Hello my beauty warriors, I’ve been having a good week so far — I’ve been trying out more workouts over at Bodyrock.tv and I love it when I feel energized from exercise and I sleep a whole lot better (and earlier, too!). Before I get into today’s post proper, I’d like to give a special shoutout to one of my regular readers, Julia who blogs at Colour Me Cute, for giving Beauty Box a “Best Blog Award”. Danke shoen, girl! I’m so honoured to be picked by you!

So today, we’re going to talk about fragrance — I dug into my dungeon (that’s what Mr BB calls my perfume collection) and rediscovered an “oldie but goodie” — Guerlain’s Lovely Cherry Blossom Gold Sparkles that was an Asia exclusive in early 2006.

This catapulted me back to remembering how I procured this precious flacon of delight. I was on a business trip in Hokkaido in late April 2006 and Mr BB had already moved to Tokyo by then. We were talking about me moving to Japan but he wanted to see if things would work out for him job-wise before I handed in my resignation. So on this trip, I remember feeling enormously excited to meet Mr BB at Haneda Airport for a coffee and a gelato. It was a bitter-sweet parting as we both missed each other terribly but it was very lovely to see each other for an hour before I boarded my flight to Narita Airport and then back to Singapore.

After our fleeting date, I bought this perfume to remember my mixed feelings about Japan. I thought it was exotic and intoxicating but yet highly developed and sophisticated as a country. This elegant perfume has notes of “bergamot, green tea, lilac, jasmine and red fruits” (via Now Smell This) to emulate the smell of cherry blossoms (which apparently have no scent in reality) which are the ultimate symbol of Japan.

It’s light enough for daily wear but it’s definitely very elegant and work-appropriate. I always pick this one up for serious occasions like a wedding or an interview or a business meeting. It sounds very mature but it’s far from “old lady” territory — it’s got that citrus-floral combo reminiscent of Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle but has no flirtiness or playful girlishness to it. But I still love breathing in this scent as it always gives me that “I’m a woman; I need to put on my big girl panties” boost when I need it.

What’s your go-to fragrance when you need to be taken seriously?

-

“Like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed or Youtube to get the very latest updates, giveaways, and promotions.

Wow, I’m really enjoying our discussions at our Beauty Debate corner. I feel like I’m learning a lot from my readers and I’m just loving going through all your comments. I’m definitely looking forward to the next one…

Until then, here’s a DIY Solutions post today…

I became a convert in using salt in my beauty regimen when my homemade coconut oil salt scrub helped my acne-prone skin. But I would like to mention that I only use this on my body and not my face as coconut oil is a little intimidating for my sensitive, oily skin.

Back in Oct when I had rashes on my face due to using sheet masks, my mother advised me to pat salt water on my face, because nothing seemed to work, not even aloe vera gel. My mum said that she would pat salt water on our skin when we had rashes as babies so she remembered to tell me this when I moaned to her about my rashes.

For four days, the rash persisted but on the last two days, I used a sheet mask soaked with salt water on each night and the rashes looked less red and angry the next morning. I still use this salt mask occasionally when I feel like my skin is breaking out or has clogged pores.

What I love in Japanese drugstores are the plain sheet masks you can buy and you can soak them in any solution you like. In fact, you can make the best out of your hydrating lotion as sheet masks seem help the skin absorb more lotion as opposed to just slapping the lotion onto your skin, especially if your lotion is very watery.

I like this brand of plain sheet masks from Kanebo because of the way it is stored — it has a cover for the sheet masks so it’s very hygienic and can keep for a long time. The only thing I don’t quite like about this brand is that the sheet masks tend to leave “wrinkles” behind. The texture of the sheet mask, like textured paper I suppose, leaves marks on my skin but it’s no big deal as they go away quite quickly, much like sleep marks in the morning.

I used my trusty stash of pink rock salt which I diluted with filtered water. I didn’t boil the concoction because I think the salt can be dissolved easily if you stir it in water.

Basically, I just placed one sheet mask tablet into the bowl of salt water, let it soak for a few seconds, and it would expand. Then, I just carefully unwrap it and place it on my face for 10-15 minutes. I have tried putting this mask on for 30 minutes but I found it to be a little drying so I think a shorter time period is more suitable for my needs.

In short, I would use this mask if I have rashes or acne on my face which is about every two weeks. I think it’s a gentle way to help acne-prone skin that is sensitive to harsh acne products which I generally try not to use, besides spot treatments. Since my skin is so sensitive, I have even stopped using clay masks for now and am trying my best to just let my skin heal. I think I might do a more in-depth post on my updated skincare routine.

I was such a sheet mask demon for the most part of the year but maybe I overdid it and my skin couldn’t take the overload. I feel a little sad because I have a huge stash of sheet masks which I’m still twiddling my thumbs over what to do with them.

Have you tried salt as a beauty treatment? Do you like to make your own sheet masks or do you prefer ready-made ones?

-

“Like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed or Youtube to get the very latest updates, giveaways, and promotions.

Our topic for Beauty Debate today is…

“Do you always wear bronzer?”

For me, I was pretty tanned when I was living in Singapore before I moved to Tokyo so the idea of using bronzer was so foreign and unnecessary to my NC30 (maybe even NC35 if I spent the whole day dragon-boating — yes, I used to be crazy about that sport — or hanging out at the pool) self then.

But after watching tonnes of Youtube videos on makeup application, I was surprised how essential bronzer really is to many beauty gurus. I never really saw the need for it especially since looking tanned is not everyone’s cup of tea in Japan. In fact, when you read beauty magazines in Japan, the makeup tutorials almost never include bronzer. I’ve also transitioned into one of those women who dislike going under the sun and getting tanned (I like sports but I try to do them indoors or at night), so to artificially enhance my skin tone to look tanned is not even something on my radar!

Remember my hasty episode (or two) at airport duty-free counters? I bought a MAC Mineralize Skinfinsh Natural in Medium Dark and it was way too dark as a finishing powder so I’m now using it as my bronzer! Apparently you should use a bronzer that is two shades darker than your natural skin colour — hello, that’s me…

I’m slowly learning how to use my “bronzer” and I’m actually kind of glad it happened by accident because I would have never bought a bronzer on my own accord. I realized that bronzer can just be a contouring tool or it could be used as a “natural” blush, like in this video.

Is bronzer essential in your makeup regimen? Yes or no, please tell us why! If you have a favourite bronzer, please comment below, too.

-

“Like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed or Youtube to get the very latest updates, giveaways, and promotions.

For the Japanese mascara-obsessed, you’ll be glad to know that today’s post is about two mascara primers that are from respectable drugstore brands and they both enhance the performance of mascara in one way or another. I think everyone has a few must-have pre-requisites for their mascara and mine are: smudge-proof, lengthening, not clumpy, and easy to wash off.

Unfortunately, I have an insatiable hunger for eyeshadows, blushes, and foundations, so I tend to skimp on my other eye-related beauty products. I was glad to find Majolica Majorca’s Lash Expander mascara which is an excellent black mascara that is very affordable (plus it’s a cult fave amongst Asian cosmetics fans out there) and it also has an amazing mascara primer, called the Lash Bone Black Fiber In (the name doesn’t make sense!), that will not budge under any circumstances (the true test are unbearable humid Tokyo summers). However, the Lash Expander on its own is hard to remove, let alone combined with the primer.

Thanks to K from Cosmeddicted, I tried her recommendation of Kate’s Mascara Base.

How do both of these compare? I’ll break it down right here:

♥ Texture:
- MM is thicker and oilier which tends to clump if you brush your lashes with it more than twice.
- Kate is more liquidy like a thick serum and doesn’t clump.

♥ Effect:
- MM actually helps to lengthen your lashes even more, so if you use this with the Lash Expander, you can get pretty amped up lashes easily. But if you put on too much, there will be that “spidery” effect though I would save this for a big night out.
- Kate has no visible lengthening effect at all.

♥ Smudge-proofness:
- Both performed excellently with the MM Lash Expander, but unfortunately, the Kate one didn’t prevent smudging for my Lancome L’Extreme mascara but granted it was quite old and should be tossed out. However, the MM one was perfect with the Lancome mascara so maybe MM is quite a life-saver if you are using a mascara that is still okay to use but nearing the end of its efficacy. I also tried the Kate primer with the Dolly Wink Long Masacara and I was pleased with zero smudging at the end of the day.

♥ Ease of removal:
- MM is very hard to remove with any mascara. I usually need two cotton pads soaked with dual-phase remover for each eye. I try not to tug on my eye area so what I do is I press the soaked cotton pad onto my eye for up to 20 seconds and then I wipe it downwards to get the mascara off and then I repeat with a second cotton pad. I tried not to wipe and used more remover but it was impossible.
- Kate is much easier to remove but I still need a dual-phase remover to get everything off. I have to wipe my eyes much less, too, and need just one cotton pad instead of two.

♥ Cost:
- Both are 1260JPY and thus very affordable.

♥ Repurchase potential:
- For the MM I won’t repurchase simply based on the fact that it’s so hard to remove. Even though it provides a great lengthening effect, I think other mascaras can do the job just fine without such a base. For Kate, I would recommend it and would re-purchase it but I would keep in mind that this is only for waterproof mascara which I always opt for anyway. I know that I didn’t test this on non-waterproof mascara but just based on the assumption that it didn’t work with my smudgy Lancome waterproof mascara, it would not really work on non-waterproof mascara. But please feel free to tell me otherwise!

Do you have other mascara primers to recommend? Or if you don’t use primer, tell us about your fave mascara!

Today’s “travel must-have” is a packet of nail polish remover wipes. I cannot recommend these enough as they are great to travel with. They are easy to pack and it’s one of those things that you throw away after you use them. Most importantly, they remove nail polish really well.

The problem with carting your own bottle around is that it takes up space and I don’t like to idea of throwing unfinished products away just like that. I remember on a trip to Sydney a couple of years back when I actually bought a small bottle of nail polish remover from a Coles supermarket because I couldn’t stand my chipped nails and I used it maybe twice on that three-week trip so I gave it to my mother-in-law when I flew back home.

This brand of nail polish wipes is made by Japanese drugstore chain Matsumotokiyoshi and there are five packs inside the packet that costs a little over 300JPY. In each pack, there are two sheets of wipes which are enough for removing the polish from my fingernails. To do toe nails, I would need another pack. A five-pack set like this would last me two trips but this would really depend on how often you do your nails while on holiday. I only really bother with my nails during a trip if I have a wedding or the husband has an office-related event that I’ve got to go to.

I think Cutex and Avon (link here) offer nail polish remover pads in their ranges, too, which I have not seen in Singaporean or Australian drugstores (correct me if I’m wrong, maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough?), but these are readily available in any drugstore in Japan.

Have you used nail remover wipes before? Do you like them?

-

“Like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed or Youtube to get the very latest updates, giveaways, and promotions.

Let’s have a bit of fun with photos on the blog, shall we? I’m crazy about photo apps on my iPhone, so instead of having tonnes of photos lined up vertically, I thought a collage would be easier on the eyes.

It’s the middle of November and why not share what I’ve been constantly using this month…

From the top left and clockwise:

Jo Malone’s English Pear & Freesia is perfect for the transition from autumn to winter in Tokyo. The afternoons are seriously quite warm but the nights are cool. The pear note is quite juicy but not summery like citrus notes are plus the dry down is a gorgeous milky musk. The staying power is not great but an excuse for a perfume fanatic like me to spritz myself with this more often!

Biteki is seriously one of favourite beauty rags in Tokyo — it’s has pages and pages of makeup and skincare which I love to stare at in the bath.

I’ve been smoothing a pump of Morrocan Oil through my hair daily and I just love how it’s not as oily as coconut oil or tsubaki oil but it’s very very very pricey at 3900JPY (plus shipping) so I hope that it lasts for a long time.

Speaking of coconut oil, I may not use this much on my hair but I love it in a salt scrub — best for dehydrated and acne-prone skin like mine.

From left and clockwise:

Dior’s purple travel palette has been my most-reached for eyeshadow palette this month, or rather only-reached for! I’ve been wearing lot of blue, gray, and black clothes this autumn so I love sporting a smokey purple look for my eyes. Detailed review to come soon.

Paul & Joe’s creamy light pink nail polish in 28 was something I painted on my nails repeatedly because it’s so dainty and feminine.

And my favourites would not be complete without a BB cream and this month’s fave is the Ettusias Mineral BB Cream which gives me a flawless, dewy complexion and somehow helps to control my skin from getting too oily. This is definitely worth a full review of its own.

And I can’t forget my Urban Decay Naked Palette! I had a really terrible morning as I woke up with rashes all over my face but the postman rang the door bell around 11am and delivered this to my doorstep. I was so happy to receive it and have been experimenting with different looks. I feel like I don’t really need to buy neutral colours for a while because the range in this palette is quite a amazing.

What are your faves this November?

-

“Like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed or Youtube to get the very latest updates, giveaways, and promotions.

Hello my lovelies, are you enraptured in holiday collection fever or what? I just thought I’d cured myself of drooling after the fall collections and here is an arsenal of amazing coffrets being offered this season. I would like to get one set but don’t know which!

Let’s start with the Japanese brands first…

Lunasol’s Tender Glow Collection has got to be one of the most value-for-money sets amongst the Japanese brands out there. For 6,825JPY, you get an eyeshadow palette (Party Eyes TG EX01), a cream blush (Cream Cheeks EX04), a lipgloss (Full Glamour Gloss N EX 19), a loose powder (Skin Contrast Face Powder 01). Lunasol fans will know that one eyeshadow palette is 5250JPY so you are getting quite a few products for just a bit more.

I would love to get this but I already have many neutral palettes so do I really need one more? And I’m wondering if the loose powder shade can be swapped out as the one in the picture is definitely too light for me.

At first glance, Jill Stuart’s Fairy Collection looks like a lovely treat for 7,875JPY which is not too bad but I wouldn’t say it’s very “worth it” on closer inspection. In the set, there is a Jewel Crystal Eyes 104, one Loose Powder N 101, a Jelly Lipgloss 103, and two fragrance satchets in peach and lavender — all of which are encased in a frilly cosmetics case which is frankly way too girly even for me.

Personally, I would like the eyeshadow palette and the lip gloss but I’m really not sure if I should get yet another face powder of which I have several already (not Jill Stuart ones but in general).

Now the star of all the Japanese brands is definitely Addiction’s Sleepless Nights Collection. It looks the most exciting and it’s a kit meant to prep you for a glamorous night out. Priced at 9,765JPY, it is on the pricey side but you do get enough goodies that make it an honestly good buy. Another draw is that this whole set is limited edition and I’m not sure if they would eventually include these items in their permanent collection.

The compact has an eyeshadow duo with a shimmery charcoal grey and a glittery silver, plus a very light cool-toned baby pink blush. The blush is not as light as it looks when swatched and warms up a bit on my slightly tanned skin tone and the SA had similar colouring to me and it looked very pretty on her. The other items are a plum nail polish, a mini sheer pink lip gloss, a black eyeliner with multi-coloured shimmer specks (very very cool in person!) and a tiny pot of body/face shimmer. The one downside to this collection is the bag which kind of looks cheap and nasty in person. The sequins were a bit sad and ragged to put it bluntly.

Now onto non-Japanese brands…

I had been thinking about MAC’s Festive Frost Face Kit since I’d been spying them on US and UK blogs (Jamilla has a great post on this). But I don’t think there would be the exact same set available in Japan because in the Dec issue of Biteki, it says you can get a Make It Perfect Brush Kit/Mineral Eyes set for 8,400JPY or you can get the six eyeshadow palette, called 6 Snow Globe Eye Shadow in Warm, Sultry, and Cool for 5,775JPY. The info is not yet up on the MAC Japan website though the Glitter & Ice collection is on sale at counters right now.

I’m a bit torn up about the Holiday Style Collection by Estee Lauder but this must be the best value kit amongst all the holiday offerings at the moment. For 12,600JPY, you get a 15 eyeshadow palette, a 4 blush palette, three lipsticks, two mascaras, two lip glosses, one eye pencil, two lip pencils, a cleanser, a mirror, a clutch, and a makeup bag. Estee Lauder makes stellar, high quality products but their branding and packaging are just too oba-san (old lady) for me — just look at the red bags/mirror (!!!). However, I’m very tempted because the matte eyeshadows look incredible!

What are you drooling over this holiday season? Have you already got one or two holiday sets already? If you have, do share what you like about them!

-

“Like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed or Youtube to get the very latest updates, giveaways, and promotions.

What started out as a review on Candy Doll lipsticks I bought recently turned into an exercise of soul-searching. Well, as much as one can about beauty products. I realized that I have a whole lot of dupes in my lipstick collection — no wonder I feel like I’m always reaching for the same thing(s)!

I think I forget what I have when I shop and it’s obvious that I’m drawn to certain types of shades so I keep buying them. Does that ever happen to you?

Check out the similarity between Candy Doll Ramune Pink 1E (left) and Rimmel Marshmellow Lipstick 003 (right). They look almost identical!

When swatched, the Rimmel (right) is a touch lighter and is more nude than the Candy Doll one (left) which looks more baby pink.

Revlon’s Matte Lipstick 12 (right) is also a dupe for Candy Doll’s Apricot Beige (left).

When swatched, Revlon (right) is a bit darker than the Candy Doll one (left).

What do I think of Candy Doll lipsticks? Well, for 1260JPY I felt like I couldn’t ask for a lot. I definitely prefer the Apricot Beige to the Ramune Pink because the warm undertones do suit my skin tone better. I pair it with Visee’s Smacky Glam Limited Edition Bitter Lipgloss, which is a warm nude, and it looks fabulous with a smokey eye. For the Ramune Pink, I look a bit dead and need to use a cherry red lipgloss to brighten it up.

They are both too light for my natural lip colour and I have to be careful with the lip line so that my lip colour doesn’t show up at all, but that is what I face with any nude matte lipstick. So I prefer using a lip brush because it prevents that over-applied chalky look that matte nude lippies can give.

The texture is quite creamy and I would say it’s definitely a cheap alternative to more expensive matte lipsticks. Edit: I forgot to mention that I still prefer the Revlon matte lipsticks in terms of texture which are creamier than the Candy Doll ones.

So back to my horrible double lipstick shade buying habit…

Bobbi Brown’s Creamy Lip Color 28 Rose Brown (left) is a deadringer for MAC’s Amplified Cosmo (right).

The Bobbi Brown one (right) is a just a tad darker but they both look the same on my lips. Would you believe I bought these two lipsticks on the same trip? I felt like an idiot. I bought the MAC one on the way to SF and the Bobbi Brown one on the way back from SF. But I do love this mauvy shade and I wore these two lipsticks day in and day out, as you can see from the pictures, they are very well worn out.

Here I have Clarin’s 02 Rouge Hydra Nude (left; gifted) and MAC’s Sheen Supreme Gotta Dash! (right) .

They are very similar in shade but quite different texture-wise. The Clarins one is much sheerer (right) and moisturizing and I had to swatch the lipstick about four times to get the colour to come out in the photo.

Time to stop buying the same shades – argh!!

Do you have any lovely pink lipsticks to recommend? I’m on the market for a wearable pink-brown lipstick from a designer brand. Or just let me know what is your most reached for lipstick!

-

“Like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed or Youtube to get the very latest updates, giveaways, and promotions.

If there is such a thing as lust at first sight that blossoms into long-lasting love, then it’s my relationship with Jo Malone’s English Pear & Freesia Cologne.

I actually never buy 100ml bottles anymore but I caved for this one because it is a very light fragrance so I tend to spray twice as much as I would an eau de toilette, and also, I have been using this almost everyday for the past month. The more I wear it, the more I love it which is not often the case with me and my perfumes.

I know Wild Bluebell is the latest Jo Malone fragrance but it didn’t smell that fabulous on me — in fact, quite ordinary on my skin though I do love the marketing campaign (photos here). It also seems it’s an interpretation of what bluebells smell like since it is impossible to extract the scent from the flower. So, I really prefer to buy something that I will like for a long time, as opposed to getting something that is in fad right now.

It is very pricey but I think well worth the investment because Jo Malone’s fragrances are simply elegance in a bottle. They are timeless and even some of them are quite “artful” in my opinion, e.g. French Lime Blossom and Pomegranate Noir. They sound like they would be a bouquet of citrus and fruit but they are absolutely not and smell very much more complex and darker than they sound. But there are very “straight” perfumes in the Jo Malone collection like Red Roses which really smells like roses.

The other intriguing thing is that you can mix and match their perfumes (they have a Fragrance Combining page on their website) which would appeal to those who like to “make” their own blends that are unique.

The packaging alone is swoon-worthy and I still keep my bottle in its box. For one, I’m very anal about preserving my perfumes so that they can last longer. I always keep them in the cupboard with the doors shut because heat and light affect their formulas and some of my perfumes which are 6-8 years old are still going strong but I have been known to toss out ones that have gone bad without a single shred of regret. There is nothing more dismaying than wearing rotten perfume.

The main notes in Jo Malone’s English Pear & Freesia are pear, freesia, rose, patchouli, amber and white musk. The first spray is definitely pear, very fruity but crisp, and the dry down is a quiet sensual floral that eventually turns a bit milky due to the white musk. It is very wearable all year round — the fruitiness and lightness are perfect for humid weather but the pear note is very autumnal as well. I love my heavy musky vanilla filled perfumes but I just can’t wear them everyday, but this Jo Malone one, I could.

This is definitely a prized possession in my fragrance collection and I am tempted to purchase more Jo Malone but in 30ml sizes!

Would you like to see more of my perfume collection? I do have strange taste and I’ve been through several phases which I was drawn to different types of fragrances…

Do you have a favourite Jo Malone fragrance? If so, do share what it is and tell us why you love it.

-

“Like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed or Youtube to get the very latest updates, giveaways, and promotions.

One of the strangest things for me in Japan beauty-wise is understanding haircare products here. It’s quite a departure from how things are in Singapore where you can easily find a solution to your scalp/hair type. Here, there is “shiny” （さらさら）and “moisturizing” （しっとり）which confounds me no end but I usually choose “shiny” for shampoos and “moisturizing” for conditioners, thinking that “shiny” is not as moisturizing as “moisturizing” and thus by deduction not for those with dry hair.

But to be honest, shampoos for “shiny” hair types are still pretty rich for my tropical scalp which needs heavy-duty action most days. Though in non-summer weather, it’s not so bad.

Then my fave magazine, Biteki, came to the rescue with this AWESOME article on non-silicone shampoos in its November issue, that gave the low down on what silicone does to your hair and a list of non-silicone haircare products on the market.

What does it have to do with my oily scalp, pray tell? Well, to my own logic, using a non-silicone shampoo can prevent build up and thus leaves the scalp/hair less bogged down and shinier as a result. And it opened my eyes up to brands I wouldn’t even have looked at twice.

Actually, non-silicone shampoo has made an appearance on drugstore shelves last year with Nudy Aura which I wrote about here. I loved it when I started using it and have been loving it ever since — it is truly a great brand. But, I still sort of didn’t believe it was that great (the shampoo is non-silicone but the conditioner still has silicones like dimethicone etc.) because it didn’t make sense that the conditioner has a chock-full of silicones so it felt like a bit gimmicky and I stopped purchasing the conditioner and continued with the shampoo (but I didn’t know much about this so on hindsight this was unnecessary; more on this later in the post).

Since then there has been a slew of non-silicone haircare products filling up the shelves in Japanese drugstores.

The advice given by some hair and beauty experts in the article is pretty much the same as what I’ve read elsewhere — you can only have healthy hair if you have a healthy scalp, i.e. unclogged, well-hydrated, and clean; silicones leave a coating on your hair which prevents much-needed moisture from being absorbed even if you use a moisturizing shampoo/conditioner to subsequently combat dull-looking hair.

Other tips I gleaned from the article: if your scalp has redness, it also means your hair is damaged, so ideally your scalp should be white, which means it’s healthy; you should rinse your hair for three minutes (that’s a really long time!) before you shampoo your hair and you should also take the time to massage the shampoo into your scalp; thus non-silicone shampoos will promote healthy hair and scalp.

So let me list the non-silicone haircare brands and I’ll link them to their official websites here (starting clockwise from left):

+ Gift
+ Nudy Aura
+ Playback
+ Difresca
+ Playback Mineral Moist (same site as Playback above)
+ La Pudeur
+ Salon Deaprès

In the end, I bought the green Playback set because it is the cheapest among all these brands but only by 300JPY per product. Generally, most of these non-silicone shampoos are around the 1900JPY price range which is really not bad though higher than the below 1,000JPY range for silicone shampoos.

I didn’t like the scent of La Pudeur because it had a really sickly sweet fragrance though the packaging looks quite pretty. I haven’t seen Gift or Difresca in my part of town. I’ve tried Nudy Aura and it smells amazing so this would remain a repeat in my shower stall. For the rest, I am curious about Salon Deaprès (which is also around the 1600-1700JPY price point) and especially the Playback Mineral Moist as it has 32 types of herbs and sea minerals like coral, pearl, collagen, keratin, amino acids etc.

As part of my non-silicone obsession, I also bought the non-silicone Honeysuckle Rose conditioner from Aubrey Organics for dry hair. I just want to try it out to see if it really makes a difference to my hair.

I have read that water-soluble silicones in conditioners are better than insoluble ones and I do spy silicones in the conditioners from the Japanese brands above. From my limited understanding, I would assume the ones they put in these products are water soluble silicones and though you can see insoluble silicones like dimethicone, they become soluble if tagged together with a soluble silicone or PEGs (comprehensive list on the Beauty Brains here). And I found a great list of non-silicone conditioners here if you are interested to try one.

I haven’t really used these products I bought and wouldn’t be fair to write a review now so will report back if these really are the bomb or not. But I will leave you with one last nugget: Reveur (offical site here) is also an excellent non-silicone haircare brand. Last year, I bought a bunch of their products in sample packs because I was off travelling as they are much easier to pack than even travel-sized bottles. Little did I know they were going to be so good. I remember thinking I had to get a full-sized set when I got back to Japan but I forgot about this brand. Biteki also has a short write-up on their website here — and it smells even better than Nudy Aura!

Do you care if your shampoo and conditioner have silicones? If you do, what brand are you using?

-

“Like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our RSS feed or Youtube to get the very latest updates, giveaways, and promotions.