asian product Archives - Curiously Carmen

Last year, I was introduced to Sekkisei, a Japanese beauty company that had just launched in Canada. Sekkisei has a beautiful, royal blue packaging for all of its products. Being the communications and marketing nerd that I am, I love design consistency!

I received a number of Sekkisei products for review. However, I don’t like having super long posts so I will be dividing my Sekkisei reviews up as I try and use them more. Today, I will be focusing on the Sekkisei facial powder wash.
One of Sekkisei’s main selling points is that it claims to whiten skin, and make it more translucent. Fair, white skin is considered one of the most beautiful features a woman could have in the Asian culture. There are so many Asian products out there that are marketed towards whitening your skin.

In fact, if you can read Chinese characters, you will see that the first character means ‘snow’ in Chinese.

As Sekkisei is a Japanese based company as mentioned earlier, Sekkisei products are derived from both high quality Chinese and Japanese herbal extracts.

You may be wondering why a Japanese company uses Chinese characters instead of Japanese characters? The Japanese actually have three alphabets, one which is called ‘Kanji’ and uses Chinese characters on writing mixed with the other two Japanese alphabets. The meaning on paper/writing is the same, but pronunciation is completely different.

Anyways, back to the review. The powder wash comes in a sturdy bottle with one small opening, so that the powder does not spill everywhere. The powder is very fine, and very light. One small sneeze can send the product falling everywhere! =P

It reminded me of baby powder, but even softer. Sekkisei describes this product as a ‘skin-clarifying powder wash that leaves skin brighter than and as fine as freshly fallen snow’.

After putting the powder on your hand, lather it up by adding water. You may want to experiment with the amount of water you add to reach your desired consistency. For myself, I added a few drops of water and washed it on my face in a circular motion.

My first impression was that it lathered pretty quickly, and I loved how gentle it was on my skin. It was very smooth, yet did a decent job in making my skin feel very clean and fresh.

You can purchase Sekkisei products online or at select Shoppers Drug Mart stores in Canada!

Yay!

Thanks for reading,

Carmen

Press samples featured. Opinions are own.

First off, I want to say that I rarely use Asian facial masks like these. In fact, this is only my second time using one of them! I got this as a gift from my friend, who went to Asia in the Summer.

I was just feeling tired tonight, and had some time to kill so decided to re-energize and vitalize my skin! I know that this brand is hugely popular among Asian countries, so I was quite excited to try it. The only other Asian facial mask like this one I’ve used is the Innisfree brand masks, which I will be using to compare my first impression with MBD!

As I mentioned before, I used the sake yeast one. From my knowledge, MBD carries a bunch of other masks, such as strawberry or black pearl. The sake yeast one claims to be whiten and moisturize. The package was the size of my hand, just to give you a rough idea.
The Innisfree mask that I used was pretty fragile, it did not take a lot to tear it. For that reason, I was a bit wary and very careful in opening this one.

To my surprise, there was actually another harder sheet inside which was used to protect clumsy people (like moi) from tearing it. I was off to a good start. This mask was so much easier to unfold and apply to your face with the other sheet.
The plastic sheet also made the application process waaay easier than my experience with the Innisfree mask. I had no problems with it. When I put it on, a wave of refreshing, cold, liquid hit my skin. It was instantly awakening and there was a cooling sensation to it. I felt so much more energized!
After 5 minutes, the mask was still super, super cold. I felt like I had dumped ice on my skin. There was also a lot of liquid serum from the mask that was starting to drip.

Eventually, I had to take away my pillows because the angle my head was in was making the liquid drip down to my neck, which got really annoying. I kept having to wipe my neck and pat the dripping liquid onto other parts of the mask. After 20~ minutes, it got better since the mask was starting to dry. However, the whole time, my face was very cold!

Be sure to take this mask off over the sink in case there is still excess liquid, you don’t want that to drip all over your clothes! My skin was still covered with the product, so I decided to just pat it and leave it, instead of rinsing since that was what most bloggers did. It dried after 10 minutes and as I write this, my face feels very soft and refreshed!

(PS. Do you love the cat on my eyes? Hehe. I look freakish with this mask on, and I’m not about to let the internet see that stuff. Let’s name her Polka.)

Pros:
-Easy to apply due to the extra sheet
-Cooling sensation, making your skin feel refreshed and energized
-Light but pleasant scent
-Skin feels energized & soft afterwards

Cons:
–Serum drips everywhere, you have to lie on a completely flat surface (no pillow)
-Serum can drip on your neck since it’s so liquid-y
-Product instructions are written in Chinese, good luck deciphering it unless you can read Chinese (That’s what Google is for! Yay!)
-Not sold in major Western drug stores/retailers, TNT or online is your best bet

Summary:
-Would use this product again, but maybe press out a bit of the serum before applying
-A box of 10 sheets sells for around $16 USD on Amazon

-Carmen

Kose Sekkisei Facial Powder Wash

First Impression- My Beauty Diary Mask (Sake Yeast)