[Korea 2018] Nose sculpting in Seoul...

The day after I turned 32, I got a nose sculpture procedure done in Seoul, Korea. I became interested in checking out beauty clinics just weeks before going to Korea. Read about other people's experiences with injections (good and bad results, there are so many). I decided to try nose sculpture, and was firm on no surgery. My goal was to have a higher bridge and fill up a tiny dip. I visited PPEUM 2 days before the day of injections. I didn't make any appointment. PPEUM was doing some kind of promotion at the time and had tables outside of their clinic with brochures. I took one brochure and was interested. I went back 2 days later and had my nose sculpture consultation & injections right then without any prior research about the clinic. Here I share my experience with PPEUM, nose sculpture, and my own thoughts about this whole experience.

Pre-Procedure / Consultation

This clinic apparently is "chained" and has multiple locations in Korea. The one I went to was in Myeongdong and very close and not that close to the hotel we were staying at (explain later). When I first took the brochure outside of the building, I didn't ask anyone about anything. I just read the information on my own, in English and Chinese. Then, days later, I went back and took the elevator up to the floor the clinic was at. I walked to the front desk and told them the "package" I was interested in in English. The first lady I spoke to replied they could get me into a consultation right away if I was interested, so I took it. The consultation happened kinda...in an open space? I was a little surprised that it wasn't in an individual room. W waited at the sofas by the front desk while I spoke with a consultant (the pink walls in the picture = where my consultation took place). The consultation lasted about 30 minutes. My own criteria were: no stitches, dissolvable agents only, no permanent foreign object in my nose. I asked questions about the procedure, known side effects, less-common side effects, and triple checked on surgical thread and everything being dissolvable because I didn't want to have follow-up appointments since I didn't live in Korea (and yes, I've been repeatedly told everything was dissolvable, the effects didn't last longer than a year). At the end of it, I made an informed decision. Showed my passport for identification and documentation, then paid for the procedure (credit card, about USD$600). The consultant led me to the elevator and took me to another floor to get me prepped for the procedure. On the way to the elevator, I stopped by W and told him I've decided to do it, and asked him to wait for me. W continued playing on his phone and waited for...about an hour? I honestly didn't know how long has passed by the time I saw W again.

Procedure

Inside the procedure room, I was mostly accompanied by an interpreter who spoke with me in Chinese. I think the clinic offered Chinese interpreter because I showed them my Taiwan passport. They also had staff who could speak in English but he was not available at the time. I appreciated that the clinic offered me Chinese interpreter service, but I really understood much better in English. A nurse came in and took my blood pressure and confirmed with me about the procedure. Then, the nurse disinfected my whole face then applied topical numbing agent just a little above the philtrum. Shortly after, the doctor came (a young looking male doctor) and spoke mixed Korean and English to me while doing his job on my nose. His hands were cold but he seemed experienced because his hands moved steadily and calm while I stared at his face mask the whole time. The lady who acted as my translator translated everything into Chinese every time the doctor has said something. I remember the doctor gave me 4 injections total. The first injection was under the nose tip, this was so EFFING painful (I immediately bust into tears uncontrollably, holy moly that was a first for me). The second and third injections weren't painful at all (one for each nostril). The fourth injection was on the bridge (this felt like a tingle). The doctor used his hands to "squeeze" my nose a few times. Then he seemed satisfied with his work and told me "ok, finished" in English. He was wearing a mask but I could tell from his eyes and voice that he was smiling. I nodded and they had me stay lying down on the chair-bed for a while. After the doctor had left, the interpreter stayed with me in the room and I started feeling cold. A nurse came back and measured my blood pressure again and saw my numbers were lower. I felt lightheaded during my first attempt of standing up, so they told me to stay seated and kept my feet up for a little while. Then I tried to sit up again and was feeling slightly better. They brought me apple juice and I was able to stand up and walk without help afterwards. The clinic took before & after pictures and sent them to me the same day later.

Post-Operation & Recovery

I was prescribed with 3 prescriptions. We didn't know these medicines had to be picked up from a specific pharmacy so we went back to Nine Tree (hotel we had just checked out from that morning), to pick up our luggage, then we took a taxi to the second hotel of our trip to check-in. Had we known the medicines had to be picked up from a specific pharmacy, and that was near where the clinic I had the procedure at, we definitely would have picked up the meds first then pick up the bags then head to the other hotel! The original plan was to take the subway to get to Western Co-op Hotel & Residence (our second hotel) but I was having a very bad migraine and I was in pain. To avoid crowds and move to the hotel faster, we took a taxi instead. The taxi driver didn't speak English but he understood where we wanted to get to when W showed him his phone with the hotel's address on it.

We checked in around 6pm and I stayed in the room until the next day. That night, W was very supportive and ran around town to get me my prescriptions. He said he looked for pharmacies on Google Map and went to a total of three different pharmacies before going back to Myeongdong, the area where the clinic was. After being told they didn't have the medicines I was prescribed with from 3 different pharmacies, W called a friend in Korea to ask for help. Friend checked a picture W sent (prescription form), then friend called the fourth pharmacy to check and confirmed that they carried what I needed, then W went to get them. W also picked up dinner that night on his way back to the hotel. This whole process (getting the meds + getting dinner) took W about 3 hours. I was super cranky while waiting for him and fell asleep. At the time I wasn't feeling like myself and the migraine was the most intense I've ever had in life. Thinking back I was such a brat! After some sleep, the migraine had gone away and I could think and act more like an adult. So grateful for W and grateful he was there!! W got back around 9pm that night. He woke me up, and read me the instructions friend had translated for us over texts. I ate about 1/3 of the dinner that he got, took the meds, and passed out in a jiffy. 

Dinner was congee. Congee is a very common dish for post-operation, patients of any kind, or sensitive stomach. We heard good reviews about this restaurant, about their taste, and valuable nutrition. However, I honestly couldn't taste much and was still feeling uncomfortable at the time of taking these pictures.

The following days went by without much memories. I remember feeling very drowsy and didn't have much appetite. I took the medicines as prescribed from 12/3 through 12/6. Three pouches a day (each pouch had 3 pills inside), each time after a meal. Many, many, many people have shared their lists of "things to avoid" including certain foods and activities post non-surgical operations. My doctor, nurse, interpreter, and everyone I spoke with at the clinic only told me to avoid water on face for the first 3 days, not pull off the clear-bandage until it falls off on its own (they estimated it to take 3-4 days but it actually never fell off on its own, so I picked it off a week later after speaking with my interpreter over the phone who checked with the doctor), and avoid hot spring/sauna/extreme heat for a month. What I did was cold shower for a week (so even if water got on my face, it was cold water). Yes, cold shower in December! One time, in Busan, I was jealous of W because he said "oh I'm gonna get into the jacuzzi" after I said I was going to take my cold shower (and he really did that) 😒 I bought a box of facial cleansing wipes from Skinfood and used that to wipe and clean my face every morning and before bed beginning the day after the injections throughout the time in Korea. After we returned to the states, I still used the wipes for a while, until I finished the box. Then switched back to the old methods of splashing water onto face & wash face during shower. I so love this product, bought more and still use these wipes as of today 1/16/2021! I avoided hot shower, period, for 2 months. So lukewarm water for nearly 2 months. Then, I had whatever shower I wanted and just avoid getting super hot water on my face for about half a year. Today, I let hot water go over my nose and I feel fine. During the first 2 months after the injections, I so wanted to use nose strips to get rid of some blackheads and kept telling myself to resist that urge. Used a nose strip (from Biore) for the first time 3 months after injections. I was very gentle with the pulling part (still am when I use a strip). The nose strip got rid of lots of the junk in my pores and the nose was fine! I got back to my routine of 1 strip per month afterwards. Oh, I also avoided alcohol for 2 weeks because I wanted to give my body enough time for the meds to get flushed out. No alcohol in Korea was no fun 😕

Of course I took pictures for the sake of my own documentation. Here I share some pictures below and hope they might be helpful for others who might consider about getting a nose sculpture procedure in Korea. I received no endorsement, no discount whatsoever for sharing my experience. I simply share what I did and felt. 

 

(above) 12/3/2018 (less than an hour post-operation, inside taxi) vs 12/4/2018 (26 hours after operation)

 

(above) 12/3/2018 (3 hours post-injections) vs 12/4/2018 (26 hours after injections)

 

(above) 12/5/2018 (just woke up, about 40 hours post-injections) vs 12/11/2018, first time with makeup after injections

Long story short, I still don't know if I regret having this done. I don't know because (1) I don't feel like I did something bad, morally wrong, something horrible to myself, (2) there were moments I kinda wished I didn't have this done because for a period of time I was worried about risk of infection (which never happened), the inconvenience that came with this "sculptured nose" (not able to wash face properly for 2 weeks, forever feel the need to be extra gentle when touching my nose including the need to inform dentist and hygienist to be gentle when pulling my upper lip dental procedures, it hasn't hurt but for a period of time my nostrils were very sensitive whenever my upper lip moved in a certain way), (3) I like the result while it lasted (I personally really loved the result during those first 3-4 months; the nostrils slowly started looking more like before the operation about 4-5 months afterwards and the bridge also slowly started looking more like before about a year after the injections), (4) started noticing a couple of minor "dips" this year and I suspect it's because the agents have been mostly absorbed and (5) I still like my nose lol. As of today, I can still tell there's a difference between current-nose and before-nose. It's not as noticeable as the first year. W always commented it's a beautiful nose before and after every time I asked him for his thoughts about my nose 👃lol

Would I do it again? Probably not! 

Do I wish I can redo it? No. 

Do I regret having done this? I dunno.

💗 CM