Erno Laszlo Bamboo Reusuable Toner Pads

It's been a year since I started using these Erno Laszlo Bamboo Reusuable Toner Pads so this post is overdue. I first got a set of 10 pads from the Iconic Skin Set and liked them so much I went back for another set of 10.

Le Baigneur Shaving Soap No.2 + Porcelain Bowl

After two years of continuous use, I noticed that hubby was getting bored with his Proraso Shaving Soap in a Jar (he was switching between the white and the green jar) and got him something new to try over the holidays: this 150g bar of Le Baigneur Shaving Soap No.2 that came in a set with a lidded Porcelain Bowl.

Proraso Shave Brush

Hubby was never an electric shaver guy, so up until we moved into our permanent home, he's been using a razor with disposable blades. Not great, and definitely not environmentally friendly, we know. So when we did settle down, he made an immediate switch to a straight razor, because he's old-fashioned like that ^.^

Proraso Shaving Creams

With the razor with disposable blades, he was using these Proraso Shaving Creams in 150mL/5.2oz. tubes, the White tube for Sensitive Skin and the original Green tube for Refreshing and Toning. There was also a Black Tube for Protective and Moisturizing, but it seems to have been discontinued and is no longer available.

Sensitive Skin

Original Refreshing and Toning

Konnyaku Sabon Facial Cleansing Soaps

Two whole years after I received these Konnyaku Sabon Facial Cleansing Soaps, at long last I opened one up to use. Their online shop has a bunch of varieties categorized by city, some even come in a couple of different scents. The one I'm using is the Tokyo Ginkgo Extract in Lavender scent.

Hana Facial Cloth

I stumbled onto these Hana Facial Cloths at the local groceries and bought several for myself and my mum.

Rose Mure Facial Cloths were my first facial cloths, received from a Japanese friend. There's an entire market of cloth towels here in Japan. Facial towels, handkerchiefs, you name it. Many ladies use them in form or another, mostly as hand towels, which is much more environmentally friendly than paper towels at public restrooms, or as sweat towels, something they dab their forehead, neck, decolletage, etc. on a hot and humid day.

So how are these facial towels different? They're softer and more velvety. I use mine with toners, because I feel bad throwing away cotton pads everyday. I soak up a spot on the towel with toners and wipe my face. Then I wash the towel along with my laundry and hang dry, avoiding any dryer sheets or softeners ^.^

Boscia Blotting Linens Part II

During the busy times at work, I got too lazy to put on sunscreen, which helped greatly with oil-control. The result is that I get totally oil slicked by mid afternoon, and thankfully I have these Boscia Blotting Linens handy!

Last year, I bought the Green Tea, Peppermint, and Pink Peppermint. I finished the Green Tea 25-sheet pack long ago and am half way through the Pink Peppermint 100-sheet pack (full size) now. This past July, Boscia ran a Surprise Beauty Bag promotion I picked up another set with Green Tea again and unscented, along with a carrying case with mirror, which is a cute little convenience but not entirely necessary unless I am to dab these blotting linens over makeup, in which case I do without a mirror anyway.

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 ^.^

Tsururi Pore Cleansing Brush

Stumbled onto this Tsururi Pore Cleansing Brush while browsing my local Japanese drugstore back then. It was on sale for around 600yen, down from the 1,000yen retail. Plus I remembered reading about a Daiso duplicate of it so I picked one up out of curiosity (I also tried the Daiso Puff & Sponge Detergent Yumeko recommended, will review next). Yup, that just sums up why hubby was always wary of my drugstore browsing trips, because I always came home with some useless impulse buys. Good thing this wasn't too big a damage ^.^

Selecty Glitter Aburatorigami Oil Blotting Paper

Got a tiny travel size packet of Selecty Glitter Aburatorigami Oil Blotting Paper as part of Don Quixote's Visee Eye Color and Liquid Eye Liner Sets I got during the holiday season 2011.  

This particular set came with  each containing a deluxe 30mL travel size jar of Fasio Oil Cleansing EX, a small 2.5mL sample tube of Fasio Mascara Easy Remover (which I probably will never use...), a mini 70-sheet booklet of this Selecty Glitter Aburatorigami Oil Blotting Paper (retails 420yen), a Visee Glam Glow Eyes BR-3 (the other option was PK-1, each palette retails 1,680yen), and a full size Visee Liquid Eye Liner in BK001 (retails 1,050yen, haven't gotten to this either). 

SK-II Starter Sets via Aeon Shop

I've been curious about SK-II for a long time, six years or so, ever since they brought Cate Blanchett on as a brand spokesmodel. Excellent move, in my humble opinion, at least it caught my attention and I usually don't even look at the ads in the magazine. Cate Blanchett perfectly embodies grace and elegance, and if that is what SK-II is aiming for, well, bullseye! The down side is that in all these years, I haven't seen SK-II offering any kind of trial or travel sets, at least not for the American market, and I wasn't about to drop some serious dough for full sizes of something I've never tried before.

Fast forward several years, and I totally forgot about SK-II. Gee, there are only about a gazillion other lovely cosmetics and skincare products out there to keep me occupied, and until I read about SK-II Facial Treatment Essence and Clear Lotion on one of Yumeko's Friday photo memes, it didn't occur to me that SK-II is a Japanese brand and, well, heeeeeeey, I was also in Japan! Yeah, talk about a duh moment. Somehow, all the ads I saw on TV, in the magazines, at the mall, etc. for SK-II promotion sets and trial kits just didn't register within the past 2 years. Double duh moment. I guess Japan was a bit of a sensory overload, even if I was none the wiser xD

Aeon SK-II Starter Set with 2.5g sample of Skin Signature Cream

The newer Aeon SK-II Starter Set with 7mL sample of Cellumination Essence EX

Elixir Superieur Travel Kit

When hubby and I visited Nagoya a few weekends ago, we stayed at a discounted hotel chain, the Hamilton Hotel Red - Nagoya, which was quite basic and decent in my opinion. There were no in-house restaurants or bar, just straight up nice and clean rooms for a decent price, which is really how most hotels should be. What else do you think is running up the tab for us travelers?

Anyway, aside from the room amenities, the hotel's front desk also has a small basket with these nifty Elixir Superieur Travel Kits for sale, 500yen (~US$6) each. Of course I had to buy one, and not because I didn't pack my own toiletries at all :P 

Elixir Superieur Travel Kit

The Body Shop Facial Muslin Cloths

Just a quick post here.

Having received the Rose Mure Facial Cloths for Xmas, I remember I had these Body Shop Facial Muslin Cloths with me and proceeded to dig them out of my cabinets ^.^ I bought a few of these right before they were discontinued and got a kick ass deal! 

These come in a set of 3 and are reusable of course. They make a very soft and gentle exfoliator for the face, especially in this drier cold weather when my skin cannot tolerate stronger products. I appreciate that they dry quickly too!

Rose Mure Facial Cloths

Hubby and I met up with a few of our friends in Shibuya to celebrate K.'s bday, only to be surprised when K. brought each and every one of us a Christmas gift as well! Mine is particularly neat, so I thought I'd post it for fun ^.^

You have to give it to the retailers here - they sure know how to make the simplest stuff look all fancy! These are just facial muslin cloths ^.^

FANCL Skincare Travel Set

I was shopping around for a smaller sized oil cleanser I could take with me on my home visit, and to my disappointment there wasn't anything at the local drugstore that was small enough or travel-friendly enough. 

The problem I found with most oil cleansers is that they are stored in pump bottles, which are not travel-friendly at all. Even if you put a pump stopper on, they would still leak from the air pressure on the plane. I tried wrapping them in saran wrap to keeping the stuff from spilling everywhere, however that results in an inconvenient mess when I go to wash my face at the airport. The twist caps were similarly troublesome. Another big problem is that, well, thanks you-know-who we are now allowed only 3 fl. oz. (~100mL) of each liquid/gel/cream toiletry in our carry-ons, and they all have to fit into one ziplock bag per person. So even the half size oil cleansers I found at the drugstore were either over 100mL or the packaging was too big. 

Thank goodness for conbinis, where you can find many conveniently packaged toiletries meant for use during travel! That was where I found this nifty little FANCL Skincase Travel Set!

Yojiya Iebaeni Gift Assortment

Supposedly, the one thing every tourist must do when visiting Kyoto is to get a souvenir gift from Yojiya, a rather well known cosmetic brand founded in 1904 and has a cult following all over Japan. Their most famous and popular piece is the aburatori-gami, or Oil Blotting Facial Paper. You can read all about the history of Yojiya and their aburatori-gami on their English site.

No, hubby, my sister and I didn't go to Kyoto. This Yojiya Iebaeni Gift Assortment was actually a goodbye gift from a Japanese teacher to my sister on her last day of school. My sister isn't into skincare or cosmetics at all, but knowing I'm all about makeup she generously offered this gift set to me instead. In the end though, I only took pictures of it and plan to bring it back to her on my next home visit. It is a goodbye gift after all, and even if my sister doesn't use it she can still keep it for sentimental purposes as she will surely look back at it fondly. And I suppose it's paper. It's not going to go bad anytime soon.

Sekkisei Lotion Mask Tablets

This Sekkisei Lotion Mask Tablets is what I referred to in my last post.



Kose is another Japanese cosmetic giant. Some of the most popular brands made by Kose include Sekkisei, Awake, Visee, Esprique Precious, Beaute de Kose, etc. In the US, only the 2 premium lines, Sekkisei and Awake, are available. Sekkisei can be purchased online at the Kose USA website, and both Sekkisei and Awake are available online at Bath & Body Works.

Sekkisei is a high end skincare medicated with herb extracts, and while I'm not at all attracted to their products, I did buy their Lotion Mask Tablets for $5 per 14-piece pack, which comes out to about $.35/piece :D These are called Lotion Mask Tablets and are meant to be used with Sekkisei Lotion, but who says you can't use them with other serums and treatments? Just pop one out, soak it in whatever you want, store-bought, homemade, whatever, and put it on your face! Lovely idea!

And of course Sekkisei isn't the only brand that carries ready-to-use sheet mask tablets. Try Ebay! The only reason I buy the Sekkisei sheet mask tablets is it fitted better than the SkinFood ones.

DHC Moisture Pack

Okay, tell me I'm delusional, but in the heat and humidity of the Jersey summer, instead of melting away like everything else my skin is drying out like the Sahara!!! I guess my regular usage (every 2 nights) of retinoid treatment (Differin) and high alcohol content sunscreen (Sofina Perfect UV) has finally caught up with my poor dry skin. Damn, I really thought Sofina marked the end of my search high and low for a decent sunscreen! And it was working really well in the beginning too...garr!!! Oh well, what's why they say it takes up to several months to see if a product is a good fit. So on to the next less drying sunscreen I go...

The good news is that I have already ordered my Allie Comfortable Screen EX Perfect SPF 50+ PA+++ :D It is said to be less drying than Sofina, so we'll see how it goes. I'll do a review after a couple of months but will update again after several months for a progress report (sounds like we're still in grade school or something...).

***Picture form Adam Beauty.