to it.

Matte skin and skin-tone eyeshadow

Base work! By the way, I have quite a few freckles haha. She asked whether I preferred glowy or matte skin, and I said I just wanted whatever suited the studio setting! Since lighting like natural studio light suits a clean matte look, that's what we went with! I naturally lean toward matte to semi-matte anyway haha!

Since it's natural makeup, the shadow was just a thin skin-tone base layer, and she focused instead on delicately working the outer corners of my eyes for a natural look.

Instead of eyeliner, she softened the outer corners with shadow for the most natural effect — and the shadow color suited my style so well that I asked her what it was haha. She kindly told me all about it ❣️

Lash extensions under the mucosa, over a lash lift

And then the main event — the lashes. I'd actually gotten a lash lift a month earlier and it was still holding up really well, so she applied extensions right under the mucosa, a skill that looks pretty difficult but she made it look easy. With mascara and careful heat-setting with a handmade curling iron, she fixed everything firmly in place — even placed under the mucosa, the hold was rock solid, with zero clumping and totally natural-looking lashes ✨️

The finished eye makeup. The lashes were filled in naturally, focusing on sparse areas, and the eye shape was styled naturally with skin-tone shadow, getting really close to the look I was going for 🌿

After spraying setting fixer and finishing with a handheld fan to set everything, the makeup was complete!

Hair: calm straight styling with root volume

Director Suyeon did my hair as well as my makeup! We decided to keep volume at the roots while going for calm, straight hair overall. My bangs and root volume tend to fall flat quickly, and the director checked all of this in detail before carefully building up root volume for me!

After: how the snap shoot photos turned out

Calm hair plus natural, understated makeup tones. It turned out exactly the way I wanted, and my friends all gave it rave reviews, saying the makeup suited me perfectly ❣️

I liked it so much that I think I took over 100 photos that day haha

Thanks to the pretty hair and makeup, my summer shoot was a success 📸 Thank you so much, director Suyeon, for finishing my hair and makeup so carefully to match exactly the look I wanted ❣️