On my most recent trip to Tokyo, I noticed these delightful BLACK Q-tips everywhere. I love how they have both a smooth end and a spiral end. Black seems to be the  “IN” color for a lot of  items including blotting tissues, toilet paper, facial masks, shampoo, toothbrush, and even their chopping boards.

Black Q-tips

Notice how they are individually packed, so I can carry them everywhere with me to retouch my makeup or on a weekend getaway. The spiral end is perfect for combing through my eyelashes and smoothing out the clumps of mascara. 

Individually packed

 Here’s a close up:

Normal and Spiral Ends

If anyone is interested in trying this, you can buy it online here for only USD 2.99.

Every day living takes a toll on skin… Makeup, oil and dirt from our fingers, even dust and smog settle on the skin, creating a really disgusting stew of yuck. Sure we wash our face at least once, hopefully twice a day, but how do you know you’re really getting skin clean? Another reason why you want clean skin is that it allows for deeper product penetration, which means you’re more likely to get the result you want in the first place.

Here are a few simple tips:

Oil is good. To get skin really clean, use an oil-based cleanser -like Marie Louise Cleansing Clear Gel – before a regular cleanser. Make-up is oil-based, and only an oil-based cleanser can safely remove it.

Double up. Double cleansing is the only way to make sure skin is truly clean. After washing with Cleansing Clear Gel, use a mild cleanser like Marie Louise Washing Foam to remove any residual dirt and debris.

Take a time out. It takes two full minutes of massaging skin in circular motion with your fingertips to fully cleanse your face and neck. Want to know how long two minutes is? Sing the “Happy Birthday” song at four times in a row.

Wash twice a day. It is important to cleanse in the morning also because we sweat when we sleep at night.

Choose wisely. Understand what your true skin conditions are to help you make a better decision about the cleansers you should use. An esthetician is the best person to consult.

I asked her what her secret was…. Good genes?  Foreign products made in silence by monks? Nope: “I scrub my face like crazy with a loofah every morning under the hot shower. Scrubbing dead skin away is the key!”

So I tried it. The results? Well, lets just say I didn’t feel like going out that night.  Not all of us have thick skin! But it got me thinking: there’s got to be a better way to shed the dead skin cells that are clogging my pores. And that’s when my desperate search to properly exfoliate my skin started!

Remember that whole at-home-microdermabrasion-craze? Sure, massaging my skin with pea-size beads made out of walnuts shells and ingredients I could not pronounce exfoliated dead skin. In fact, it exfoliated most of my skin away, leaving it blotchy, red and sensitized. NOT what I was looking for. Neither were all the scrubs, peels, serums and magic washcloths that followed: the chemicals in most of the products only managed to assault my skin, causing it to flare-up!

Little did I know that over-exfoliating, just like hard water, weather and pollution, is actually harmful to your skin. So what’s a girl to do?

Please meet Marie Louise’s Restoration Clear Gel. First of all and most important, this exfoliating gel is actually hydrating and nourishing, thanks to ingredients such as desalted deep sea water, glycerin and algae extracts, known to help the skin retain moisture.  It literally melts as your skin absorbs it, dry grains gently (and that’s the key word one should look for in all products) lifting away impurities and dead skin. Once they have ceased to appear and have been rinsed off with warm water you are left with a bright and pure complexion. Since it’s gentle enough, you can use it more often; this regular regimen will allow your skin to absorb all the benefits your moisturizers, masks and serums have to offer, thus making them more effective! It will also reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles- after all, it’s no secret that the cleaner your skin is, the younger and healthier it looks!

Just remember: you shouldn’t need sandpaper to get results!

Like so many girls, I realized how important our eyelashes are a long time ago.  The difference between having curly and straight lashes makes a dramatic difference for my eyes, since mine are not the biggest in the world.  Let’s just say that I definitely get more compliments when my lashes are all dolled up and curled, with an application of mascara.  In a way, I feel like it is my shield and sword, where it gives me more confidence to go out and face the world…lol…

Therefore, in order to achieve the perfect set of eyelashes, I have bought infinite numbers of eyelash curlers.  From Shu Uemura, heated, plastic to metal eyelash curlers, I spent countless dollars on trying to find the right one.  Right now, I have two favorites that I would like to share with you.  One is for use at home and the other is so little and convenient that I can carry it in my bag everywhere I go. 

1.  Excel Eyelash Curler

Excel Eyelash Curler (39mm)

Excel Eyelash Curler

 This 39mm eyelash curler is wide enough to capture all my eyelashes (even the ones at the corner of my eyes) at the same time.  The design of the angle of the eyelash curler allows my eyelashes to curl at a beautifully natural degree.  I curl my eyelashes twice, and I find that most effective.  The first time is before I apply mascara, and then a second time after my mascara dries.  With this technique, my eyelashes stay all curly and natural for a really long time.  The best part is that it doesn’t break my eyelashes at all.  =)

2. Compact Curler for people on the go  

Compact Curler

side view

My friend was actually the one who discovered this and recommended it to me.  I fell in love with it right away.  Even though it doesn’t capture all of my eyelashes in one squeeze, it is so compact that I can’t leave home without it now.  My eyelashes look so natural after I curl it with this.  The best part is that I can use this at the end of the day without applying new coats of mascara and my eyelashes still appears curly and natural.  This is definitely a good buy since it costs only around $5 dollars in the US.

Japan’s NHK recently interviewed 30 people off the streets and discovered that more than half of them apply their toners by lightly patting on the product using their hands. Only less than half of the consumers gently pressed their toners onto their skin. In order to discover which method is better, Japan’s NHK TV Station gently patted on toner the right side of a model’s face with their hands, and then in contrast gently pressed the toner onto the left side of the model’s face with hands. Then the research team used high tech equipment including a microscope to take a picture of the model’s face to detect the moisture level of the model’s right and left side’s face. 

The results were incredible and shocking. NHK discovered that even though they used the same toner on both sides of the model’s face the application process made a significant difference: the moisture level of the right side of the model’s face did not go up but the constant patting actually caused stress to the model’s face. Compared to the left side, the right side of the model’s face appeared darker, and had thin white lines which indicated damage of some skin cells.

Conclusion: I’m definitely pressing my toners onto my skin from now on. I really love these experiments!

There’s always a popular diet going on in different places at different times.  Asia is no different and sometimes trends are the most obvious in Japan, where the hype around an item or diet goes off the charts.  For example, last year, the most popular diet in Japan was the Morning Banana Diet which actually caused a shortage of bananas in Japan for a while!  

Now the latest diet in Japan is the Tororo Konbu Diet.  Tororo Konbu is basically shredded kelp or seaweed that is soaked in vinegar.  Tororo Konbu can be added into soup, egg rolls and different savory dishes.  This diet was first introduced in a book in July, but became really popular last month according to Japan’s Yomiuri Online.  The hype around this diet grew as a result of a Japanese female star’s successful Tororo Konbu diet story aired on Oct. 13^th on a Japanese TV program.  Since the airing of this TV program, there has been a shortage of supply of Tororo Konbu in Japan especially in the Tokyo area.  It’s one of the hardest items to find in a grocery store right now! 

I’m not sure if I’m running out to buy a pack yet, since many experts still believe that it is the long term usage of vinegar and seaweed that keeps you looking slim.  But I guess when you are desperate, anything is possible.  If you want to try it, you can buy it in the U.S. at Mitsuwa Market  or online grocery stores like Asian Food Grocer.

#47: Patience is a virtue. It takes 6 to 8 weeks to see results when starting a new skin care regimen. Stick with it.

#48: Refresh your skin with a luxurious toner like the Moistraiser a-VC nourishes and penetrates the skin to awaken it’s natural vitality.

#49: Don’t be afraid of oils in your skincare products! Coconut & jojoba for normal to oily skin. Olive & avocado for drier, mature skin.

4 Home Beauty Tips Using Epsom Salt: http://tinyurl.com/ykuwnzc

And here is what it is (source: http://web2.sasa.com/SasaWeb/eng/product/viewProductDetail.jspa?itemno=103563902002#):

description: Be Creation Body Double Roller is consisted of 2 rows of V-shaped rollers, which enables perfect contact with fat-prevailing areas like tummy, thighs, shank and hips.  It attacks fat by boosting metabolism for firm and slim figure.

how to use it:

• For tummy: massage in “W” movement
• For legs: massage and push in upward direction
• For hip: massage and push in upward direction

And here’s what someone said about it: