Tatcha - first impressions

Tatcha has finally started to make ripples in the Polish beauty blogosphere, so I guess it's high time for me to write a few words, too, and share my first impressions.

So make yourself a cup of tea (Earl Grey, hot!) and settle down for a read.
This is going to be rather long.
Consider yourself warned.

Tatcha had appeared on my radar for the first time around March 2014.

When I first heard about this magical "Japanese" company, I immediately wanted to know where and how I could get my grabby hands on their stuff. Imagine my surprise then, when upon checking the company's website, I learned that Tatcha is headquartered in the US and does not sell its products in Japan. And apparently, has no plans to do so.

My bullsh*t detector immediately went into overdrive.

I read Tatcha's geisha beauty secrets PR spin and felt a wave of nausea coming over me. Even I, the ultimate bs mistress that I am, can only handle so much idiotic PR drivel in one sitting. Please, I beg you, tell me that people don't take this geisha stuff seriously. They can't be that naive. Or can they?

Still, Tatcha was getting rave reviews and I was becoming more and more curious.
Until I try something, I do my best to keep an open mind, geisha beauty secrets magically uncovered in Kyoto by a woman, who it seems, can't speak Japanese, and all.

So imagine my surprise when one beautiful early summer morning in 2015 I fired up my gmail and, lo and behold, there was a message from Tatcha in my inbox.
One miss Alexandra was contacting bloggers and offering to send me Tatcha's introductory Ritual Discovery sampler to sample. Of course I said yes. I sent miss Alexandra my address and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, I decided to follow up.

Miss Alexandra responded that sadly, Tatcha being a small company, it didn't have a budget for working with international bloggers. That of course, was a pretty dumb lie. Other international bloggers, in Europe and in Singapore, were already showing off their Tatcha PR booty on Instagram.
But they were popular bloggers with thousands of followers and I was a no-name nobody.

I truly hoped that miss Alexandra was just a clueless summer intern, who didn't know any better. But no, she's an actual Tatcha PR employee. Scary! She clearly assumed that since I was a no-name nobody very far away, lying to me would be pretty harmless.

Well, you know, this is them innernets generation. I might be a small fish in a country far away, but we do have wi-fi over here. And as a small fish beauty blogger, I do follow big fish beauty bloggers. And shock and horror, sometimes we even talk to each other. Because the popular kids on the blog know that in order to stay popular they need the support of (the) hoi polloi like me.

But apparently, miss Alexandra over at Tatcha slept during her PR101 classes. If she had paid attention, then she would have known that simple "Sorry, our mistake. At this time, we are targeting a different audience. Let's keep in touch." was a perfectly acceptable way of getting out of this situation. No need to lie. At least that's how we used to handle it back in my days.

Anyway, when I saw one of the popular bloggers with thousands of followers proudly present her PR sample of Tatcha Ritual Discovery Kit, I left a comment.

Tatcha reacted with lightning speed. Suddenly, the company was apologizing for the "misunderstanding" and offering to rectify the situation. Pretty pathetic that it had to come to that.

I declined Tatcha's offer and instead did a haul.

This is what I got. Like I told you, despite this unpleasant experience, I was trying to keep an open mind. My policy has always been "no dissing until you try it".

One good thing about Tatcha is that the company sells trial sizes. That is a marvelous idea. Considering how much full-size Tatcha products cost, this is an affordable way to sample what the brand has to offer. And this is exactly what I did. The two full size products that ended up in my shipment were freebies. And I really do appreciate the gesture. One of them, the indigo cream, turned out to be the discovery of the year for me.

My shopping list:

• Dry Skin Ritual Discovery Kit
• Revitalizing Eye Cream Travel Size
• Moisture Rich Silk Cream Travel Size
• Deep Hydration Firming Serum Travel Size
• Soothing Triple Recovery Cream (Indigo) Travel Size
• Camellia Beauty Oil Travel Size
• Deep Hydration Revitalizing Eye Mask (Single Set)
• Deep Hydration Lifting Mask (Single)
• Classic Rice Enzyme Powder Travel Size (freebie for signing up for Tatcha's mailing list)

and 3 (yes, three) foil packets that are complimentary with every order, and which you can select yourself:

• One Step Camellia Cleansing Oil Packet
• Enriching Renewal Cream Packet
• Soothing Renewal Treatment Packet

My order also included two complimentary full-size products:

• Indigo Soothing Triple Recovery Cream - I love this stuff! Could bathe in it!

and

• Silken Pore Perfecting Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 35, which is very nice, but at US$68 for 60ml is not worth it. Especially considering the relatively low and very un-Japanese (for a company that plays up the whole Japanese mystique spiel) SPF.

Tatcha's "origins" story makes any Japanese woman, who had the misfortune to hear it, laugh. As it does anyone else with even the most basic understanding of Japanese culture and cosmetic market. "Othering" in any shape or form is borderline discrimination. "Othering" to pitch and sell a product is the lowest, most arrogant form of marketing. And I suppose that is at least one of the many reasons why Tatcha does not have a physical presence in Japan.

Yet at the same time othering of mystical, mythical creatures, such as geisha for example, makes perfect business sense, if the products you're pitching are skincare and beauty. The myth, the aura, and the exoticism all help to sell the magic.

Tatcha identified this niche, created a vaguely plausible story to lend it some basic legitimacy and now is laughing all the way to the bank. There's even a real life geisha in the mix, one Kyouka, who made her full fledged geiko debut in the Gion Kobu district of Kyoto on October 29th, 2012.

She's the one on the right, pictured here still in her maiko days, from the looks of it.

Image: Wikipedia commons

That fact itself rings all sorts of warning bells to anyone with at least a rudimentary knowledge of what real geisha are and how they operate. To put it plainly, self-respecting geisha don't sell their services to western skincare companies. And if they do, they don't want that fact to be widely known in Japan (reason number 2 why Tatcha is not available here).

Of course there is a new breed of geisha out there, as well. Women, who started in the business as part-time geisha (usually as university students for whom it was simply a part time job), eventually graduated to full-time geisha status. They brought with them new, thoroughly modern, attitudes to this traditional profession.

On one hand, it's good, because as the world goes forward, geisha evolve along with it. On the other hand, we get individuals such as Kyouka, who are willing to lend their faces and names to foreign brands, so long as it leads to more international exposure for them. In other words, very business savvy, for whom this is just a stepping stone to bigger, brighter things. Because trust me, we haven't heard the last of Kyouka yet.
I have a strange feeling that a book detailing the beauty practices of modern geisha, co-authored by Victoria Tsai (Tatcha's founder), is in the works. And along with that, the usual media circus. Just wait and see.
Patience, my friends.

"International" is the key word here, for obvious reasons. Such approach would be laughed at domestically. And besides, Japanese women have other, more credible and a lot more experienced, skincare and beauty guru to follow than geisha. The geisha beauty secrets legend appeals to western weeabos and women who have never been inside a Japanese drugstore.

Tatcha's founder, Ms Tsai, is very careful of how she presents her company. She spins her geisha yarn very carefully, but anyone familiar with the history of beauty in Japan can easily call her bullsh*t.

For example, on Tatcha's website, she says:

The beauty secrets she learned from the geisha introduced her to a different approach to skincare — that less is more. Their skin care philosophy and time-tested ingredients were captured in an ancient text widely considered to be the oldest beauty book written in Japan...

Ahhh...

She needed geisha to figure it out? Really! Really?

All she needed to do was go to any Matsumoto Kiyoshi (a popular Japanese drugstore chain) and take a look at the cleansing isle. But then we wouldn't have the sappy "how Tatcha was born" story and without the "geisha beauty secrets" spiel it would be impossible to charge the kind of prices that Tatcha does now.

And speaking of geisha beauty secrets, kabuki actors use the same techniques. But I guess "the skincare tips I learned from kabuki actors" wouldn't carry the same dollars signs weight as mythical geisha. Pity, because super-kabuki performances are a lot more fun and entertaining than what geisha have to offer. Be sure to go and watch one next time you're in Japan.

The second part of Ms. Tsai's words, that "their (presumably geisha's) skin care philosophy and time-tested ingredients were captured in an ancient text..." is simply not true.

The text she is referring to, and which she claims recorded and described the skin care philosophy of geisha, is nothing other than "Miyako fūzoku kewaiden" (A Handbook of Cosmetics in the Capital) published in 1813 (republished in 1982).

screenshot source: Amazon.co.jp

It was a compilation of traditional (and not so traditional) beauty, skincare and makeup techniques to assist the Japanese ladies to look their best. It was not exclusive to the geisha world, as Ms. Tsai would have you believe, though she is very careful not to say it outright. She puts the imagery in your head and lets your mind work out the association on its own. By the time you finish reading the stories on Tatcha's website, you are convinced that "Miyako fūzoku kewaiden" holds the keys to eternal life. Or at least, to eternal beauty.

Yet in reality, there is absolutely nothing mythical or mystical about it.

This is Ms. Tsai's account of how she came to know this book:

I first heard whispers about these books from geisha I met while researching the products that would eventually form the foundation of TATCHA's skin care ritual. The techniques they described were time-tested but rarely written down or shared beyond the wall's of the geisha house. Geisha are serious about keeping secrets, even their phone numbers and addresses are not listed and must be procured through several intermediaries.  

Very surprising, since this book is not, and has never been a secret. Unless of course Ms. Tsai's geisha friends were playing a practical joke on her, there was no need to secretly whisper about it, because it is very well known to anyone who is interested in the history and evolution of beauty in Japan.

And Ms. Tsai isn't the first who thought it might be a good idea to look for inspiration in this old text. Pola Beauty has been doing it for years. In fact "Miyako fūzoku kewaiden" is required reading for Pola Beauty's researchers.

Also odd are these claims:

As I began my search for this book, I learned that very few people even knew of its existence, and that only a few written copies still exist. I turned to museums, hoping to find some documentation or clues about how to find it.  

Months later, a researcher and I tracked it down in an antique bookstore. When I finally held the book in my hands, I could barely breathe from excitement. Its whisper-thin pages danced with delicate calligraphy, recording centuries of secrets – most of which remain startlingly relevant in our modern times.

Odd, because used copies of the 1982 reprint are readily available on Japanese Amazon (just google: 都風俗化粧伝).

But I guess "an old beauty manual I found at Book Off" wouldn't carry the same dollars signs weight as "a book of geisha secrets found in an antique bookstore".


So now you have reasons 3, 4, 5... 7 - 11 as to why Tatcha doesn't have an actual store in Japan. Japanese women would laugh so loud, you could hear them in San Francisco.

And speaking of San Fran, that's where Tatcha is headquartered.
While the majority of its products are indeed formulated and made in Japan, the company is very much American. And to be honest, Tatcha is not claiming to be a Japanese company.
That is another one of those crafty associations that our brains make when they hear the words "geisha" and "skincare".

But just as the fact that my MacBook was made in China doesn't make Apple Inc. a Chinese company, the same is true about Tatcha. That its products are manufactured in Japan, doesn't make Tatcha a Japanese company. It only adds another, carefully planned and designed, layer of passable credibility to Tatcha's main marketing points - magical geisha beauty secrets, you folks! Straight from Japan, you folks!

Ok, I need a break now.

This is the summary of my first impressions:

Tatcha is an American company that sells Japan-inspired, nicely packaged, ridiculously overpriced, but overall quite average cosmetics (Pola Beauty, or even SK-II it ain't, trust me) to mainly western women, who don't know any better (a single bio-cellulose sheet mask for US$28, anyone?).

In the coming weeks I will be reviewing the products I purchased, tried and used up.
I'm tired now.
My limits of nonsensical geisha PR drivel have been reached for the day.

I need a nap.

To be continued...



PS. Yes, I finally got me my own domain. Yay for me!

September Korean Glossybox featuring Codilus

Update: 

Unfortunately as of October 5, 2015 Dowaja is no longer open for business.

My first ever subscription box unboxing.
Wow! Exciting! 

And it should be, because it took a bit of effort to get my hands on this subscription.
Why? Because it’s Glossybox from Korea.

The team behind Dowaja shopping service was responsible for getting the September edition of Korean Glossybox to me, and they did a stellar job. When I first heard about Dowaja, which is an English speaking buying and forwarding service based in Korea, I immediately saw it as an opportunity to get my hands on a Korean beauty subscription box.

After reading about other people’s experiences with Dowaja, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. To be honest, my first impressions were not exactly all that positive.
The popular kids on the block (or the blog) were getting replies to their emails and their deliveries in record time. And me? Well… Let’s just say I was a very unhappy camper at first. But I am very pleased to say that after my initial dissatisfaction, Dowaja fixed what needed fixing and my experience with them turned out to be as awesome as everyone said it would be. I can’t recommend them enough.

(And no, this is not an affiliate link, I just think they are doing a fabulous job).

They ordered the box for me, they checked the contents of the box when it arrived at their office, they notified me that one item was an aerosol can and therefore impossible to ship to me by air.
They suggested options on how to solve this problem. They offered deluxe samples as a replacement for the pressurized product. They read my mind and picked the best deluxe samples ever.

I've used the peeling gel before and it's da bomb! Dowaja clearly used their psychic powers to pick this set for me.

They offered me different shipping options, they securely packaged my Glossybox and mailed it out in record time. And it finally arrived yesterday.

And oh yeah, did I mention that Dowaja does it all in English?
Yes folks, in English.

Dowaja also provided me with a link to the contents of the box, but I chose not to look at it. I wanted to be surprised. However, I did stumble upon an unboxing somewhere deep in the bowels of them innertubes by total accident. But that only made me even more curious, because people, crocodile oil. 

This is what was in the box (minus that one pressurized item, which was a shampoo), a nicely curated mix of western and Korean products.
Clearly, some careful thought went into the selection. It wasn’t the slapdash, "stick any odd cheap crap in there" subscription box that I so often see on western blogs.

Because you can specify your skin type when you sign up for the box, it looks like what I got was the dry skin version. Of course the item that I was curious about the most was Codilus. Because, crocodile oil, folks, crocodile oil.

image source: Codilus website



Apparently, snails, donkey milk and sea horse farts based skincare is for amateurs. Crocodile is where it’s at now. And apparently crocodile oil skincare is a real thing, too. I vaguely remember something about croc oil way back when, when I was in South Africa. But it was firmly in the witchdoctor kind of remedies category.

And though unlike sea horses and starfish, croc oil skincare actually has a very fancy pedigree (all the way from the pharaohs apparently), the opinions on whether it works or not are divided.

In this Ph.D. thesis (by the way, so poorly written that it reads like a 5th grader's science homework assignment), the author claims that croc oil is indeed nothing else than ineffective folk medicine - scroll down to page 108 for the conclusions chapter.

These folks however, from University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, with fancy degrees already under their belts, claim otherwise - that crocodile oil is good for the skin.

Crocodile oil has been used by traditional practitioners world-wide to treat microbial infections and inflammatory conditions. However, the scientific rationale behind its use is not completely understood. This study provides an updated fatty acid profile and novel scientific evidence of the antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties of crocodile oil, obtained from the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus), justifying its use by traditional healers. 

These guys from Xiamen University in China also say that their results show that croc oil does have skin healing properties. This is also the same study that Codilus references on their home page - link here.


Ugh, my head is about to explode.
And by the way, did you know that snake oil is also a real thing? Apparently.
I'm wondering when a brave Korean skincare company decides to release a snake oil cream. This should be interesting...

~~~~

Anyway, back to the September edition of Korea's Glossybox.

As it's customary with subscription boxes, we have a set of info cards:

Yes, you're seeing it right. That's Kamill hand cream in there, all the way from Germany.
Refinery 29 claims that Kamill hand cream is really popular in Korea. Hmmm... curious that the Refinery's story comes out that same month as this box containing Kamill.

By the way, Ziaja, a Polish brand that Poles are always so fond of claiming how popular and exclusive it is in Korea, didn't make the list. Let's see if it will show up in any of my upcoming boxes.

So, in all I got 4 products:

• Suiskin Enzyme Powder Wash (CMS Lab) 100ml
• Codilus Sun Gel SPF50+ PA+++ 60ml
• Dr.G Bio-RTx™ Mentor Cream 5 for dry skin 20ml
• Kamill Hand and Nagelcreme Q10 20ml

The cost was around US$15 (or $16, don't remember exactly, but it was very affordable) plus Dowaja's 10% service charge plus about 5 bucks air shipping (no tracking number).

All in all, I am quite satisfied with the contents.

I am familiar with Dr.G Bio-RTx™ Mentor Cream 5 and while it's a perfectly serviceable product, my dry skin prefers other options. It feels very plastic and at least for me, it did not provide my skin with enough moisture, even for day use. At night time I need industrial strength moisture, so this cream was strictly for day use. And despite its "for dry skin" tagline, it's definitely meant for skin that is less dry than mine.

Update: This cream broke me out.

Dr.G Bio-RTx™ Mentor Cream 5 ingredients along with the analysis are here - link.


Suiskin Enzyme Powder Wash is new to me, though I've heard of the brand.
Suiskin website is here and here is the intro to the brand as presented by Hope in a Blog.

The powder is actually very finely granulated:

It dissolves completely, but I wasn't able to get it to foam, no matter how hard I tried.

Getting an accurate pH reading was tough. I wasn't able to do it.
All I could determine was that the powder is indeed in a low-pH cleanser category.

Suiskin Enzyme Powder Wash ingredients:

As you can see, it contains Papain, so people sensitive to papaya extracts should not use it.
By the way, the ingredients for this wash on cosDNA website do not match up with the label. I'm going to trust the label.


And finally, the product I was really curious about it.

Codilus Sun Gel SPF50+ PA+++ Crocodile Oil and Water Drop

As a sunblock fanatic, I was excited to see a new (to me) sunblock in the box. As a very picky sunblock fanatic, I was disappointed to see a sunblock I knew nothing about.

All the info on the box and the brand's website is in Korean. I asked Joan from nonsonoquitter to help me decipher what was going on.

She determined that the croc used is of the Australian variety, and that this sunblock doesn't seem to be waterproof.

I'm really funny when it comes to animal ingredients in my skincare. I refuse to use snail slime, because I sympathize with the poor snails that are forced to produce to meet the global slime demands.

I am reluctant to use horse oil skincare, because c'mon, horses!
Emu oil? Hell no!!!

But crocodiles? No such reservations.
Crocodile oil? I'm all yours.
Heck, give me proper hunting gear and I'll go get me my croc oil myself.

And with that in mind I unsealed the tube and patch tested on my arm. Yeah, crocodile oil is similar in composition to human skin and shouldn't cause any allergic reactions, but better to be safe than sorry.

The first thing that hit me was the smell. Of alcohol. This was definitely Biore UV Aqua sunscreen level of ethanol.

Then, the texture.
They weren't kidding when they said oil and water drop.
This is exactly what it was.

Again, I see certain similarities to Biore sunscreens.

Codilus Sun Gel SPF50+ PA+++ seemed very oily at first. Seemed, because at the same time, it wasn't.
Just like Biore, it absorbed to lovely nothing leaving zero stickiness, zero white cast, and zero filmy residue.

But unlike Biore, it was deliciously moisturizing.
It was lighter than Anessa (Shiseido) and Allie (Kanebo) sunscreens. It reminded me of Astablanc (Kose) daily protector. It felt like a moisturizing cream masquerading as sunscreen.

Today it was sunny, so I bravely slathered it onto my face. Despite the high alcohol content, it gave me no adverse reaction. For research purposes, I topped it off with foundation and it worked great under makeup.

Honestly, this looks to be a very decent sunscreen suitable for dry skin (if you don't mind the fact that it contains ethanol).

Through brute force, and with the help of several different websites (including All of Cosmetics, HwaHae app, the amazing ingredient data with names in both Korean and English courtesy of Sidmool, and this list) I translated the ingredients and entered them into cosDNA.

Codilus Sun Gel SPF50+ PA+++ ingredients and analysis are here - link to CosDNA.
Because apparently CosDNA doesn't have crocodile oil in its database, despite it having a valid INCI name, the oil dropped to the bottom of the list.
On the package it's listed right after xanthan gum, for what it's worth.

I'm kinda curious about that Codilus Saleoleum Balm (which is already available on ebay and Gmarket) now. And the mysterious Codilus Magma Cream which won an award at the K-Beauty Expo last month - link here, but can't be found anywhere on line.



And that's it for my first Korean Glossybox.
Looking forward to the October edition!

Grinif Vitamin ACE Moisture line and Grinif O2 Bubble Mask Cleanser

I'll try to keep it short and sweet today, hence the combined review of:

• Grinif Vitamin ACE Moisture line (we'll take a look at the toner, lotion and cream) 

and

• Grinif O2 Bubble Mask Cleanser.

Grinif is a Korean skincare brand, you might call it a niche brand, that specializes in "natural" skincare.
Their website is entirely in Korean, and it's of the not awesome variety that is fully and completely image based. So people like me, who are not going to learn Korean just to be able to read PR spin of cosmetic manufacturers, are sadly out of luck. You can't copy and paste the text into google translate.

Usually, that alone is enough for me to skip such brands and spend my money elsewhere. If a brand doesn't care about its foreign customers, then foreign customers should do the same. Or maybe in case of Grinif, this is a conscious choice to keep the brand "niche" and mysteriously alluring? Don't know and, frankly, after today's review, I'm not going to care.

I found myself with a few Grinif items purely by accident. And yes, I admit, at the same time I was curious about the brand as well.

Grinif's tagline is "Skintherapy by nature" and its products are supposedly made of imported, European ingredients. What? Korean ingredients are not "natural" enough? Or European are more prestigious? Whatever the case, it's supposed to be "natural", because natural sounds trendy. And trendy sells.

We have plain paper boxes to match the natural image, and at least for the products purchased in Japan, there are no leaflets in the boxes.  How very "green" and eco friendly!

Big mistake, in my opinion, because if you're going to sell in foreign markets, and clearly, this is Grinif's intention, as the ingredient lists are also provided in English, please respect your international customers.

Dear Grinif people, the bare minimum of relevant information in a language that non-Korean speakers can understand goes a long way, trust me.
But I guess Grinif was so focused on creating pretty and "green" boxes that the more practical side of things simply slipped the company's honchos minds. Oh well, it happens.

So let's start, shall we?

Grinif O2 (Oxygen) Bubble Mask Cleanser

I like those bubbly "oxygen" cleansers. It's the stuff that takes all the work out of cleansing. You spread it on your face and wait. And then simply rinse off. Done.

This cleanser is supposed to be ideal for sensitive skin. It's supposed to be as soft as whipped egg whites.
You can check out the entire, barely comprehensible, description on Skin18 (no, I am not affiliated with the store), which was evidently copied in its entirety from Cosmetic Love (no, I'm not affiliated), including the same illogical mistakes. Both stores claim that the product is 8-free (meaning free of 8 "hazardous" substances) and later in the description say that it's 5-free.
So which is it? 8-free or 5-free?

The back of the bottle helpfully clarifies that the product is indeed 5-free, meaning free of: parabens, triethanolamine, artificial colors, mineral oil and animal oil(?).

We get 100ml of cleanser in a pretty, white pump bottle.

Grinif is one of those rare Korean companies that list their ingredients according to the international standards following the same ingredient list order as the US, EU and Japan.
How do I know that?
I compared the English list printed on the box with the Japanese list printed on a sticker. They're identical. Usually the Korean list has to be reshuffled to conform to the Japanese labeling laws, which are the same as the laws in the US and Europe.

Grinif O2 Bubble Mask Cleanser ingredients:

I had high hopes for this cleanser.

If you've never used an "oxygen" cleanser, you should definitely try it, if only for the novelty value.

This is how it looks in action:

The upper dot (which, oddly, looks like an oversized sperm cell) is freshly squeezed out of the bottle.
The lower blob is what the upper blob is going to look like after about 20 seconds.

You can wait until all the bubbles disappear, or if you're impatient like me, you can just wash it off when the foam is still in full bloom.
No scrubbing required. Just rinse off.

Grinif O2 Bubble Mask Cleanser is supposed to do double duty as a makeup remover, and the company claims there is no need for double cleansing. Unfortunately, that didn't work for me.
This cleanser was my SECOND cleanser and I used to remove the leftover oily residue from the initial oil cleansing.

And it was wonderful and great and all things awesome exactly three times when I used it.
On the fourth try, the pump broke. Just broke. Something went "poof!" and the pump was no more. You could keep pressing it until the next presidential election in the US and nada.

I had better things to do with my time, so the cleanser went straight into the trash.

Pity.

Moving on...

~~~

Grinif Vitamin ACE Moisture line sounded exactly like what my dry and sensitive skin needed.
Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, moisture. I was sold.

The unfortunate bubble mask on the left... buuuu...

I went ahead and decided to try these three products:

• Grinif Vitamin ACE Moisture Toner
• Grinif Vitamin ACE Moisture Lotion

and

• Grinif Vitamin ACE H2O Moisture Cream.

~~~

Since right after cleansing, we need a toner, let's start this story with this product:

Grinif Vitamin ACE Moisture Toner

Packaged in true Grinif style in the same pretty, quasi-cardboard box. 

Inside we have a white pump bottle with 100ml of toner.

The company claims that:

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Betaine, Retinyl Palmitate, fruit extracts, fruit oil, Tocopheryl.

Let's take a closer look at the ingredient list (arranged according to the American, European and Japanese ingredient order).

Grinif Vitamin ACE Moisture Toner ingredients:

Alcohol at number 3, pretty high for a product that claims "Skintherapy by nature".

At number 12 we have Triethanolamine, the very same ingredient that was considered undesirable in Grinif O2 Bubble Mask Cleanser. LOL. 

Sigh. It's not hazardous. It's a pH balancer. 

Sorry, I don't like companies that use such questionable scare tactics.

Here's how the toner behaved on the skin:

See that shiny splotch on the right?

The damn thing didn't want to dry. Stayed sticky and unpleasant to the touch. When it did eventually dry, it left a nasty layer of filmy residue.

This was not moisture. This was "hey, let's seal the skin with this horrid sticky stuff to keep the moisture in".

Unfortunately, as that was not my idea of a moisturizing toner, I gave it to my friend. After a couple of days she sent me a Line message complaining "what is this shit you gave me? Take it back, or I'm going to throw it out."

I took it back but I'm not sure what to do with it. Maybe I can use it on my feet. Or my bum. 

~~~

Grinif Vitamin ACE Moisture Lotion

Ahhh... Grinif uses the word "lotion" in its western meaning here. This is a light moisturizer, not a Japanese style lotion (which then would be a toner).

Again, the same Grinify packaging.

In a different light the box can appear quite drab and dark.

Again, a white pump bottle (bonus points for hygiene) with 100ml of product.

Again, the same claims as with Grinif Vitamin ACE Moisture Toner.

And what do the ingredient list (American ingredient order style) says?

Let's check.

Grinif Vitamin ACE Moisture Lotion ingredients:

Mineral Oil at number 3, so if you don't like that in your skincare, this is not a product for you.

Retinyl Palmitate (which is a form of vitamin A) is at the very end of the list, so how effective is it in this formulation? I'm guessing not very.

And now for the swatches:

Grinif Vitamin ACE Moisture Lotion was, without a doubt, one of the most disgusting skincare products I've ever had the misfortune of using.

It leaves a heavy, sticky, filmy layer on the skin.

It smells awful. Do you know those cheap drugstore imitations of high-end perfumes? This is just like that. Like a cheap and overpowering version of Dior Addict. Dis. Gus. Ting.

And now, the final piece of today's Grinif puzzle.

Grinif Vitamin ACE H2O Moisture Cream.

Inside this simple box we have a white plastic jar with 50ml of cream.

The jar states that it contains anti-wrinkle ingredients, as well as Adenosine.

Ok, let's take a look at the ingredient list (American, European and Japanese ingredient order).

Grinif Vitamin ACE H2O Moisture Cream ingredients:

Yes, I was laughing, too. Adenosine is listed third from the end. 

The insides of the jar are protected by an inner plastic cover.

And under the cover?

This unholy mess:

I don't know if this is just my cream. Maybe it was stored improperly? Or the heat of Japan's summer got to it?

No idea.

The gluey substance inside can't be called "cream".

Searching on the internet, I saw Grinif's pretty promo photos, where the cream appears as light and soft as freshly whipped cream. 

The cream in other people's photos didn't looked freshly whipped at all. It resembled my gooey substance, but still within commonly accepted skincare limits.

I was brave and decided to swipe it on my skin anyway.

Greasy and sticky? Yes and yes. On the right you can see the sticky sheen this cream left behind. 

Gross! Yuck!!!

I have a skin moisture meter, but decided that Grinif Vitamin ACE Moisture line wasn't worthy enough to use it.

There is also a serum in this line, but mercifully, I was spared that experience.

Final thoughts:

This entire line is garbage. Total garbage. Nicely packaged, overpriced garbage.

If you have cash to burn you can purchase your own Grinif garbage at Skin 18, or Cosmetic Love, or ebay. But if you have that much cash to burn, I have a better idea. Send it to me. It will be much appreciated. 

I still have one more Grinif product to try and I'm honestly dreading it. I need a break from Grinif. I need to scrub this horrible experience from my skin and my memory.

I had been trying to use these things (because I don't want to call them "cosmetics") for three weeks. That was enough for me.

This post contains ZERO affiliate links and all products were purchased by me. Yeah, what was I thinking... Not much, apparently.

PS> Sorry, I lied, it wasn't short, and definitely not sweet.