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Seoul: In South Korea’s beauty-obsessed capital, the green “O” of Olive Young stores is to skincare aficionados what the golden arches are to hungry travellers on a highway – a beacon guiding them to their holy place.

For the uninitiated, Olive Young is the South Korean cosmetics juggernaut that has helped cement the country as the gold standard for skincare products and a booming destination for beauty tourism.

Its stores are concentrated in Seoul’s tourist hotspots, and its shelves are lined with slickly marketed and affordable Korean brands selling confidence and self-improvement in the form of sheet

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