Not gonna lie, this cream really confounded me. I'm a fan of Japanese skincare and travel to Tokyo for business several times a year. I always hit my fave stores to stock up on old favorites and try new products.
I was so happy when I saw this skincare in my feed, because it looked exactly like a product I've tried before in Tokyo! I liked it then, but only had a small sampler and always meant to give it a more thorough trial.
Then I got this, and I was very confused.
⚠️ First, this cream is shimmery. I do not recall any Japanese face cream being shimmery. Usually that shimmer means mica, which is highly reactive to my skin, so I avoid it.
Sure enough, I looked at the ingredient list, and there are nearly 100 (one hundred) ingredients in here! ⚠️ Yes, there's mica.
⚠️ Also diamond powder??? What benefit does my skin get from diamond powder? Is this an exfoliant?
I still thought this might work, I just have to be super careful with application because the mica can scratch my skin.
But that's not even the weirdest thing. The weirdest thing is that the product description has a picture which says: "Your Daily Dose of Deep Repair. 11 Types of Collagen." That's exactly what I expect from high quality Japanese skincare.
⚠️ But the looooong ingredient list shows exactly zero types of collagen in the list. Huh? I then looked at the Japanese text on the bottle. The box has no Japanese text, so this is clearly a meant for export product.
✅ The Japanese writing on the jar confirms that this is made by Shinnihonseiyaku Co., Ltd., a respected Japanese pharmaceutical and skincare company. And a product with the same name IS actually sold in Japan.
⚠️ But guess what, the ingredient list for the original Japanese product DOES contain collagen! And it DOES NOT contain mica or diamond powder either.
➡️ the bottom line is: this is an Americanized version of a great face cream, but in the process, the manufacturer swapped the collagen for shimmery stuff and a lot of botanicals. I'm actually pretty disappointed in this product.
The jar is an airless vacuum pump, but it feels inexpensive.
I hope that the great skincare brand Shinnihonseiyaku actually does import its product into the U.S., but I want to see the same formula here as what's available in Japan. Also, quite disappointed that the ingredient list doesn't match the listing description, especially regarding the collagen. Overall, disappointed in this product.