The Best Japanese Drugstore Beauty 2021

If you’ve ever been to Japan, you know how drugstores are everywhere and have a variety of products, everything from beauty to skincare to even home products. There’s always so much to look at and a MUST DO activity for me every time I’m in Japan. Japanese Drugstore Beauty products are one of my favorite category of products because they’re innovative, efficacious, and most importantly, affordable. So let’s dive in!

Heroine Make Volume & Curl Advanced Film Mascara

Heroine Make, is probably one of the biggest drugstore Japanese makeup brands, and famous for how well their mascaras and their eyeliners work.

Personally I’m a huge fan of both and I think that Heroine Make has the best eyeliners and mascaras PERIOD! Their mascaras and eyeliners are not only very pigmented but they’re also super long lasting as well. Almost a little too long lasting, because sometimes I actually find it difficult sometimes to remove at the end of the day!

My favorite mascara from Heroine Make would definitely have to be the Volume and Curl Advanced Mascara. There are a few different types of mascaras that HM offers, but my favorite would be the Volume & Curl since my lashes are really short and straight so I can use all the help I can get with volume and holding that curl! With other mascaras, one of my biggest gripes would be that the curl doesn’t hold all day and gradually throughout the day I find that even though my lashes were curled and looked great in the morning, they kind of slowly become straight again through the day. That’s not the case with Heroine Make. The pigmentation and the curl stays there the entire time I’m wearing it.

The V&C mascara also makes such a dramatic difference on my lashes. If I do around one to two coats of this mascara, it literally looks like I’m wearing false lashes. And I’ve never gotten that effect from any other mascara and the cherry on top of this heroine made mascara at least from my lashes is that the curl actually holds all day. Typically with other mascaras what I see is after I call my lashes and I applied the mascara, the curl is there and it looks great but throughout the day it kind of just straightens out because normally my lashes are very straight and they kind of point down kind of like typical Asian lashes. So I love how the heroine make mascara and not only does the color lasts all day, but the curl also lasts all day and I’ll be forever repurchasing this mascara unless I find a better one is currently my holy grail.

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co.

Suisai Beauty Clear Powder

Suisai’s Beauty Clear Powder comes with 23 individually wrapped pods of a powder cleanser and I love this powder cleanser! Every time I use it, I find that it really helps brighten up my overall skin tone, minimizes my pores, and my skin feels really good after using it. Due to the single use packaging, it’s super easy, convenient and portable so I really love using this when I travel. It helps saves me so much space in my skincare bag. I don’t need to pack my full size facial cleanser or my mini cleanser whatever I’m using at the time. I can just pack either one or a few of these pods depending on how many nights I’m going to be gone and it just saves me so much space.

The pH of this cleanser is also pretty close to the page of our skin so I find that it has not irritated my skin at all and just gives me a really nice scrubby cleanse so I’ll definitely start using these once again once we get the okay to start traveling again.

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co.

Hada Labo Gokujyun Premium Hyaluronic Acid Lotion

Hada Labo’s Gokujyun Premium Hyaluronic Acid Lotion is one of my holy grail toners. It is super hydrating, it feels so great on this skin and I LOVE the texture of this product. I would say the texture of it is thicker for sure than your average toner, but not quite as thick as what you would find in a serum, so kind of somewhere in between. But I just love the way that this feels on your skin and how it just sinks into your skin so quickly. This is definitely one of my favorite toners to either layer or use the seven skins method with on days where I find that I just want to focus on hydrating my skin. This toner uses seven different types of hyaluronic acid to really ensure your skin is hydrated.

This product has actually recently been reformulated and I haven’t tried the reformulated version of the premium lotion but just given my thoughts on the rest of the line, I’m sure it’s going to be wonderful and I’m really excited to try the new version!

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co. 

Hada Labo Gokujun Hyaluronic Acid Foam Cleanser

This foam cleanser is a really gentle, simple and no frills cleanser. There’s not a lot of bells and whistles in terms of ingredients or scent. But I always find myself coming back to the hot alaba foam cleanser because it just gives my skin such a nice cleanse without stripping any moisture.

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co.

Hada Labo Gokujyun Cleansing Oil

Another product that I love from Hada Labo would also be the cleansing oil. It’s very similar to the foam cleanser in the sense that it’s a very basic gentle and no frills cleansing oil. All of those products are formulated without fragrance or alcohols.

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co.

FANCL Mild Cleansing Oil

So hopefully for those sensitive skin type people out there, this is a brand that will work for your skin. The FANCL cleansing oil is fragrance free and a touch thicker than the Hada Labo cleansing oil. I love the way this cleansing oil emulsifies onto my skin and I found that it removed makeup pretty well.

The downside of the FANCL cleansing oil is it doesn’t have any preservatives in it, so once you open up a bottle, you really have to finish it within six months or the product is going to go bad. So every time I open a FANCL cleansing oil, I definitely make sure to constantly use it until I’m done because I don’t want to waste any product. But that’s just the downside of not having preservatives in your product. It’s super fresh, there’s no preservatives so of course it’s going to go bad faster than another skincare product that does have preservatives in it. The FANCL cleansing oil also uses really unique ingredients such as soybean oil and meadowfoam oil to really make sure that your makeup is dissolved and melted off.

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co.

DHC Lip Cream

I’m obsessed with lip balms, so I always like to have a bunch of lip balms on hand ready to use whenever I want. I love the component of the DHC lip cream. It’s in a classic tube, which is my preference. There’s a lot of popular lip balms and lip masks out there that are in the tub format, which you know I’m okay with but for me personally I just really prefer my lip balm/masks coming in at tube for sanitary reasons. I really do not like dipping my finger in any sort of pot or charge just because the clean freak inside of me feels like I’m getting it dirty. It’s just nice to have a lip balm and a two component because the application is really easy and mess free. I also hate it when you have like a little bit of leftover lip balm on your fingers and you know you have to go wash that off. I find that to be really annoying.

The DHC lip balm has olive oil, squalene and vitamin E to really nourish and hydrate your lips. And after applying this product, I can really feel it sink into my lips and really hydrated versus with other lip balms and lip mask, I find that it doesn’t really sink into my lips. It’s more just sitting on top and giving me the illusion that it’s moisturized but it’s really not. I know they’ve also launched this lip cream in color tint and I actually haven’t tried those yet. But that’s something I’m definitely going to be looking into and let me know if you guys would like to see a review on that.

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co.

Minon Amino Moist Sheet Mask

This is one of my favorite sheet masks of all time. It is super hydrating and really gentle. I love how my skin looks after using this mask. Minon’s Amino Moist line uses nine different amino acids to really lock in the hydration in your skin. amino acids naturally occur in our body and amino acids do a wide variety of tasks within our body. Some of them strengthen our skin barrier, others may have antioxidant like effects such as fighting off free radicals, and other amino acids retain moisture. So I think it’s really cool how they’re using something that already exists within our body to deliver even more moisture to our skin.

What’s really unique about Minon is that it’s actually a brand that was formulated specifically for people with sensitive skin and you can really see it with the formulation because they don’t include any fragrance or alcohol or parabens with any of their products, which I find is kind of rare within Japanese beauty and Asian beauty overall. Typically, there’s always one sort of ingredient in either of those three buckets in a formulation but they specifically omitted those ingredients. So this line would work for those with more sensitive skin. This sheet mass also uses a cotton sheet. It’s a bit thicker than what you would find with like a Taiwanese sheet masks for example. And it’s definitely gonna look white on the skin but I just love the way my skin feels and looks after using this mask and it’s one of my go to Mass anytime my skin is in need of hydration.

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co.

Melano CC Serum

The Melano CC Serum is a really great vitamin C for beginners. So maybe for people who have just started off using vitamin C and want a really gentle option, or maybe for those who have never tried a vitamin C before, so of course they would want something gentle just to start off with to see how their skin reacts.

I love the Milano CC because it’s also formulated with vitamin E and vitamin E it works so synergistically with vitamin C, they make each other stronger when paired together. So I’m always also looking out for the inclusion of vitamin E when I’m looking at vitamin C serums. The formulation of the serum is really nice, it feels more like an oil serum than I would say a traditional serum. Unfortunately, Melano CC doesn’t share the exact percentage vitamin C This product is, but if I would have to guess I would guess it would probably be around 5% just based on my experience with other vitamin C serums.

This product does really help brighten my skin, but for me my skin now since I’ve been using vitamin C for so long, it needs something a bit stronger. So I like to look for vitamin C’s in the 10-15% range. But the 5% which is an estimate would be ideal for any type of beginner or anyone just curious about vitamin C and wanting to try a gentle vitamin C product. The only downside to this product is there are citrus oils in the Melano CC so if you’re sensitive to fragrance in your skincare, maybe I would skip this one.

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co.

So the last product I want to talk about is more of a category and I’m sure you’ve heard of it, it’s sunscreen. It’s no secret that Japan formulate some of the world’s best and most popular sunscreen so if you’re ever in Japan, you should definitely pick up at least one sunscreen because it’ll totally be worth it. Now I have a few sunscreen recommendations here but if you would like a more in depth review, definitely check out my other post where I cover the best Japanese drugstore sunscreens.

Biore UV Aqua Rich Watery Essence SPF 50+ PA++++

If you’re a complete beginner when it comes to sunscreen let’s say maybe you’ve never even worn sunscreen before in your life one sunscreen I would start off with would be the Biore UV Aqua Rich Watery Essence. And this sunscreen has so many amazing reviews on both Amazon and Reddit. I think it’s a really good beginner sunscreen. It is a chemical sunscreen so you get this really nice and light formulation there’s not going to be any white cast left and the sun protection is pretty good. The citrus oils and alcohols using this in this specific sunscreen can be a little drying on my skin.

Available at Amazon.

Suncut Aqualy UV Protect Gel SPF 50+ PA++++

I prefer something more like the Suncut UV Protect Gel. I actually got this from my last trip to Japan and I really liked this one because it is SPF 50+ PA++++ of course. And what’s really cool about this sunscreen is it actually offers both physical and chemical protection in a beautiful formula which I love.

The texture feels really nice. It actually doesn’t really feel like a sunscreen. It feels more like a skincare product like an emotion or like a lotion. So I just love using that on my face.

Available at Amazon.

Shiseido Anessa Perfect UV Sunscreen Milk SPF 50+ PA++++

Another really popular Japanese sunscreen would definitely have to be the Anessa Perfect UV Sunscreen Skincare Milk. This one also has both physical and chemical protection, which is awesome. And the other unique thing about this sunscreen is it’s also water resistant for up to 80 minutes, so this sunscreen is perfect for the days where I know I’m going to be going out I’m going to be sweating a lot because it is water resistant and I do want my sunscreen to stay on. This is my go to sunscreen for when I know I’m spending a day outdoors doing a lot of physical activity.

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co.

Shiseido Fino Mask

The Shiseido FINO hair mask is definitely my favorite hair mask. It instantly hydrates my color treated hair and my very dry ends, which is something I’m always looking for. The mask itself has a very smooth and emollient texture. Another great way to use this mask is when my hair is feeling particularly dry and straw-like, I love using a dab of the FINO Hair Mask as more of a leaving product. So after shampooing and conditioning, I’ll use the hair mask as a kind of a final conditioner which is typically how I use it. But if my hair is feeling really dry, I’ll put some more back in when I’m done showering and really focusing on the end and I’ll just leave it in and I find that when I do this and I comb out my hair after it definitely adds in some hydration to my hair. It’s a lot easier for me to like run my fingers through my hair after I shower and have it be a lot silkier and smoother.

FINO is a brand owned by Shiseido, which is a huge beauty conglomerate in the beauty industry. They are a Japanese company and they’ve been around for hundreds of years. I think they’re probably one of or if not definitely the oldest beauty companies in the world. So of course, they have a ton of brands underneath them.

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co.

Ma Cherie Perfect Shower Smooth Hair Spray

So another Shiseido hair brand that I love would have to be Ma Cherie. The entire line has pretty pink packaging and everything is designed really adorably. I love their Perfect Shower Smooth Hair Spray to refresh and hydrate hair in between washes. So for me personally I shampoo around two to three times a week. So in between washing my hair, I my hair can get really dry. So I really like using an oil on the ends of my hair where it’s the driest, but on the rest of my hair, the perfect shower is great for kind of just refreshing your hair and infusing it with some moisture, kind of like a hydrating mist for your hair.

Perfect shower also has UV protection in it, so I’ll also use it right after I wash my hair and before I start blow drying. It’s truly a pretty versatile product and I find that I use it quite often throughout the week. There’s also a few different types of perfect showers, depending on your hair type – there is another one for wavy hair and another one for straight hair.

The one thing to watch out for about Perfect Shower and actually Ma Cherie as a brand, is that there definitely is a scent and it is kind of strong. So once you apply it, you can definitely smell it in your hair but obviously through the day it’ll fade. Fragrance is really personal and I know there are certain fragrances that can turn people off, so just keep that in mind. The way that I would describe the Ma Cherie fragrance would be kind of like a sweet fruity floral to me. It smells really good so I don’t really mind the fragrance, so if you’re really sensitive to fragrance and you don’t like fruity or sweet floral smells, then I would definitely skip.

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co.

Ma Cherie Hair Oil

I also really love the Ma Cherie Hair Oil. The packaging is designed in a shape of like a little jewel and again, it’s all pink. It has the same scent as Perfect Shower. It is a thinner hair oil, but I find it to be really hydrating. I love using it on my end and since I really enjoy the scent of Ma Cherie, on the days when we could go out pre-quarantine, I wouldn’t even have to really use perfume – I was just fine applying Ma Cherie products in my hair and having that be my perfume. If you’re into using hair products that can also double as your perfume, then I would definitely encourage you to check out Ma Cherie.

Available at Amazon and Glowie Co.

So those were all of my favorite Japanese drugstore beauty products. Have you tried any of these products? Let me know in the comments below!