What makes Japanese beauty mags different from Western ones is there are always step-by-step features to show you how to put on cosmetics. Be it from eye shadow to foundation and powder, there are pictures to guide you to a flawless result.

This is where the freebie Lunasol DVD comes in. I enjoyed watching how to apply foundation and concealer with your fingers and then with a sponge before using loose powder.

The eye shadow segment was my favourite because it showed how to blend different colours into a natural finish. And the Lunasol eye shadow palette looked just divine…

A thought occurred to me, too: “Why do they go through all this trouble? Maybe these instructional videos are meant for women like me — I don’t know much about makeup!” I am a very basic type of girl who goes for the quickest solution to save time but that means I don’t know little tricks on how to look more fabulous.

Here is another tip I love: use the end of a cotton bud to “clean up” thick eyeliner lines. What a life saver! I used to wonder how some women could have such neat lines on their eye lids, so there you go.

There were also tips on how to apply false eye lashes (and the Japanese do this very well). Tip gleaned: flex your new falsies to make them more pliable and thus easier to stick onto your eye lid.

But what is similar to Western mags are the beauty spreads with a model showcasing a “look” and the list of cosmetics used to achieve it. And oh my, there are a bevy of the newest products to drool over…

Not a very surprising discovery was a whole supplement magazine tucked into the main one that was just about creams and potions to make you look fairer. Whitening products are a Japanese (or Asian) obsession.

The type of cosmetics that seemed popular and all over the mag is very girly, like Coffret D’or and Paul & Joe, but I suppose most beauty magazines tend to target a younger audience. Actually, I find that Japanese women in particular tend to be very self-conscious of the image of the brand they are buying.

If you are more mature, you only use “respectable” brands like SKII, Kose Grandaine, Shiseido Elixir, Guerlain, Chanel etc. I once mentioned I was a fan of Fancl to several middle-aged friends and they all said the same thing, “Oh, that’s for young people.” And you know, it’s a perfectly good brand and it works but the image is just off for them.

But it’s a generalization that only Japanese women are brand conscious. I would imagine that most women over 40 would hesitate to use Urban Decay as their cosmetic mainstay.

I have one more installment for “What’s in a Japanese beauty magazine” and it’s about what Japanese women eat — something we all want to find out. Stay tuned…

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