I’m slowly working my way through the spoils of my Japan trip last fall. During my trip, I noticed that several Japanese beauty products would use pictures of babies instead of adult models. American skin care products tend to use words and graphics, rather than pictures of adults or babies. But using real baby photographs makes total sense, if you think about it. Babies have the softest, smoothest, bounciest skin imaginable—unencumbered by teenage hormones, environmental pollutants,…

Ever since dipping my feet in the oil cleansing routine with Kose Softymo Speedy Cleansing Oil almost a year ago, I’ve been meaning to try its sister product—Kose Softymo Deep Treatment Cleansing Oil—for a long time now. Both of these oil cleansers are the most affordable options available on Amazon right now. If you look at some of the other ones that are similarly priced, you’ll see that they come in much smaller bottles.

Sheet masks are one of my favorite souvenirs to buy when I’m traveling, since they don’t count as liquids—and they’re easy to stuff into my already-too-full carryon luggage. I bought quite a few sheet masks during my trip to Japan last fall. I can’t read Japanese, so while I was there, I looked for products that displayed a “No. 1” symbol, since I assumed that they indicated that the product was popular. One such product was a 5-pack of Kose Clear Turn White…