South Korea is known for its beauty trends. From glass skin to snail mucin, K-beauty has introduced a lot of cool (and sometimes strange) skincare ideas to the world. But not all trends are worth celebrating and one of the newest ones has left many Koreans angry, confused, and uncomfortable. A Korean brand recently launched something called tinted perfume. At first, it sounds kind of fun perfume that smells nice and leaves behind a bit of colour. But here’s where things get weird: the brand promoted it as a way to get idol knees and idol elbows.
What Is The Korean Tinted Perfume Trend?
Basically, you spray it on your knees, elbows, or even your socks or keychains, and it adds a peachy blush of colour, just like K-pop stars supposedly have during photoshoots. The idea is that it helps you look more like a K-pop idol. But who even asked for this?
Instead of people getting excited, the reaction online was mostly disgust. A lot of Koreans called out how ridiculous the product is. Why should anyone worry about making their knees and elbows look cute and pink? Do we really need to add blush to our joints now? Many people saw this as yet another way to make women feel insecure about perfectly normal parts of their bodies.
It also touches on something even more serious, the creepy obsession with making women look younger, cuter, and more childlike. The whole blushed knees aesthetic reminds some people of the Lolita look, which is all about looking soft, innocent, and underage. That’s not just uncomfortable, it’s dangerous. Promoting this kind of beauty standard adds to a toxic culture that often s*xualizes youth and innocence, especially in pop culture.
And then there’s the issue of colourism. This product clearly only works if you have lighter skin. If you don’t, the peach tint won’t even show up properly or worse, it could look strange. This pushes the idea that pale, rosy skin is the goal, and once again leaves out people with darker skin tones. It reinforces an outdated and harmful beauty ideal: that lighter is better.
The brand tried to explain the backlash by saying it was meant to be a creative and fun idea. They said people could use the tinted perfume however they want, and that applying it to knees and elbows was just one suggestion. But that explanation didn’t sit well with many. It felt like a weak excuse after launching a product that clearly promotes unrealistic beauty standards.
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In reality, no one needs to blush their knees to be beautiful. This trend doesn’t empower women; it just adds another layer of pressure to be perfect in the most unnecessary ways. Beauty should be about choice and confidence, not about inventing new insecurities. This trend? It needs to stop.
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