Abstract

Personal color, known as a set of colors that harmonize with a person’s natural physical coloring, rose rapidly as a trend among young Korean women in the 2010s. Based on anthropological fieldwork at personal color consultation studios, this study analyzes personal color as an alternative aesthetic makeover practice to plastic surgery in which the body is deemed the source of originality instead of change. Instead of altering the body, improvement through personal color is supposed to be achieved through a change in color consumption, about which the consultant provides guidance as a choice connoisseur. Through the journey of personal color makeover, the customer is encouraged to transform into a better-looking, efficient color consumer and an estimable authentic self with a strong sense of individuality and self-esteem. Deeply related to producing each individual as an attractive and marketable personal brand, the practice erects itself as an alternative means to increase one’s value and chances in life— an option that is seemingly more body-positive than plastic surgery but entails a more ceaseless endeavor of self-government in all aspects of everyday life for the production of a better self.