Wednesday, February 3, 2010

A Little Facial Pampering

I went to my local Japanese store the other day. Because everything is so cheap there ($2 each to be exact!), I always find myself unable to leave without picking up a few items. This is the result of my trip there...
There's always the worry that drugstore/dollar store items will be of cheap quality, but I find that Japanese made products are usually quite good. As we all know, people in Asia, Japan, Korea and the likes put a lot of emphasis on having great skin. As a result, they've put their time into developing quality products. Not everything from a drugstore may turn out to be a great product, of course, but if you look, sometimes you can find a few gems for a really good price.
I picked up the Natural Pack Face Mask and Clean-Up Nose Strips. I thought these looked interesting the first time I saw them, so I looked them up but couldn't find any information about them. I'm not sure what the brand is because it's in Japanese, so it's hard to look them up. I bought it because my sister has used it before and recommended them to me.

This mask is pure black in colour. I'm not going to show you what this looks like on, 'cause this mask looks freaky! Haha :P It seems to work just like any other clay mask to purify and declog your skin. This mask is unique because once dry, you can peel it right off. And when you do that, it actually pulls out your whiteheads/blackheads at the same time! You can see the yucky stuff that's been on your face stuck on the mask after. I find that I do have to use a generous amount for it to work properly. For $2, I can see myself repurchasing!

These nose strips are just like the Biore nose strips I've used before. I haven't used these myself, but my sister has. She says they work alright for stripping away surface blackheads, but don't do anything for deeper bigger blackheads. I think it helps if you prep your pores with a warm cloth beforehand.

I also found these two mirrors - one for my school bag and one for my purse.

Isn't this one cute?! 

I love the detailing on this black mirror.

The pink one is just a simple mirror I throw into my school bag. I really like how both of these mirrors come with a handle. It lets me hold up the mirrors easily and prevent me from getting my fingerprints all over the mirror itself. Love these two designs!

Lastly, I got two different exfoliator scrubs/brushes to try out.

I leave this one in the shower and use it whenever I feel like I need the extra exfoliation. 

The bristles are surprisingly soft and my face does seem to feel softer after using it. 


This pink scrub is my favourite! It's made of soft rubber and you just slip it between your fingers and scrub away in circles on your face. I use it daily along with my cleanser and I feel like it really helps make my skin extra clean (and soft!). Definitely a new-found favourite product! :)

It's interesting that I saw something just like this when I was browsing through a magazine...
L'Oreal calls this scrub a "Super Soft Scrublet". It's trademarked and everything, which I find funny, because haven't people in Asia been using this little thing forever?! 


The "scrublet" comes with their new
L'Oreal Go 360 Clean Deep Facial Cleanser.  It's advertised to give you "smaller pores & cleaner skin". I haven't seen it in stores here yet, but I think it's a neat idea. Now that they're introducing this, maybe these types of scrubs will be more easily available to people who are interested in it and didn't know where to buy one before! :)


That's it for now! 
Thank you so much for following my blog and for all your lovely comments!! 
I've slacked off a bit in the last week but I'm looking forward to posting more frequently.
Got lots I want to share with everyone. :)
Otherwise, you can always find me on Twitter for quick updates.
I'm on there pretty much everyday. 

Hope y'all have a great week!! :)
♥ Anita

24 comments:

Veronica said...

The black mirror is so sweet!!! <3

My-My said...

Great haul! I wish I had a little Japan store around my area. I have to drive out for Japan town, when really I just would like an easy one stop shop. You're right on the Asian quality of their cosmetics, they tend to top many of states brands. and its like everything is cute. So their packaging is always a plus. I can see so much pranking potential with that mask. lol. Of course I'd love to try it out properly on my face too. :P

Ee Von said...

$2 is dirt cheap for things that looks cute and works well! great buys :D i love the mirror, the detail looks more elaborated than anna sui's! and the mask looks really good! sometimes i like to believe that things that look/smell horrible work great!

Anonymous said...

Lovely haul!
Packaging is SO cute!
And the mask looks WOW ... Very black. Hehe. I wish I could try some product form over there. Japanese do really good skincare things, ie Kanebo =P. X

Bea said...

I like the mirror. It reminds me of anna sui. :)

vanilla said...

aahh nice haul!the charcoal doesnt work for me tho
:(

DinaXYYan said...

love your haul! the mask sounds interesting!

. said...

Ahh! The pore mask sounds like such a good idea, since the Biore pore strips always 'bubble up' between my nose and my cheek, kind of. I don't know if you know what I mean, but anyway the area most affected by blackheads (for me) isn't at all in contact with the pore strip, so they're a bit useless!

And that pink brush thing! In the UK I saw it too in Boots (drugstore). Soap&Glory was selling it, for £6 I think? ($10USD?) It is exactly the same thing, I swear, except repackaged to look nicer. =_= And LOL @ the L'Oreal advert. Looks like they finally caught on..

Phoebe Limanta said...

oh my gosh i love asian shops, they have the cutest stuff ever! that mirror is beautiful! reminds me of anna sui :)

C. said...

anita youre so lucky you have an asian shop near you! im very jealous of your black mask, been looking at it online for a bit. does it hurt when you peel the mask off? and that face scrub looks so cute!

Babybubblz said...

I've always wanted to try that little scrub too. I was thinking of picking up the loreal cleanser just to try it.

Where in Canada are you located if you don't mind me asking? I'm hoping you are in my city so I can go to this awesome local Japanese store too!!

Angelique said...

OMG... I NEED that store close to me! First of all, I love love love that mirror & you totally make me want to go look for that black mask but I probably won't find it LOL.

Also, I bought that Loreal 360 JUST for that scrub because I've been wanting something like that instead of using the hard/rough sponges!

I think that mirror will be in my dreams right now... hahaha

xo

sugarmizbunni said...

Wooww! I love japanese stuff.. Apart from cute packaging, their quality most of the time is Good too. It must be great fun shopping in that japanese drug store :) I can imagine myself doing that if I'm swtexcape :p Anyway, glad that you share. Looking forward for your next shopping in japanese drug store^^

Lulu said...

oo all great products for the face! please let us know how that little facial scrubber works, i've been intrigued by the L'Oreal one too!

vivien said...

We need some Japanese drugstores here! We have one place called Fit that sells Japanese stuff for $2-$5 but the quality of it is soo bad. I feel like no one in Houston cares about their skin -__-

chung said...

I wish we had Japanese stores here (but there's none because there's a very small population of Japanese people where I live).

I had to buy a face scrubber thingy online (but so worth it, lovess it!), and the black mask looks like the Shiseido Black Mask! The Shiseido one has the same function but it seems like your black mask is way cheaper. Nice finds!

Shop N' Chomp said...

I love going into those little Japanese shops and just browse around. Love your haul here especially the mirrors. =D

Susie said...

I wish I could find that mask here :(
& that mirror is freaking CUTE!!!

oOchaOo said...

i have that mask too, its a charcoal mask :) it hurts when pulled off but it really works! :)

Claire said...

Great haul! The mirror is so cute, so Anna Sui. :)

I used the black mask before and it ain't too bad. However, I found it rather painful peeling it off. LOL!

Thanks for commenting on my blog. :)

xoxo

Gaby Fauchon said...

Loving the black mirror! Soooo vintage ^^

L'Oreal Go 360 Clean Deep Facial Cleanser definitely looks interesting... especially the scrublet!

Life of Temptation said...

I wanttt that blackkkk mask =O !!

Hhaha be perfect to scare bf with it one day hahaa!:p Awesome BLOG!

XOOX<3

Yumiko said...

that's an awesome mask. i kinda wanna try it out. where's this japanese store at?

Curvy Petite said...

we need to have a swap someday! I love the black mirror and the nose peel thing!

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