Skincare Stocking Stuffers (Picture heavy!)

In 2012, hubby and I moved out of Japan in late August, then to Taiwan for 3 months until mid December. Going to different countries means lots of shopping and while I tried to exercise control, I don't have much self restraint. As a result, everyone in my family got at least a few skincare related stocking stuffers this past holiday season ^.^ Anyways, with permission from the recipients I took pictures of the products prior to wrapping them. 

This Naive Rich & Deep Moist Cleansing Foam Gift Set came with the full size Cleansing Foam Rose Extract in the yellow tube, which went to my mum, and a travel sized Cleansing Foam Madonna Lily Extract in the blue tube, which I kept for myself.

Naive Makeup Cleansing Oil

Happy Holidays everyone!!! I'm home visiting my folks for the rest of this month so posting will be sporadic until I get back. Keep warm (unless you're in the Southern hemisphere, in that case, keep cool!) and take care!

Anyway, this bottle of Naive Makeup Cleansing Oil actually says "cleansing oil for use in bathtubs." I think that pretty much sums up this cleansing oil, yep, it can be used dry or wet! I spotted this newbie a few months ago when it first came out. At the time I was still using Hada Labo Super Hydrating Olive Oil Cleansing, but I bought it anyway and have been using it now for the past month. And it was cheap so that helped ^.^

Naive Peach Hand Soap

From my pleasant experience with Naive Peach Body Wash, I was so excited when I spotted this Naive Peach Hand Soap at the local drug store. Soft, moisturizing, foamy, and nice smelling soaps for my hands? Yes, please!

I was sorely disappointed however. This turned out to be like any other average Japanese hand soap. It's a translucent pink liquid that barely foams and dries out my hand as though I am using harsh glycerin soaps. Boo. Hiss. I wouldn't bother with it if I were you.

Naive Peach Body Wash

I didn't think I would ever use these Naive Body Washes again as both the Aloe and the Grapefruit were so crazily drying, but hubby and I needed a break from our bar soaps marathon, you know, just to keep things interesting. So I dug out this Peach bottle from the closet and boy am I happy I did because, surprise surprise, I like it a lot!

This picture is of the bottle I'm using, but I believe Kracie has repackaged the Naive Body Washes differently now. I'm not sure if they reformulated them too, but the bottles definitely look different the last time I saw them at the supermarket.

***Picture from Amazon.com.

First the similarities - just like the Aloe and the Grapefruit, this Peach Body Wash is light and runny in texture and is extremely foamy. Now the differences - most immediately noticeable is that it does not smell of generic soap. I opened the bottle expecting the same old Naive body wash generic soap smell again but nope, none of it. In fact, I'd have to say this Peach Body Wash smells pretty amazing, a powdery peachy but clean scent, very similar to L'Occitane Shea Extra Gentle Soap Milk (I still haven't reviewed it, but I've used a couple of bars already...sorry...), only fruitier.

Now, the second most significant difference is that this Peach Body Wash isn't drying at all, even though I am now at much higher elevation and in a much drier environment. So yes, this Peach Body Wash takes me by total surprise and I can't believe I waited so long to use it!

Naive Facial Cleansing Foam Part II

I was hoping my last Naive Facial Cleansing Foam in Aloe would finish sooner so I can start using the Peach one, but it lasted all the way through December, so I got impatient and started using the Peach one anyway :P



And what do you know - I like the Peach one much better! It actually smells better! It still has a little bit of that generic soap smell, but mix in with a bit of peach and powder. During washing, it actually reminds me of the soft powdery fragrance of the original Olay beauty bar (couldn't find a good picture - I guess they don't make those anymore!), before they added all sorts of different scents, formulas, and whatnot. So yeah, I guess I really like the scent of this Facial Cleansing Foam in Peach.

For comparison sake, the Peach one actually gentler and less stripping than the Aloe one. I use the same amount to wash my face, but the Peach hasn't dry out my face yet and I've been using it daily for more than 2 weeks now. And given how dry it is in my apartment right, that's pretty darn good! We'll see if it will keep up though. It's not my perfect face wash, so the search's still on. I enjoy trying different stuff anyway, so it's not like the search will end anytime soon :)

See my previous Naive Facial Cleansing Foam post.

Naive Facial Cleansing Foam

Good grief, how long has it been since my last post?!? My apologies. I won't make excuses. Life just got in the way, that's all.

Plus I haven't been wearing any makeup these past several weeks -gasps!- Dunno why but I just haven't been feeling the pretties recently. Is it even possible for me to get lazier? Shoot!!!

This is going to be a review for Naive Facial Cleansing Foam in Aloe. I have another one in Peach too, but I decided to try this one out first. The description on Sasa.com says it's made out of "100% botanical soap base" and aloe extract "deeply moisturizes" the skin. Errm...I don't know about the 100% botanical soap base, but it definite does not deeply moisturize my skin, that's for sure. In fact, if I accidentally use too much, it will dry my face out a bit.



Both hubby and I have been using it for weeks now, and it's an effective cleanser that gets my skin squeaky clean. It is scented, but doesn't really smell anything like "aloe". I found this soapy scent common among a lot of Naive products, like the Naive Aloe Body Wash, for example. They all have this "freshly showered" kind of fragrance, which sometimes can be a bit ugly as in the case of the Naive White Facial Cleansing Foam. Another similar characteristic among Naive products (actually, most Japanese face and body foaming washes) is that they foam really well, and this face is no exclusion!

With all that said, I probably will not buy this Naive Facial Cleansing Foam - Aloe again. It's just too generic for me to stick with. There is such a wide range of possibilities out there for face washes that it just doesn't make sense for me to be loyal to one when it's nothing special.

See my previous Naive White Facial Cleansing Foam post.

Naive White Facial Cleansing Foam

I'd been using Shiseido Benefiance Creamy Cleansing Foam off and on since last year and finally finally finished the tube recently. You know what means, right? I got to go shopping for a new face wash, of course! :D

And then in my excited stupor I grabbed this Naive White Facial Cleansing Foam at my local Asian store without even looking. So needless to say, I'm not exactly happy with my purchase, especially since I'm not into anything "whitening." You can imagine what it was like when I got home, "What the...? White Facial Cleansing Foam?!? Damn it!!!" Despite that, I decided I to give it a try anyway. I'm just too lazy to bring it back.



This face wash is okay. It foams like crazy but the foam is thick and creamy, along the lines of the Shiseido Benefiance. It's actually more gentle than the Shiseido Benefiance, with the exception that it stings a little whenever there's a cut on my skin. Yeah, so much for gentle, huh? But, my face did feel very clean afterwards, and absolutely no tightness or dryness whatsoever.

So why do I think it's just okay? Well, aside from the stinging, it was the scent that bugged the heck out of me. For the first several uses, I could have sworn it smelled like a rosy Scrubbing Bubbles. I mean, it just felt wrong to be scrubbing my face with this stuff instead of the sink or bath tub or something. I know, not exactly appetizing descriptions. And then I guess after that, my nose must have gotten used to the smell or something, so the scrubbing bubbles scent wasn't as strong and in my face anymore. But still, it still smelled too chemically, the bad kind. I guess this means it's a no go.

Naive Grapefruit Body Wash

Oops, I finished this Naive Grapefruit Body Wash a while back but forgot to review. Just like the Naive Aloe Body Wash, I bought this Grapefruit one a set with the 650 mL pump bottle, a 450 mL refill bag, and samples of Naive Shampoo and Conditioner, for $9 at my local Asian grocery store.


***Picture from TrueRenu.

Similar to the Aloe Body Wash, this Grapefruit one foamed like crazy and washed off squeaky clean. It smelled just like generic soap too, with may be a very light note of citrus. Sadly, this Grapefruit one was much harsher on my skin than the Aloe, and I often got dry and itchy arms and legs while using this. Not my favorite body wash, I'm afraid. Will not buy again because it was just like the Aloe, only worse. Bleh.

Naive Olive Deep Cleansing Oil

My affair with cleansing oils goes like this: I started venturing beyond Shiseido Ultimate Cleansing Oil because, well, I got bored of it. Then it was DHC Deep Cleansing Oil for the next couple of years and got bored of it too, plus it was a tad drying. Tried the FANCL Mild Cleansing Oil next and liked it, but eventually went back to DHC for a while because not only the FANCL cleansing oil is expensive, it goes bad within a couple of months because it has no preservatives. This put pressure on me to use it up quickly, and I found that pretty ridiculous and just stop using it altogether :)

Now, in between my OCM days, I use this Naive Olive Deep Cleansing Oil. I spotted this at my local Asian grocery and thought I might give it a try. It's pretty cheap in comparison to all the other cleansing oils I've used, retailing for about $10 for 170 mL. And the bottle comes with a flip top cap that expends the oil surprisingly well, which was neat. They have a bunch of other cleansing oils too though, more from this Naive line, Kose, etc., so my guess is that I'm not going to be very loyal to this one either :P



This Naive Olive Deep Cleansing Oil is decent. The texture is very runny and silicon-y like the Shiseido Ultimate Cleansing Oil, but the main ingredient is mineral oil. It is scented with a strong citrusy fragrance, I would say pretty perfumy, just like the Shiseido one too. I like that it is quite mild despite the mineral oil content and is not as drying as the DHC cleansing oil. The down side is that it leaves a slight film on the skin, which is fine by me since I'm pretty used this by now, thanks to OCM every 2 nights. So if your skin can't tolerate mineral oil, is sensitive to fragrance, or you would rather having your cleanser rinses of squeaky clean, I would suggest skipping this one.

Naive Aloe Body Wash

I've seen the Naive brand from Kracie (ex-Kanebo, the older packaging will say Kanebo, and the newer packaging will say Kracie) since my days in Japan but was never curious enough to try. I was using Dove Aloe Body Wash at the time, (not the American Dove, the Japanese Dove) and the Aloe scent smelled so amazing nothing could tempt me away from it. I did have a tiny little rounded container of the Naive Peach Hand Cream, and that was it for my Naive experience. Now I really wish I had tried everything (okay, may be not everything, but close) in that darn drug store because Japanese-made anything is just so expensive here!

So you know where I'm going with this, right? Of course, when I spotted the Naive Aloe Body Wash in a set, which includes the 650 mL pump bottle, a 450 mL refill bag, plus samples of Naive Shampoo and Conditioner, for only $9, I immediately snatched 2 sets to try. They had the Grapefruit scent in the same set, which I also bought but will review later. If you are interested in trying these, I really recommend checking out your local Asian stores first as they might have these for much cheaper than online. Be especially keen for the sets, which are almost always super nice deals! For this Naive Aloe Body Wash, the 650 mL bottle by itself is usually $9.50 at least!


***Picture from TrueRenu.com.

My first impression of this body wash is...foamy. Yep, the stuff is runny, extremely light, and very foamy, so totally completely typical of a Japanese body wash (my beloved Dove Aloe Body Wash was like this too). It's hot and humid over there, can you blame them? I guess I'm so used to using the thick, heavier and much less foamy American-made body washes, which is better in the dry and harsh winter. Now that it is getting warmer, I just can't stand the thick film of grease these body washes leave behind on my skin, so I opted for something lighter, and this Naive Aloe Body Wash fits the bill perfectly.

Scent wise, it smells like generic soap. Nothing aloe-y about it, unlike my Dove Aloe Body Wash (I told you I was obsessed with it!), but generic soap is fine by me :D Hubby didn't like the smell at first, but then he likes the bubbles factor so much he got over his dislike of the scent. Oh yes, one pump and you'll get a very bubbly wash from head to toe. It rinses off completely clean by the way, so if you use too much of the stuff it might dry out your skin. Now I'm totally curious to try all the other scents! Why, to see if they all smell like generic soap, of course. Ha, just kidding!