Good morning from Singapore! I touched down yesterday at 630am after an 11-hour flight from Frankfurt and I was seriously jellified from jet lag yesterday. While it is always a fierce battle to stay awake during the day, I always love the super early mornings although I cannot sleep in the wee hours so I went for a jog and watched the sun rise over the Little Red Dot – light purple, streaky orange, pale blue skies dotted with white fluffy clouds. It was sweltering even at 6am but what else can you expect from a hot and steamy tropical island. eh?

So it does seem a little weird to be blogging about my spring time skincare routine in Japan but I thought it could be interesting for my fellow sensitive skin sisters to have a look at what’s working for me right now.

Just a bit of background for those who don’t know my skin type: I have oily combination skin that is prone to dehydration and acne, plus I tend to get rashes if I use heavily fragranced and/or complex formulas, so I keep it really simple these days.

In the morning, I wash my face with CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser. I may alternate this with the Hada Labo es Foaming Facial Wash and the only reason I do so is that I may take a shower in the morning and the Hada Labo one sits in the shower room and the CeraVe one is next to the bathroom sink. I like both equally and they clean well without stripping my skin.

Next, I dot my T-zone with my ever-reliable Clinique Anti-Blemish Clearing Moisturizer with salicylic acid to prevent my pores from clogging. Then, I follow up with a coin-sized blob of Physiogel Cream all over my face and neck, after which, I would put on whatever sunscreen I may be using at the moment. I’m almost done with the Hada Labo UV Cream (this has been sadly discontinued) and will switch to a lighter one as soon as the weather gets warmer.

In the evening, I remove my makeup with Mutenka Cow Brand Cleansing Oil. I stopped using eye makeup remover for now because this cleansing oil does a pretty good job of taking off all my eye makeup (and my mascara of the moment is Deja Vu’s Fiberwig Mascara which is easy to remove).

And then I use CeraVe or Hada Labo to wash my face with my Clarisonic. Now, if I had a particularly sweaty day or wore my makeup for more than 12 hours, I would use Clarins’ Gentle Foaming Cleanser as it has a slight stripping effect which is something I actually like when my skin feels all clogged up.

Then, like in the morning, I follow up with the Clinique moisturizer on my T-zone, and then I spread three drops of Jason’s Natural Vitamin E Oil all over my face and neck.

If I have a pimple, I would spot treat it with Clean & Clear’s Persa-Gel 10 which heals zits like a charm and I’ve been using this for the past couple of years.

So that’s it – really spare and simple and this has helped my sensitive skin immensely. I’m on the hunt for an eye cream because I began to notice visible fine lines around my eye area and I’m tempted start experimenting with serums again since my skin has stabilized.

Do you have any serums you can recommend for sensitive skin? What’s your tried-and-tested skincare routine? I love reading about other people’s skincare routines because you never know what might work for someone else, could also work for you.

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Sorry if this post may not interest everyone, i.e. those who do not have sensitive skin, but I thought it was time I share my findings in the sensitive skincare world in the past six months of struggling with random rash and acne breakouts.

Again, thank you so much for your support at my Naruko blog sale where I had to get rid of some products that I’m allergic to.

I thought my skin was just sensitive to the usual baddies: strong chemicals, parabens, alcohol, and fragrance but I think I can’t tolerate a lot of natural/organic skincare as well. So my lineup of sensitive skincare belongs to the stripped down variety where there are fewer irritants than your average skincare product.

For those living in Japan, you can try Bioderma’s Sensibio range and it’s available at Matsumotokiyoshi, Loft, and Tomod’s.

From left to right: Sensibio Light Soothing Cream Sensitive Intolerant Skin Normal to Combination Skin; Sensibio Lotion Normal to Dry Sensitive Skin; Sensibio H2O Sensitive Skin Ultra-Mild Non-Rinse Cleanser Makeup Remover.

The price range is around 2900JPY and above though the small H2O cleanser is around 1500JPY for just 100ml but that finishes very quickly.

Let’s start with the good products: the cleanser is indeed a good non-irritating non-rinse makeup remover. There is no alcohol and the skin feels refreshed and clean after makeup has been wiped off but even this HG cleanser is no match for Majolica Majorca’s mascara.

The lotion has been great for my chest and back and it has never been so smooth. I’ve had minimal pimple break outs in these areas and I really think this lotion has something to do with it. Unfortunately, this lotion doesn’t work on my face and it kind of crept up on me. For a whole month, my skin felt fairly smooth and blemish-free but then I started getting bumps on my cheeks and forehead, areas which I don’t normally get any acne. I’m not sure if what I had were even pimples because they didn’t look like clogged pores nor were they inflamed. But after I stopped using this product for a few days, all the bumps disappeared.

The soothing cream which is supposed to be a light moisturizer was way too rich in autumn but didn’t have enough moisturizing power in winter. Overall it’s not a terrible product but it just didn’t work for me in terms of hydration.

Another brand that specializes in sensitive skin is Acseine which is a Japanese brand. It has a counter in Ginza’s Matsuya and a small section in Loft. I was glad they had a sample pack so I could sample their AD range which is completely free from nasty chemical additives and fragrance.

From left to right: Cleansing Oil, Facial Soap AD, Skin Control Lotion, AD Control Essence, Milky Gel AD (day moisturizer), Skin Protector AD (night cream).

I love their Skin Control Lotion AD and it was gentle enough for my face. I used this throughout my Vietnam trip and I will definitely repurchase this. Unfortunately, the rest of the range just didn’t suit me.

The Milky Gel and the Skin Protector were way too rich for me and just sat on the surface of my skin. Putting on makeup over this was just a nightmare and I was an oily mess in just a couple of hours. The AD Control Essence is meant to be a hydrating serum but I seriously doubt it penetrated my pores as it felt like it just stayed unabsorbed on my skin.

The cleansing oil worked fine but it is quite pricey at 3100JPY for a 120ml full-sized bottle. The facial soap had the usual soap effect which made my skin feel a bit tight after washing. Some people may like that feeling because it means all the dirt has been cleaned off so I wouldn’t rule this out completely. Sometimes I like to do this type of squeaky clean cleanse to get the crap off my face, sort of like “clarifying” your skin, you know?

From left to right: Physiogel Cream, Eucerin Aquaporin Active Moisturizing Cream Light, Sensibio Light Soothing Cream Sensitive Intolerant Skin Normal to Combination Skin, Hada Labo es Milk.

I’ve used the above four moisturizers for a few months now and my conclusion is that the Physiogel Cream, SGD42 (USD33) for 150ml has had the best effect on my skin. I actually saw this brand on Bubz Beauty’s blog and Youtube video and wanted to get the exact same lotion but I couldn’t find it so I settled for their basic cream which my mum’s friend raved about as a night moisturizer. I think it does the job and is not greasy but I’m well aware that it does just that, i.e. moisturize, and has no other added benefits.

But hey, as long as it doesn’t irritate my skin, I’m happy. I even bought a lotion version for more humid weather and I don’t think I can live without this moisturizer. It’s not sold in Japan so I stocked up in Singapore and I’ll probably try and buy some more when I go to New York next month.

The Eucerin moisturizer actually had fragrance which surprised me. This one worked well for me for two weeks and then snuck up on me like the Bioderma Sensibio Lotion — little bumps appeared on my cheeks and my skin just generally felt rough to the touch, like there was a strange invisible residue or something. So I used the rest of the cream on my arms and legs.

The Hada Labo es Milk (review on the whole es range here) has been great for my eye area but it’s too rich for my oily skin. I think it works fine at night but I prefer using my Jason Natural Vitamin E Oil that not only deeply moisturizes my skin but seems to help heal the various bumps and scars on my forehead and cheeks which have pretty much recovered from my previous breakouts.

I would like to add that I brought back the Clinique Anti-Blemish Clearing Moisturizer into my regime for the past month and I apply it only to my T-zone before the Vitamin E Oil — so far so good and my skin has seen much fewer clogged pores and I will stick to this routine for now.

I hope you found my post useful in some way if you have sensitive skin. Just a piece of advice: try to introduce one new product to your skin at a time so you can determine if it could cause you any reaction. It also took me all this while to admit that I simply cannot use “fancy/fun” skincare anymore and I really feel okay (I just spend more on makeup now — lol!)

Do you have any sensitive skin products to recommend?

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