The three brand-name spas English guides name for a Seoul facial are not brand-owned branches. Sulwhasoo (Amorepacific), The History of Whoo and O HUI (LG H&H), and Donginbi red ginseng (KGC) lend their name and their products to a spa in Seoul. None of them runs one. Sulwhasoo’s own programme page carries the line “Sulwhasoo SPA is a separate business entity that is in alliance with Amorepacific”. The Myeongdong spa has no brand page at all. The ginseng spa is run by a company called SPA1978, which renamed itself from SPA 1899 on 30 August 2025.

All three are non-medical, and none of them takes bookings through a third-party platform — the booking routes below are the venues’ own. If “a facial in Seoul” means a quiet room, warm hands and a brand you know from the counter, this is the category you want, not a skin clinic. The two that publish prices run from ₩120,000 for 50 minutes of body care to ₩750,000 for a 180-minute journey, with 20-minute add-ons from ₩50,000. For the clinic alternative in Myeongdong: where to go for a facial in Myeongdong.

The three brand spas, one row each (Sulwhasoo’s row covers two floors)

Spa	Brand · who runs it	Where · hours	Signature programme	Duration · price	How to book
Sulwhasoo SPA (B1) and Sulwhasoo Balance SPA (4F)	Sulwhasoo products; the brand’s page states the spa is a separate business in alliance with Amorepacific	18 Dosan-daero 45-gil, Gangnam-gu — one flagship building, two floors. 10:00–20:00. No hotel outlet on the brand’s spa location page	Signature Ginseng Treatment, described on the page as the representative ginseng programme; Heritage Ginseng Touch on the 4F side	Signature Ginseng Treatment 80 min ₩280,000; journeys 100–180 min ₩350,000–₩750,000; 4F facials 80 min ₩200,000–₩250,000; body care 50 min ₩120,000; 20-min add-ons ₩50,000–₩80,000	Brand’s own English reservation form, international dialling codes accepted; ₩50,000 per person reservation fee, free cancellation to 24 hours before. Phone +82-2-541-9272 (B1) or +82-2-541-9273 (4F)
Whoo · O HUI Spa Myeongdong	Uses The History of Whoo and O HUI products (LG H&H); the venue itself is independent, with no brand page or site of its own	5F, 41 Myeongdong 10-gil, Jung-gu, per the Korea Tourism Organization listing. 10:00–22:00	Herbal-medicine-inspired facial and body care	Not published on any page the venue controls — ask when you message	Phone +82-2-3446-5157 or 0507-1364-5252; KakaoTalk or WhatsApp on +82-10-8527-5253
SPA 1978 (renamed from SPA 1899 on 30 August 2025)	Donginbi red-ginseng products (KGC); run by SPA1978, which KGC’s own page calls an affiliated space rather than a KGC branch	KT&G Tower B2F, 416 Yeongdong-daero, Gangnam-gu (Daechi). 10:00–21:00, free parking. A second branch is in Busan	Slow-Aging, the one marked Signature Program, in the Multi Care range	Single Care 60 min ₩170,000, 90 min ₩245,000; Slow-Aging 120–150 min ₩285,000–₩340,000; Fulfilling 180 min ₩395,000. Prices include 10% VAT	Online form on the spa’s own site, then a confirmation SMS or KakaoTalk within 24 hours; phone 02-557-8030

Every cell above was read on 16 September 2026, from each venue’s own pages. One exception: the Whoo and O HUI spa has no site of its own, so its address, hours and numbers come from the Korea Tourism Organization listing. Prices quoted in travel-platform packages are the reseller’s, not the spa’s. Nothing above comes from one.

The ginseng spa changed its name: SPA 1899 is now SPA 1978

Most English guides still call it SPA 1899. The spa’s own notice, posted on 30 August 2025, says the trading name changed to SPA 1978. Every old spa1899.co.kr address now redirects to spa1978.co.kr.

Search for the new name. The old one reaches a redirect, not a dead end, but hotel concierges and printed guides may still use it. KGC’s Donginbi page has not caught up either: on 16 September 2026 it still showed the old name, a Daechi-dong lot address and 9am–11pm hours. Not one of those matches the spa’s own site.

Use the spa’s site: KT&G Tower B2F, 416 Yeongdong-daero, Gangnam-gu, 10:00–21:00, with free parking for guests. The Busan branch is at 6F, 277 Haeundaehaebyeon-ro, Haeundae-gu, and runs 09:00–23:00 on 051-747-8036. The online booking form offers only the Daechi branch.

Sulwhasoo: two spas in one building, and no hotel branch

The Dosan flagship holds two separate spas at one address. The basement spa is the heritage room, where the ginseng programmes sit. Signature Ginseng Treatment runs 80 minutes at ₩280,000, and a Moisturizing and Comforting facial 80 minutes at ₩200,000. Five journeys of 100 to 180 minutes go from ₩350,000 to ₩750,000.

The fourth floor is the contemporary spa, priced a step below. Heritage Ginseng Touch is 90 minutes at ₩250,000, and facials run 80 minutes for ₩200,000 to ₩250,000. Back-and-shoulder or foot-and-leg care is 50 minutes for ₩120,000, and the four 20-minute add-ons run ₩50,000 to ₩80,000 — a special mask at ₩50,000, and back, leg or abdomen care at ₩80,000 each. Both floors open 10:00–20:00.

If you have read that there is a Sulwhasoo spa inside a hotel in Myeongdong, check before you build a day around it. On 16 September 2026 the brand’s own spa location page listed these two floors and nothing else. A full read of Lotte Hotel’s sitemap, 11,128 addresses, returned no page mentioning Sulwhasoo. That is the range we checked, not a claim about every hotel in Seoul. But no brand page currently points a visitor to one.

How they differ from a clinic facial

No doctor, no consultation in the medical sense, no lasers or injectables, and no result promised beyond the session. What you are buying is the hour and the products. The legal line between the two kinds of venue: skincare venues, medical and non-medical.

The price gap is easiest to see against a clinic on the same side of the river, since Sulwhasoo’s spas and SPA 1978 are both in Gangnam-gu. GU Clinic Gangnam Branch is filed under Gangnam on K-Beauty Station, but its listed address is 54 Seocho-daero 77-gil, Seocho-gu — a short ride from the two spas rather than the same district. It publishes eight treatments from ₩29,000 to ₩1,990,000 and holds a 4.9 rating from 10,000+ reviews. It opens 10:30–21:00 on weekdays and 10:30–19:00 at weekends and on public holidays, every day of the week (checked 16 September 2026). Its entry listing, ₩29,000, is below the cheapest of the four 20-minute add-ons at Sulwhasoo’s fourth-floor spa, which is ₩50,000. Its top listing, ₩1,990,000, is above ₩750,000, the highest published spa price in this guide — Sulwhasoo’s 180-minute basement journey. (SPA 1978’s own 180-minute programme is ₩395,000.) A clinic prices a procedure and the number of units; a spa prices the room and the time. Neither figure tells you which one you want.

Booking notes for visitors

• A Korean mobile number is not the barrier it is often described as, but check the step you will actually hit. Sulwhasoo’s own reservation form asks for name, email and a contact number with an international dialling code, so a foreign number goes through. It charges a ₩50,000 per person reservation fee. Changes or cancellation are free up to 24 hours before the visit, after which the fee is non-refundable. SPA 1978’s form differs in one respect worth planning for: it states that a booking is only confirmed once you receive a confirmation SMS or KakaoTalk message within 24 hours. Give a number or a KakaoTalk account that can receive one, and note that same-day cancellation is not accepted. The Myeongdong spa works over KakaoTalk or WhatsApp on +82-10-8527-5253. All three checked on 16 September 2026. What you need instead of a Korean number, in detail: your phone for a Korean beauty trip.
• Programmes in this guide run 50 to 180 minutes, plus 20-minute add-ons at Sulwhasoo’s fourth-floor spa — not the 60 to 90 minutes a clinic appointment takes. A 180-minute programme cannot start near closing, so ask for the last start time rather than reading the closing hour as a deadline. The Myeongdong spa closes at 22:00 and does not publish a last start time anywhere we could read.
• Resale packages for these spas circulate on travel platforms. The price on them is the reseller’s, and the programme may be cut or bundled. The numbers and forms above reach the venues directly.
• Ask for the total before you arrive. SPA 1978 states that its published prices include 10% VAT; the Sulwhasoo programme page does not say either way, and the Myeongdong spa publishes no prices at all.
• The couple room at SPA 1978 is a single room. Its booking page asks you to leave a note if you want it, so two people arriving without that note may be split.

If you want something bookable in English this week

None of the three spas above is on K-Beauty Station. Booking one needs the venue’s own form, phone or messenger, and a reply in Korean business hours.

The listed alternatives on the platform put prices, day-by-day hours and a messenger thread in one place. HI SPA is a non-medical spa, open 10:00–23:00 Monday to Sunday — its listing prints nothing at all in the public-holiday row — rated 5.0 from 10+ reviews, with one published price: ₩100,000 for Spa and Therapy. It is filed under Myeongdong, though its listed address is B1F, 106 Changgyeonggung-ro, Jongno-gu, and its published treatment is body care rather than a facial. For a medical result rather than an hour of rest, GU Clinic Gangnam Branch lists eight treatments from ₩29,000 to ₩1,990,000, and it runs to 21:00 on weekdays, 19:00 at weekends and on public holidays. Either way it is one messenger thread on K-Beauty Station instead of a phone call in Korean.

Seven venues sit under Aesthetics, the platform’s non-medical category — the same category the three brand spas belong to.

Venue	District	Published price	Hours	Rating
CELLPA by Cheongdam	Gangnam-gu (Sinsa)	Head spa 60 min ₩180,000; range ₩99,000–₩350,000	10:00–22:00 daily, holidays included	4.9, 300+ reviews
Bareun Face Contour Institute	Gangnam-gu (Nonhyeon)	Body and face care ₩250,000	10:30–21:00 Mon–Sun; holiday row not stated	5.0
HI SPA	Jongno-gu	Spa and Therapy ₩100,000	10:00–23:00 Mon–Sun; holiday row not stated	5.0, 10+ reviews
SPA THE ONE	Mapo-gu (Hongdae)	Spa ₩100,000	10:00–23:00 daily, holidays included	4.8, 10+ reviews
Kim Suyeon Beauty Castle	Gangnam-gu (Sinsa)	Body care ₩90,000	Mon–Fri 10:30–21:30, Sat 10:00–17:00	Not published
LUX CARE	Gangnam-gu (Dosan-daero)	Body care ₩50,000	Not published	4.9, 10+ reviews
FIORAEL THERAPY	Gangseo-gu (Magok)	Not published	10:00–02:00 daily, holidays included	Not published

All seven were read on 16 September 2026, with CELLPA by Cheongdam re-read on 17 September 2026 after it replaced its menu, and each carries a WhatsApp button on its English page.

What we checked, and where

• Sulwhasoo spa locations and programmes: the brand’s international site, spa location and spa programme pages, and the reservation form at sulwhasoo.com (16 September 2026).
• Lotte Hotel: the full sitemap and the Seoul facilities pages (16 September 2026) — no Sulwhasoo spa page found in that range.
• SPA 1978: the name-change notice, location page, programme pages and reservation form on spa1978.co.kr, plus KGC’s Donginbi spa page for comparison (16 September 2026).
• Whoo and O HUI spa: the Korea Tourism Organization listing for address, hours and numbers. LG H&H’s corporate site and six likely domain names were checked for a brand page; none resolved (16 September 2026).
• HI SPA and GU Clinic Gangnam Branch: their store pages on K-Beauty Station (16 September 2026).

FAQ

Is a brand spa better than a clinic facial?

They are different products. A brand spa sells 50 to 180 minutes with the house's own products and no doctor; a skin clinic sells a medical result after a consultation. The published prices say the same thing: the spa programmes in this guide run ₩120,000 to ₩750,000, while GU Clinic Gangnam Branch publishes eight treatments from ₩29,000 to ₩1,990,000 on K-Beauty Station (checked 16 September 2026).

Can I book through K-Beauty Station?

Not these three — none of them is listed there, and each is booked on its own channel below. K-Beauty Station does list skin clinics and non-medical aesthetic venues with day-by-day hours, published prices and a messenger contact: HI SPA, rated 5.0 with 10+ reviews, open 10:00–23:00 Monday to Sunday with nothing stated for public holidays, and one published price of ₩100,000 for Spa and Therapy; and in Gangnam, GU Clinic Gangnam Branch, rated 4.9 with 10,000+ reviews, open 10:30–21:00 on weekdays and 10:30–19:00 at weekends and on public holidays.

Which is closest to Myeongdong?

The Whoo and O HUI spa, which is in Myeongdong itself — 5F, 41 Myeongdong 10-gil, Jung-gu, 10:00–22:00. Sulwhasoo's two spas and SPA 1978 are both in Gangnam, a subway ride away. Sulwhasoo's own spa location page lists no hotel outlet, in Myeongdong or anywhere else (checked 16 September 2026).

Do I need a Korean phone number to book?

Not at Sulwhasoo: its English reservation form offers international dialling codes, takes a ₩50,000 per person reservation fee and allows free cancellation up to 24 hours before the visit. SPA 1978's form says a confirmation arrives by SMS or KakaoTalk within 24 hours, so give a number that can receive one. The Myeongdong spa takes KakaoTalk or WhatsApp on +82-10-8527-5253.

Are there cheaper non-medical treatments near Myeongdong?

K-Beauty Station lists HI SPA at ₩100,000 for Spa and Therapy, open 10:00–23:00 Monday to Sunday; its holiday row is blank rather than hours or "Closed". It is filed under Myeongdong, though the address on the listing is B1F, 106 Changgyeonggung-ro, Jongno-gu, and the published treatment is body care rather than a facial. Facial prices at the Myeongdong skin clinics are in the Myeongdong comparison.