Face shaping tools hit the shelves for self-change

Unsatisfied with your face? Is your mouth too wide or your head too big? Do you want to change the shape of your face without an expensive operation? If you feel like this, you may not be alone, as it seems that a lot of Japanese people might think the same way.

Flipping through fashion magazines or switching through the channels on the television in Japan, it won’t take long to figure out that there are certain face and body types that appeal to Japanese tastes. Nowhere else in the world are young people are trying so hard to look like their idols, and are willing to spend so much money on fashion and beauty.

The cosmetic industry therefore offers a widespread quantity of products: from simple make up, to lash and hair extensions, and contact lenses to make your eyes look bigger - all quite common products people elsewhere in the world use as well.

But here are two products you may not have heard of so far:

People thinking to have a too big face or want to get a slimmer cheek, strain skin, or get rid of a double chin could be helped by the Kogao Meiku Beruto (small face make belt). According to the manufacturer, the face will become smaller and slimmer by just stringing the belt around the head while sleeping or relaxing. Sounds easy, right?

Men who are unlucky with their face can also be helped. This next product claims that if you feel like your mouth is too wide and makes you look like you eat too much, you better try Tex Mex’s “Slim Mouth”. This simple looking product is supposed to make your mouth slimmer and smaller by just training the right muscles three minutes every day.

If it comes to the face, Japanese in general seem to agree: “the smaller, the better”.

The small face belt is available in internet shops for about 900Yen ($9).
Tex Mex’s Slim Mouth is available at Tokyu Hands for 820Yen ($8).

Tags: beauty, cosmetics
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends, Press coverage

Tofu face masks and other natural, edible, beauty treatments

With the LOHAS boom in full swing, more and more consumers are taking notice of what’s in their food and in their beauty products. Now the latest thing is to combine the two: beauty products that are made from all natural food stuffs.

While retailers, like the Girls’ Walker produced Cosme Kitchen, a select shop for imported natural beauty products, play up the idea for marketing, another company, Hiina is offering the real deal.

Hiina, a company staffed by all women, has introduced a face-mask made from 100% soy milk, or more specifically yuba, the sheet of soy milk that forms at the top when the liquid is heated at a low temperature.

Each face-mask is made by hand and, because it is 100% additive free, delivered frozen. While we’ve seen chilled cosmetics before, produced in medical quality labs, the Hiina face-masks are made of foodstuffs and thus produced in a food manufacturing plant, with the equivalent hygiene standards, and frozen immediately for preservation. Thanks to all this, a set of 5 masks retails for ¥6,000.

Like sake brewers (the inspiration for the famous SK-II skin care line), tofu makers often have noticeably bright and smooth skin on their hands. So Hiina applied this observation to where women are most concerned, the face, claiming that soy milk, which contains saponin, has the power to exfoliate dead skin and draw out pore-clogging debris.

Another, albeit unlikely, participant in this edible cosmetics movement is Tokyo Gas, which features an article on home kitchen made beauty treatments on its Food Lifestyle #110 Q&A website (110 is the Japanese 911).

Specifically, treatments that can be made from typically Japanese kitchen products, like sake, seaweed, and rice bran, making this just one more example of the “back to Japan” trend in beauty care.

Tags: beauty, cosmetics, health, LOHAS
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends, Press coverage

Marketers court New Rich women

Marketing forces have named two new female groups of “new rich” to be targeted for their impressive buying power: the “career rich class,” women now in the their 30s and 40s who are making over ¥10,000,000 in annual income and the “highly sensitive senior rich class,” housewives in their 40s and up with an annual household income of over ¥20,000,000.

Shiseido is clearly targeting these new rich with the latest products to be added to their premium Synergique line on the Clé de Peau Beauté brand, with 40g of cream priced upwards of ¥120,000.

These new ultra-premium products (pictured in insert above) join the existing Synergique line-up of more “moderately” priced ¥20,000 items (larger picture).

Meanwhile Pola’s Linea-Esse undergarment brand has debuted a line of lingerie aimed at the disposable incomes of career women aged 30-40, an age group typically expected to begin leaning towards the beige tummy squashing variety.

In contrast, the marketing for the “Princess Medallion” series conjures images of European royalty and manages to sneak some very of-the-moment macaroons into the ad (though I guess you’d have to chose one or the other).

These 40-something new rich even have their own TV show, Around 40, which detailed the life of a 39-year-old single and successful psychiatrist.

The popular miniseries ran from April to June 2008 on TBS, on Friday nights at 10pm (proving that the audience did have nearly as an exciting life as the heroine Satoko Ogata) and pushed this new demographic into the public eye.

Tags: beauty, cosmetics, Fashion, New Rich, Women
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Press coverage

Traditional craft meets modern glamour

Centuries-old calligraphy brush manufacturer, Kumano Fude, has collaborated with the Japanese branch of American cosmetics company Max Factor to produce a new series of make-up brushes.

This “Pro Finish” collection uses 100% natural fibers and draws on Kumano Fude’s artisan brush making techniques. Kumano is a town outside of Hiroshima that has a long tradition of brush crafting and today 80% of all calligraphy brushes are made by collectives in this area. Fude is the name for the brush.

Being of “professional quality” and priced from ¥2,100 (lip brush) to ¥9,450 (face) the brushes are marketed at make-up artists, although they are sure to be coveted by more than a few amateur beauticians.

Natural cosmetics have been a major trend recently in the beauty industry and so has a general “back to Japan” movement over the past few years that has seen a number of health, beauty, and fashion products draw on traditional Japanese materials. The Pro Finish series fits in nicely with this, while getting an additional edge from Max Factor’s glamorous image.

Likewise, a number of fans of natural cosmetics, another growing trend, are taking interest in lipsticks created from the beni flower, a traditional Japanese cosmetic used by courtesans and geisha and can be traced to ancient China. Like fude, beni is made by craftsmen.

In other somewhat related east meets west news, Mattel International has announced plans to release a second limited edition Barbie doll wearing Hello Kitty fashion. Following the success of last year’s Hello Kitty Barbie (pictured right), the latest model, Hello Kitty Apple Tree Barbie (pictured left) will feature a Hello Kitty inspired outfit with an apple theme.

4000 dolls will be available from July 26 for ¥5,670, orders will be taken from June 3.

Tags: beauty, cosmetics, crafts, FMCG, tradition
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends
Other categories: Technology & Gadget Trends, Press coverage

Fresh and natural Chilled Cosmetics from DHC

DHC, Japan’s number one direct mail skin care and cosmetics company, thinks it has the answer for sensitive skin that often reacts poorly to products: chilled skin care products that because they are designed to be refrigerated contain only fresh, natural ingredients.

This new line of “Chilled Delicate” moisturizers contains dokudami leaves, aloe, and additional plant extracts, plus amino acids and vitamin E. Both the lotion and cream form are designed to create maximize moisture retention, and are notably free of alcohol, coloring and other possible skin irritants.

According to a survey conducted by DHC of 20-40 year olds, 88.8% of respondents claimed to have skin that occasionally reacts to products, especially during the spring (which coincides nicely with the product launch).

The products are manufactured in a 5°C refrigerated factory that meets the same purity standards (class 100) as those used to produce medical supplies. This technical aspect is well-documented on the product webpage, including pictures of NASA-esque employees going through the sterilizing air showers.

A seven day supply (30mg of the lotion or 15mg of the cream) is available for ¥1,900 ordered from the DHC site, or conveniently at the local 7/11.

If this concept sounds vaguely familiar, its because we reported on it over two years ago, when Nissin Medico, of “air stocking” fame launched a similar product, Chilled for Skin. While this line didn’t quite take off, the concept apparently merited a second look, since DHC is now marketing a similar product.

A unique aspect of Chilled for Skin (twice the price of the new DHC line) was that the products would be shipped via cool-delivery to the customer. Chilled Delicate are being sold at room temperature, as it seems that DHC is banking on the convenience/impulse buying factor of the convenience store and perhaps with the eco and LOHAS movements in full swing, the timing is better for pure cosmetics to gain momentum.

And what is Nissin Medico up to now (when they’re not brooding over their loss to DHC)? The company has recently launched the “Air Launcher” cleaning gun that blasts cleaning mist, foam, or powder into those hard to reach areas (like your ceiling-mounted air conditioning unit) or unpleasant ones (like your hubcaps).

Replaceable “cleaning rockets” with products for different cleaning tasks are inserted into the plastic gun that just might entice the kids to help around the house.

Keep the ideas coming Nissin Medico!

Tags: Back to Nature, beauty, cosmetics, DHC
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Marketing & Ad Trends, Press coverage