Shopping isn't what I've grown accustomed to. Not just for clothes, but beauty products and household items in general. One thing I REALLY REALLY REALLY came to love was Japanese liquid sunscreen and even aerosol sunblock, like this stuff:
They're so much lighter and smell much better than American ones. They soak into my skin quickly and leave a very faint scent that only I can smell if I put my arm right up against my nose and inhale. These work just as well as the thick gross stuff we normally use in America.
There's even weird powder sunblock in five fun cloud puff things. It leaves your skin looking like a Stephanie Meyer vampire so I didn't buy one but it's interesting.
I never bothered with sunblock in America is because it STINKS. Everyone within 10 feet of me knows I'm wearing it. On top of that, I feel it on my skin and sweating off AND IT'S GROSS. When I played water polo in high school, I'd purposefully glob that stuff on so I'd be slippery in the water and my opponents couldn't keep a grip on me. It's okay to be stinky and greasy in the pool, just not anywhere else.
Imagine my pleasant surprise when I found that Neutrogena sells a watery liquid sunscreen!
I bought a bottle to compare to my favorite Japanese brand. I'll admit I use a lot of Neutrogena acne care and face wash products so I've some brand loyalty going on here, but I honestly haven't seen anything else like this.
Both are compact and purse-friendly. The Nivea one is on sale in Japan for like 300-400 yen, so about $5/bottle. The Neutrogena one was like $11 ugh. I'm no expert at this crazy metric system, but I'm pretty sure milliliters equal the same amount of space or something as grams, so the Nivea one has more sunblockin' goodness in it. Like double. FOR HALF THE PRICE WTF.
AND IT DOESN'T EVEN GO ON THE SAME. The Nivea one is thinner and spreads a lot easier than the Neutrogena one. The Neutrogena sunscreen is far more to my liking than most American sunscreens but it's still icky and kinda smelly and meh. Nivea is on the left, Neutrogena on the right.
Thankfully they both soak in pretty quickly. I couldn't tell a difference between the two once they were dry.
EDIT: I put on quite a bit of the Neutrogena one today and my hands feel chalky. I've washed my hands more than once but it still feels weird. It also feels a bit greasy on my arms, so ew not using this unless I have to.
EDIT: I put on quite a bit of the Neutrogena one today and my hands feel chalky. I've washed my hands more than once but it still feels weird. It also feels a bit greasy on my arms, so ew not using this unless I have to.
I guess it's a fair alternative but I LIKE THE JAPANESE STUFF BETTER OKAY. IT'S CHEAPER AND NOT STINKY AND WORKS JUST AS WELL AS THE GROSS STUFF FROM AMERICA.
I was just thinking about this the other day! I loooved the Japanese sunscreens and luckily brought enough back with me that it lasted for alittle while. I tried the same American one as you, but its true, its just not the same. For some reason I felt like my "paleness" was prettier with the Japanese sunscreens than when I try to attain the same level with American ones. My freckles just get darker with the American ones while the Japanese ones seem to overall keep the same tone. Is there any way to order them online you think??
ReplyDeleteI'd guess the usual online vendors of questionable quality, like on eBay and Amazon. They're probably ridiculously overpriced.
ReplyDeleteUuumm good to know though! I'm going to Atami next week and though my quarter Puerto-Rican self doesn't mind being tan, I kind of like myself better pale now and was really all aksdjf about what kind to get. This Nivea stuff looks great! Do they have higher than 30?
ReplyDeleteI know they have lower SPF level ones but I never looked for higher. Probably?
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