The Hada-Lado brand is rather exhaustive, with the Gokujyun line in white bottles, Gokujyun Premium in gold bottles, Shirojyun (whitening) line in blue bottles, Medicated Gokujyun in green bottles, Gokujyun Alpha (aging care) in red bottles, and a bunch of other odds and ends. So I thought I'd go to my local drugstore to check them out in person. While there, I saw this 180mL refill pouch of Hadajyun Moisture Lotion (しっとり) nestled among the many other Hada-Labo options, so I picked it up to try.
But then I got home and thought there was something funny about this lotion I just bought, because I didn't see it while browsing online and it just looked...off. I pored through the products online again, ...and still didn't see this specific lotion. What's going on here?
Upon inspecting the item closely, I realized I'd been had again--this is *not* a Hada-Labo product but is instead another copycat, also from the ABS generic brand that had duped me (and my friend J.!) into buying an Oshima Tsubaki Oil-copycat. Holy crap! Just look at that packaging! The visuals, the fonts, the colors, even the placement of the product on the shelf--it was nestled among the Hada-Labo items as if they're the same--everything was meant to trick me into mistaking it for Hada-Labo! And they've been successful too, as I've made that mistake twice now, and no doubt countless of others have also!
The worst part is that the product is sub-par. For one, it's too viscous, almost slimy. Every time I pat it on my face, it feels like I'm rubbing on natto. Yuck! So I "demoted" it to body-use like I did with Aqualabel Lotion EX and it was even worse, making my whole body sticky and icky. I guess I'm going to have to be super careful at the drugstore from now on and inspect everything carefully before buying, because who know what copycat product I'd mistakenly buy next! Sheesh!
Yeah, they're super sneaky!
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