Note №16MENU DECODER
Most lines on a Korean clinic price list are product names — specific machines and specific syringes from named manufacturers — not procedure names. One of them, 슈링크 (Shurink), is sold outside Korea as Ultraformer; both names occupy the same slot in one manufacturer’s catalogue — CLASSYS. Neither name appears in the FDA’s device databases, which we queried on 13 August 2026.
You will be handed a price list — printed, laminated, or on a tablet — and most lines on it will be words you have never seen. 리쥬란. 슈링크. 인모드. 물광주사. 쥬베룩. Ask what one of them is, and you will usually get the same word back, said more slowly.
They are not procedure names. They are product names — specific machines and specific syringes, each made by a specific company. That single reframe makes the menu readable. You are not choosing between treatments. You are being quoted for named products, the way a garage quotes you a brand of tire.
And at least one of those products is sold under a different name the moment it leaves the country. Same manufacturer, same catalogue, two names — which is why searching the Korean term in English so often returns nothing useful.
The decoder: what each name on a Korean clinic menu actually is
| On the menu | Romanized | Literally | What it is | Sold elsewhere as |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 리쥬란 | Rejuran | (brand) | Injectable containing polynucleotides derived from salmon DNA, marketed for skin quality rather than volume | Rejuran (same name) |
| 물광주사 | mulgwang jusa | “water-glow injection” | Many small hyaluronic acid injections spread across the face | skin booster |
| 스킨보톡스 | skin botox | — | Botulinum toxin placed shallowly in many small doses across an area, rather than into a specific muscle | microtox, mesobotox |
| 슈링크 | Shurink | (brand) | Focused-ultrasound lifting device | Ultraformer — see below |
| 울쎄라 | Ulthera | (brand) | Focused-ultrasound lifting device | Ultherapy |
| 인모드 | InMode | (brand) | Radiofrequency platform with several handpieces | InMode |
| 쥬베룩 | Juvelook | (brand) | Injectable collagen stimulator | Juvelook |
| 아쿠아퓨어 | Aquapure | (brand) | Cleansing-and-infusion facial device | Aquapure |
| 엑소좀 | exosome | — | Add-on marketed for skin repair | exosome |
슈링크 and 울쎄라 are the same category of machine: both deliver focused ultrasound. They are usually priced far apart. Nothing on the menu tells you why.
Why is 슈링크 (Shurink) called Ultraformer outside Korea?
슈링크 is made by CLASSYS, a Korean manufacturer of clinic devices. The company runs two catalogues, and we read both on the same day.
On the Korean site, the medical lineup opens with 슈링크 유니버스 and 슈링크, followed by 볼뉴머, 시크릿 RF, 아쿠아퓨어, 사이저, 리핏, 울핏.
On the global English site, the same catalogue reads: ULTRAFORMER MPT, ULTRAFORMER III, VOLNEWMER, SECRET RF, AQUAPURE, SCIZER, REFIT, ULFIT.
Line them up:
| Korean catalogue | Global catalogue |
|---|---|
| 볼뉴머 | VOLNEWMER |
| 시크릿 RF | SECRET RF |
| 아쿠아퓨어 | AQUAPURE |
| 사이저 | SCIZER |
| 리핏 | REFIT |
| 울핏 | ULFIT |
| 슈링크 / 슈링크 유니버스 | ULTRAFORMER III / ULTRAFORMER MPT |
Every other CLASSYS product is a straight transliteration of the same name. The flagship lifting device is the exception: 슈링크 and 슈링크 유니버스 appear on the global catalogue as ULTRAFORMER III and ULTRAFORMER MPT. The global site lists no clinic device called Shurink at all — the only Shurink entry there is SHURINKHOME, a home-use product.
We are describing what the two catalogues say, not certifying that a given Korean model and a given export model are identical hardware. If that matters to you, it is a question for the clinic, and the answer should be a model name you can write down.
Are Korean clinic devices FDA approved?
American readers ask whether these are “FDA approved.” That phrase does more harm than good here, because the answer is different for every line on the menu. So we searched the FDA’s own databases, by device name and by company, on 13 August 2026.
The short version: Ulthera and InMode appear in the FDA’s databases; Shurink, Ultraformer, Rejuran and Juvelook do not. The full result:
| Product | Company | Found in FDA databases? |
|---|---|---|
| Ulthera System | Ulthera, Inc. (Merz) | Yes. Authorized in 2009 (DEN080006), with further clearances through 2026 — the most recent K260618, 21 May 2026 |
| InMode devices | InMode Ltd / Inmode MD Ltd | Yes. Multiple clearances, including K151273 and K201150 |
| Shurink / Ultraformer | CLASSYS, Inc. | No record under either name |
| Rejuran | PharmaResearch | No record under that device name or that company |
| Juvelook | VAIM | No record under that device name or that company |
| Exosome products | various | None — covered in full here |
Read that table carefully. It is easy to see something in it that is not there. CLASSYS holds four 510(k) clearances — SCIZER, Volnewmer (twice) and CuRAS hybrid — and none of them is named Shurink or Ultraformer.
Absence from a US database is not a safety finding. It means the product was not put through a US review — usually because it was never marketed there. Devices used in Korean clinics are licensed by Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, a separate regulator with its own process. A machine can be entirely lawful in a Seoul clinic and simply absent from Washington’s filing cabinet.
What the table does tell you is this: the phrase “FDA approved” cannot be applied to a Korean clinic menu as a whole. For 울쎄라 it is true and the manufacturer publishes exactly which body areas it covers. For most of the rest, there is nothing in those databases to point at. If a clinic’s English page attaches “FDA” to the menu in general rather than to one named product, that is a claim worth asking them to narrow.
What we could not verify
We did not independently check each product’s Korean licence in the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s own database. This article therefore makes no claim about Korean approval status for any product named above, and no claim about what any of them does to skin.
We also found no published, comparable price for these treatments. Korean clinics generally do not post cosmetic prices, and the ones that circulate in English blogs are not sourced. We have not repeated them here.
Drips run on the same naming logic, and their labels hide a different gap: a Korean beauty drip’s licence says nothing about beauty.
What to ask before you agree to anything
Five questions, none of which requires you to know anything about the technology:
- “What is the model name of the device?” Not the treatment name — the machine. Write it down. You can search it later.
- “Who makes it?” A named company is a checkable answer. “It’s the latest model” is not.
- “Is this the product itself, or a treatment that uses it?” Clinics sometimes name a package after a device it only partly involves.
- “How many sessions is this price for, and what happens to the balance if I stop?” Prepayment is the single most common source of disputes at Korean clinics, and in July 2026 Korea’s Fair Trade Commission got fifteen named clinics to drop their no-refund clauses — a correction to those fifteen contracts, not a change in the law. Assume yours still says whatever it says.
- “Can I have this in writing before I fly home?” You are entitled to your records, including after you leave.
A clinic that answers the first two without hesitation has told you more than any review will. And reviews, in this market, are their own problem.
Common questions
Is 슈링크 (Shurink) the same as Ultraformer?
They are the same manufacturer’s catalogue entries under two names. CLASSYS lists 슈링크 and 슈링크 유니버스 on its Korean site, and ULTRAFORMER III and ULTRAFORMER MPT in the same catalogue position on its global site. We are describing what the two catalogues say, not certifying that a given Korean model and a given export model are identical hardware.
Is Rejuran FDA approved?
We found no record of Rejuran, or of its maker PharmaResearch, in the FDA’s 510(k) or PMA databases when we queried them on 13 August 2026. Absence from a US database is not a safety finding — it usually means the product was never marketed in the United States. Devices used in Korean clinics are licensed by Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, a separate regulator.
What is the difference between 슈링크 (Shurink) and 울쎄라 (Ulthera)?
Both deliver focused ultrasound and both are lifting devices, but they are made by different companies — CLASSYS and Ulthera, Inc. (Merz). They are usually priced far apart, and a Korean clinic menu does not normally explain why.
Why do Korean treatment names return nothing when I search them in English?
Because most of them are product names rather than procedure names, and at least one is sold under a different name outside Korea. Searching 슈링크 in English will not surface Ultraformer, even though the manufacturer’s own two catalogues place them in the same position.
Sources
All accessed 13 August 2026.
- CLASSYS Inc., Korean product catalogue — https://classys.co.kr/
- CLASSYS Inc., global product catalogue — https://www.classys.com/
- Merz Aesthetics, Ultherapy official site (manufacturer’s own statement of FDA-cleared uses) — https://www.ultherapy.com/
- US FDA, 510(k) Premarket Notification database, queried via openFDA — https://api.fda.gov/device/510k.json
- US FDA, Premarket Approval (PMA) database, queried via openFDA — https://api.fda.gov/device/pma.json
Once you have a device’s real name, the next question is what its clearance actually says. We read the FDA wording for four Korean radiofrequency lifting devices and found it describes stopping bleeding.
Leave a Reply