Boscia Blotting Linens

The past year saw me venturing into 2 new brands, Jurlique and Boscia, and revisiting with 2 others, Stila and L'Occitane. The sample of Herbal Recovery Gel I used last winter sparked my curiosity for Jurlique, and the Boscia Jujube Salve Stick became my traveling all-purpose rescue from way back in 2009 until it was discontinued. Plus Boscia's parent company is FANCL (FANCL is preservative-free, and Boscia is preservative-free and botanically-derived, think Clarins), which I had known and used from 2007. L'Occitane has always been hit and miss so I lost interest for a while, and Stila was somewhere in between forgotten and left behind due to all the moving. So all that is to say there will be quite a few Boscia, L'Occitane, and Stila reviews coming up ^.^

First up is Boscia Blotting Linens. Somehow, just within half a year starting last fall I've racked up quite a supply of them, from freebies to kits and sales! Boscia's 2012 Black Friday Promotion came with full size Gold Peppermint (100 sheets), Boscia's Best Trial Kit came with a mini packet of Green Tea (25 sheets), and the full size Pink Peppermint was going for half price ($5!) on Sephora! So I ended up having some really nice stocking stuffers for the gals in my family ^.^

I have to say, Boscia gives some really nice and generous freebies, especially around the holiday season! So if you want to try their products, I recommend waiting for a good promotion because they can be somewhat pricey otherwise. And do give the mini trial sets and kits a try. Personally, I'd always prefer a mini trial set/kit over a full size. In fact, while living in Japan I'd noticed that many Japanese brands will sell mini trial kits. What an awesome concept! Surely I'm not the only person out there who likes to sample several products, get bored or lose interest easily, and adore small/mini packaging. So really, any mini trial set/kit is a triple win for me ^.^ How come the brands here don't do that? Sure, they may have travel sizes, but having to buy them individually for a higher price defeats the purpose if you ask me...

For the 2012 Black Friday Promotion (left), Boscia gave away 3 full size products: Luminizing Black Mask 80g/2.5oz., Pore Purifying Black Strips (6 strips), and Gold Peppermint Blotting Linens (100 sheets). The Boscia's Best Trial Kit (right) includes, from left to right, Enlivening Amino-AG Eye Treatment 7mL/0.2fl oz., Oil-free Daily Hydration SPF15 15mL/0.5fl oz., Purifying Cleansing Gel 50mL/1.7fl oz., Recharging Night Moisture 15mL/0.5fl oz. (bottom horizontal), and Green Tea Blotting Linen (25 sheets). I bought 2 of Boscia's Best kits and gave one to sis in law.

This Pore Purifying Black Strips went to my college age brother.

And the Oil-free Daily Hydration SPF15 tube from my Boscia's Best kit went to my mum ^.^

Anyway, I've only used the Green Tea one so far. I took it with me to the conference my company hosted, in fact! It's really a lovely product, smooth, soft, and so thin it's translucent! In my humble opinion it feels even nicer than Yojiya's best-selling Oil Blotting Facial Paper ^.^ It does a great job of absorbing excess oil without disturbing makeup (let me tell you, a big ballroom full of people in suits can get really stuffy and hot... +.+). And it smells heavenly, being very lightly scented with Japanese green tea. 

Supposedly, it can also blot lipstick, but I haven't tried this so I can't comment on that. In addition, it's been infused with green tea extract to, according to Boscia's product page, "soothe, protect, and freshen" the skin. This claim I'm not really buying though LOL! Seriously, it's a blotting paper. You dab it over your oily t-zone to get rid of excess oil and that's that. Perhaps the green tea scent can be freshening and soothing for some people, myself included, but for the skin? Nah.