KPOP & KOREAN BEAUTY: A GIFT FROM ABROAD...

For those of you who don't know, Nature Republic is a Korean beauty brand of which main concept is to deliver quality products made from natural ingredients in order for the consumer to feel closer to nature. Or something. The website (link) says "the products consist of skincare derived from pure nature, body & hair care with full energy from the great earth, and makeup with Experience the Beginning of Nature's and life, witch it never has been introduced to the world before, through full range of the Nature Republic's products." Forgive me if my explanation of the brand is a little weak, this is what I had to work with.

But my point is, not too long ago Nature Republic and a Kpop group called EXO did a little collaboration which resulted in, a sponsored music video which I will include below, a snazzy photo shoot and numerous products with Exo's faces on them! Now, they say it's not what you know, but who you know, and I happen to know a sweetheart who lives alll the way over in Thailand and sent me this beautiful Exo photo card and lip balm set, featuring my bias (favourite member) D.O! 

Look how pretty he is!!! So, there's two signed photo cards on the left, and the lemon scented lip balm on the right. And yes, that is also his face at the bottom of the lip balm. Things like this are really hard to get hold of in sunny England, so I can't even express how grateful I am! Thank you Mei!

Here's a little bit more about Exo.

Exo is a 12-member, all male group under the management of SM Entertainment, which is actually divided into two sub-groups; Exo M and Exo K, the former perform Chinese (Mandarin) songs and promote in China, whereas the latter perform Korean songs and promote in China. Though this isn't as isolated any more as on more than one occasion, they have come together as Exo 12 in order to release both Chinese and Korean versions of songs. There record company, SM, is based in Korea; 8 members of the group of Korean and 4 are Chinese.

The members are; 

Exo K

Kai (Kim Jongin), who is Korean..

D.O (Do Kyungsoo), who is Korean.

Baekhyun (Byun Baekhyun), who is Korean.

Chanyeol (Park Chanyeol), who is Korean.

Sehun (Oh Sehun), who is Korean.

Suho (Kim Junmyeon, leader), who is Korean.

Exo M

Kris (Wu Yifan, leader), who is Chinese

Lay (Zhang Yixing), who is Chinese

Chen (Kim Jongdae), who is Korean.

Tao (Huang Zitao), who is Chinese

Xiumin (Kim Minseok), who Korean

Luhan, who is Chinese. 

Although I don't consider myself an Exotic (that's the name of their fans), I think I'm just in denial because I really do love them to bits. 

Some of my favourite songs of theirs are;

Still a Dark Night, which is a cover song they performed on a TV Show called Immortal Song.

Singers; the incredible vocal line Chen, Baekhyun, D.O and a little snippet from Xiumin

Dancers; Kai, Xiumin, Sehun and Lay.

Growl, the first music video version of a single they released in 2013, featuring all of Exo.

Here's the Chinese version and the second music video version, though there is a first music video of this song, as well as a second music video of the Korean version of the song. Wow, Exo are so complicated.

XOXO, a song of of their album of the same name. This is the Korean version, though there is a Chinese version if you search Youtube!

Phew, I have no idea how this post got so long! If any of you are interested in learning more about Kpop, or my obsession with it, let me know via twitter @nelliephantt, or you can leave me a comment below.

If you're still with me, thank you so much for reading!

xo.