5 DRUGSTORE MAKEUP BRANDS YOU NEED TO CHECKOUT IN JAPAN

Nothing makes me more excited than the word "Japanese drugstore".

Japan has always been a holiday destination I would love to visit, not just for the beautiful sakura, mount fuji, or mouth watering ramen and sushi.. But mainly because it's the land that produces most of my favourite Asian drugstore beauty products.

I dream of the day I enter the drugstore and get overwhelmed by the thousands of brands available within the shop. In case you're not as enthusiastic about being drowned by all the different brands, here are 5 brands you should totally focus your attention on if you find yourself in a drugstore. Well, because you spare your remnant attention (if you still have any remaining!) to other brands, I mean :P

As a bonus, I also threw in several popular items that have good reviews, in case the brands offer too many products you simply don't know where to begin looking :P

1. CEZANNE

Probably the most affordable brand in Japan that I know of. Cezanne has quality products housed in simple no frills packaging. Meant to be an everyday makeup brand, their products are geared towards natural finish - sheer and healthy looking instead of being super pigmented. Their most popular product is the UV foundation EX plus. You can't beat that price, seriously.

UV FOUNDATION EX PLUS | 500 YEN

I've seen plenty of reviews saying how it's superb in absorbing sebum and staying put all day!

AIRY TOUCH EYESHADOW | 680 YEN

The name suggest to me it's a very sheer eyeshadow. What do you think? :P

POWDER EYEBROW | 450 YEN

A pretty no frill eyebrow powder! Canmake has something similar I think?

NATURAL CHEEK N | 360 YEN

"Natural" probably mean sheer. You hear it from me first ;) So don't expect crazy colour pay off!

2. CANMAKE

If you prefer cute packaging, spend a few hundred more yen and invest in Canmake. Canmake is very popular amongst Japanese students because of their extremely cute packaging and super affordable price. But don't let that price tag fool you into thinking it's low quality, because it's the direct opposite! Some of their products have topped the @cosme ranking for consecutive years.

CREAM CHEEK | 580 YEN

Affordable, awesome pigment, just get them! This is definitely a cult favourite, because of the amazing price to cost ratio.

QUICK LASH CURLER | 680 YEN

This apparently curls your lashes without having you to curl it before hand.

LIP TINT SYRUP | 650 YEN

Well, Korean brands do lip tints better and in a wider variety, but hey, you're supposedly in Japan now, and this is very popular!

MARSHMALLOW FINISH POWDER | 940 YEN

For those of you who like super matte face, this makes your face feel like a smooth marshmallow.

3. KATE

Targeted at girls who are rebels at heart (just look at their url, nomorerules.net!?), their simple and cool black packaging sets the brand apart from others. I'm a self professed fan of the brand and have amassed a huge collection of their eye shadows over the years, they're personally the best thing they make. But I only featured one eyeshadow here because they're more or less the same - similar thing thrown into different packaging so they can keep coming up with something "new". Oh! Their eyebrow products are also a hit among the Japanese ladies!

DESIGNING EYEBROW N | 1200 YEN

Personal favourite! It has a cult following, probably because it was the first brand to release such a product. Long lasting and multi functional. Nuff' said.

LASH MAXIMISER | 1200 YEN

Eyelash primer for longer lashes! Works well with waterproof mascara since this is a waterproof formula.

EYEBROW COLOR N | 850 YEN

Also among the first brands to release a brow mascara (which is so necessary in a nation where a huge percentage of ladies dye their hair brown), they have since been immortalized even though other brands released similar products.

BROWN SHADE EYES | 1600 YEN

I'd feature the colorcious diamond eyeshadow, but that is probably going to be discontinued soon. The brown shade eyes has an extremely buttery formula, a lot of people said its texture rival high end brands. Plus this comes with a matte brown shade for you to do nose contouring (or you can use it as a transition colour). Japanese palettes don't usually come with matte shades, so this is refreshing and very versatile!

4. VISEE

After a brand face lift, visee went from cute to glamorous. Yes, this brand is glamorous. You like fancy lace embossed onto the black packaging? They seem to do a little something to me. Targeted at the young adults who appreciate the finer things in life (at an affordable price), visee might just be the brand for you.

GLOSSY RICH EYES | 1200 YEN

According to reviews, this palette is unbelievably pigmented. It's not usual among Japanese drugstore brands!

NUDY RICH EYES | 1400 YEN

For 200 yen more, you get and additional shade. But this palette is the opposite of the glossy rich eyes above, this is the sheer and natural looking palette. Perfect for office ladies who just need a little something for their eyes. Would totally get this palette for the brush that comes with it! Awesome for blending!

LIP AND CHEEK CREAM | 1000 YEN

This was such a hit when it was first released. A 2 in 1 product, house in a pretty case.

CC WATERY FOUNDATION | 1600 YEN

Probably the first drugstore brand to release a watery foundation since the go to effect for most Japanese lady is the powdered and matte finish. A foundation with a lighter finish is refreshing!

5. EXCEL

If you are sophisticated and likes gold, excel has stuff you'd like to check out. Describing their own style as "Tokyo rich casual", they focus on quality products and simple packaging. Their powder and pencil eyebrow EX won best cosmetics award a while back. Really gotta give it to them for coming up with a 3 in 1 product! I love the gold, but gold plastic just doesn't float my boat. Maybe it'll float yours?

SKINNY RICH SHADOW | 1500 YEN

A simple eyeshadow that's been colour coordinated to give you the perfect colour gradation on your eyes.

POWDER AND PENCIL EYEBROW EX | 1450 YEN

This is what I call good product design - you get an eyebrow pencil, eyebrow powder, AND spoolie in one pencil housing!!! How convenient is that!?

SHINY POWDER N | 1800 YEN

A finishing powder that has a slight shimmer because you secretly want to be a Cullen. Hahaha I'm just kidding. Can be used as a subtle highlighter, or all over if you want more dimension on your face. Makes me wonder if it's anything like MAC's mineralized skin finish!

EDITOR'S THOUGHT
These are just a few of the crowd pleaser from each brand. There are a ton more drugstore brands that I may not have heard of before. Apparently, Japanese are notorious for keeping the best stuff for themselves. Until I visit Japan, I will not be able to find the best products out there. But for now, accumulate online reviews will have to do!

image credits: @cosme

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Drugstore Matte Lipsticks: Revlon, Maybelline, L'oreal

The matte-ness is slowly growing upon me.

a small revelation here,
i have never thought of myself as a matte lipstick fan because i've always associated matte with "dryness".
plus, growing up under the influence of japanese makeup where juicy and plump lips are the desired look,
matte lips just never appealed to me,
until recently.

that's the up side of being exposed to different standards of beauty.
not only does it widen my perspectives, i learnt to appreciate a whole new range of lip products i've never laid eyes upon before.

from my lipstick collection, i picked out these 4 matte products (because the majority are still non-mattes).
they are all drugstore brands (revlon, maybelline and l'oreal) available in singapore.

from left to right: REVLON super lustrous matte / REVLON colorburst matte balm / MAYBELLINE colorsensational bold matte / L'OREAL moist matte

i feel like matte lipsticks aren't that popular in the singapore market because the selection is a lot smaller than other finishes.
but i managed to pick out a few good ones.



REVLON super lustrous matte (010 wine not) is a dark raisin colour, leaning towards a brownish/purplish shade. the lipstick is smooth on my lips and deposits a thin layer of colour that can be built up to my desired intensity in 2 swipes. settles into lip lines easily, works best with a thin layer of lip balm underneath it. not very moisturizing, but i can get 2-3 hours of comfortable wear out of this before reapplication.

REVLON colorburst matte balm (210 unapologetic) is a bright pink, it's closer to coral than hot pink. the lipstick glides extremely smoothly to deposit a generous amount of lipstick, you can probably get full intensity with just one swipe. just beware of getting too much product on as it might end up looking uneven. it doesn't feather, but the product does bunch up. doesn't feel drying, but it will sink into my lip lines after several hours. a complete removal before reapplication is recommended (to prevent overdose of product). thankfully, removing this stuff is as easy as wiping it off.

MAYBELLINE coloursensational bold matte (MAT 3 cheeky coral) is an orange! application is smooth but sheer, even after several swipes the colour fails to build up to the intensity of the bullet. probably works best as a blusher than a lipstick. it's not even a full matte as there's a slight sheen after application. feels more moisturizing than the previous 2 revlon lipsticks though!

L'OREAL moist matte (PR511 spring rosette) is dark dusty pink, even though it looks pretty dark on the swatch above it looks a lot lighter when on my lips (it's probably looking darker when compared to the white tissue) the formulation is perfect, the lipstick glides like butter and deposits just the right amount of products. highly pigmented, even, and moisturizing. it can feel dry after 4 hours and accentuate lip lines beyond that, so it's time to reapply. from memory, i can reapply straightaway without removing the remnants first.

MY FAVOURITE?

this is my ranking:

L'OREAL moist matte > REVLON colorburst matte balm > REVLON super lustrous matte > MAYBELLINE colorsensational bold matte

one thing for sure, my matte lipstick collection is only going to grow.

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