What To Buy From Japanese Drugstores?
As I am a bit of a noob when it comes to J-Beauty, I did a bit of research beforehand on what to buy from their drugstores. I visited cosme.com, which is a site like Makeupalley but for Japanese cosmetics, and also had @cosme_hunter's Instagram feed as references. My friend who's living in Japan, Maiko also helped me a lot in suggesting some products that worth to buy as well as where to get them. So, here's a haul. Technically my mum's haul and you can use this list as a reference! Few of the items already available in Malaysia btw, but of course, you can get them cheaper in Japan.
1) Biore UV Aqua Rich Watery Gel (¥830)
Truth be told, I don't actually need another bottle of sunscreen right now but it's Japan. This country is famous for its cosmetically-elegant sunscreen and very impossible not to buy any of them while at there. I'm guessing the one I have here is the gel/thicker version of the Biore UV Aqua Rich Essence. I actually wanted to try the limited edition of its kind, (Maetel design with pink bottle and floral fragrance) but it was sold out.
2) Cure Natural Aqua Gel
The no. 1 best-selling peeling gel in Japan. It's hugely popular and has a high rating on Cosme. I just recently saw it at Watsons for RM139 sale price, so I'm not sure why did I get this. Lol. At least it's cheaper but not much. I've only used a peeling gel from Etude House before and that was like more than 5 years ago so I'm pretty excited to add this back into my skincare routine.
3) EVITA Beauty Whip Soap (¥1200)
Another popular item. When my mum told me about the vacay in Japan, I knew I wanted this cleanser already. I've been seeing it went viral around last year, got its own personal post on sites like Allure.com, Cosmopolitan and Huffington Post. It's actually a foaming face cleanser where the lid of the bottle is designed with a rose stencil so that the foam comes out shaped like the flower itself. How cool is that??! I heard the cleanser also smells like roses.
4) DHC Deep Cleansing Oil
I'm pretty sure most of you guys have heard about this product before, and if you haven't, you're missing out! This is a cleansing oil used for the double cleanse method, and it's actually such a big thing in Asian inspired skincare routine. I've been meaning to try it for a while but hesitate due to its pricing in Watsons. I believe this item is fairly cheap in Japan, so my mum bought not one but 3 bottles of the oil cleanser. Super excited to try this and hopefully, it will perform better than the Nature Republic Camomile Cleansing Oil that I'm currently using.
Honestly, I have no idea what is it being called since I cannot read Japanse, but I'm guessing this is just another variant of DHC Cleansing Oil, a.k.a YAY I GOT MORE CLEANSING OILS TO TRY OUT and all of them are from J-Beauty brands. Same with the sunscreen, I actually wanted to try out the limited edition version since I was really intrigued by the packaging.
One of the high-quality sheet mask to get recommended by a lot of beauty sites. I think I saw these in Malaysia but with the 7-days packaging. Is it at AEON Wellness? I'm not sure. I was planning to get LuLuLun locally but as my family was going to Japan, I thought I might as well make them get these sheet masks for me. By the way, look at all the packaging... So cute!! We got all the 3 main types of masks from the classic series- Hydrating (pink), Deep Moisturising (Blue) and Brightening (White). Mask ni guna tiap-tiap hari selama satu bulan, explaining why it comes in a large portion.
7) Mote Liner Lquid Eyeliner in Brown Black (¥1620)
The only makeup item I got from Japan and probably the best one out of everything. My dad helped to buy it at the airport before he got on the plane. Didn't realise the price is slightly steep for a drugstore brand, but uhh, the satisfaction. I also in need of a new eyeliner to replace my KATE Black liner that I got from Watsons. I loooooove Japanese eyeliners, they seem to provide a better control of the wand and also, the tip is thin and soft. It's suitable if you have monolids or hooded eyes like me.
That concludes my haul! There were few other items made into the list (drugstore & high end) but couldn't get them due to time constraint, unavailability and overall budget, but I'm just going to leave it here for future reference.
1) Kanebo Suisa Beauty Clear Powder
2) Sumi Haigou Settuken Charcoal Bar Soap
3) Miracle Romance Sailor Moon Makeup (sold out in all drugstores that my mum went into emergerd)
4) Namerakahonto Lotion by SANA (it's a soy milk based toner)
5) Quality First All-in-one Sheet Mask
6) Shiseido ANEESA Perfect Sunscreen SPF50+
7) Shiseido Adenovital Eyelash Serum
8) Kose Sekkisei Medicated Herbal Gel
9) SKII R.N.A Power Moisturiser (would love to repurchase but there aren't much price different than the one sold in Malaysia)
10) Tatcha Luminous Dewy Skin Mist
And these are the list for some of the stores in Japan where you can buy drugstore products.
1) Matsumoto Kiyoshi
2) Don Quijote
3) PLAZA
4) Cocokara
5) KOKMIN
6) Donki
7) Daikoku Drug
8) Lady Drug Store
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this post and let me know which items you like the most and which ones you want me to review.
