[0:00]These are the top voted, top rated, and most popular products in Japan right now.
[0:08]Every year at Cosme, which is Japan's biggest beauty retailer and beauty app, releases an award called The First Half of the Year Best New Cosmetics Award. And the products that are awarded this are the ones that have been highly rated, highly reviewed and used and loved amongst all the Japanese girlies. I'm going to tell you exactly which ones I think are worth it and which ones I don't really understand why they're there. Please subscribe and like, it really helps us with the algorithm and we're going to first start off with makeup base. So I want to put both on side by side for you to see the difference because even though they're great makeup bases, they're very different and I think they will suit very different complexions and skin types. You'll see that within these products that they are high-ranking in multiple different categories. This is the Genoptics CC Primer, and it recently came out. So this was rated number one best BB and CC Cream of 2025, and also number one best makeup base. They released two different shades, one in natural beige and one in rose pink. I obviously picked up the natural beige because the pink would just be more of a tone up. And they say it packs five different benefits, so moisturizing, brightening, firming, there's also UV protection because it's got SPF and it's a primer, but it also acts as your daily foundation. You'll see instantly that it is high coverage. Whoa, this is really pigmented, almost like a foundation. It has got fragrance in it, it smells very floral and sweet. This might look a little bit crazy, but if you look at it just on the one half, it's got a beautiful finish. Like it really gives you that kind of luminous, naturally dewy finish. Because it's so pigmented, it applies lighter than my skin tone, but eventually melts into the skin quite naturally. If you guys haven't heard or used any of SK2's products, their proprietary and unique ingredient is the Pitera. And Pitera is a fermented yeast, which breaks down and produces almost like 50 different nutrients and minerals that feed and nourish the skin, which means it's like a buffet for your skin. And they actually formulated with SPF 50 PA+++. I will say, however, I would use this with my sunscreen underneath before I go in with this, because in order to get that SPF protection, you actually have to use a lot, right? And you're not going to use that much on your face. For this one, I can see why it's number one. It definitely feels very luxurious, it has great coverage, it makes the skin look so healthy. And when you put it on, you can just pat a little bit of powder over the T-zone and you're good to go. Okay, now the second best makeup base is Cle de Peau's Correcting Cream Veil. This one also ranked as the best Hall of Fame last year in 2024, but it was also number one in 2023 and 2022. So this one is also an enhancing base that you can wear on its own, or you can wear it under makeup. And apparently it's formulated with light enhancing technology, which is what Japanese formulations love, and they're really good at it. So both of these are a little bit fragranced, I love how this feels. If I just use it by itself throughout the day, it will start to kind of like move around and so for me, I think this is a great makeup base. And it helps stay and prolong, so it's got brightening, it even out, and the texture is a little bit lighter. It's more like a softer veil. This one got an insane amount of reviews, 17,000 reviews. 33 years old, combination skin, so pretty much like me, said you can use it alone and it brightens the skin, yes. And she uses this and then goes in with a BB cream, and she said it helps the BB cream actually stay in place. So, first of all, both of these are insanely expensive. This one is originally 66, I got it for like 54, and then this one is originally 83, but I got it for like 70 something, or maybe 60 something, I can't remember. So they're both up there. If I had to pick one which one I would use for my lifestyle, which is quite lazy, I just want to throw one thing on, I would probably go for this one. If I wore makeup almost like every day and I wanted to give my makeup the best boost and natural look, it would be this. It really does kind of prolong the wear of my foundation. If you're looking for a dupe of this, the Dalba and this Elixir tone up cream do very, very similar things, they're almost half the price if not like a quarter. Next category is the best concealer, and I was very excited to try because I've actually never tried Japanese concealers. So the first one I just couldn't find anywhere. And I'm like if I can't find it, then I'm sure you guys can't find it, but I could find number two and that's this guy. It's the Albion Studio Layered Trick Concealer. I've never heard of this brand before. Look at her, she's so cute, and it comes with two different shades. Apparently it's called Trick Concealer because you can actually make your own foundation with, you know, this salmon shade, which is what I already have. But when you apply the lilac on top of the salmon shade, it apparently is able to cover anything. I have kind of dark circles. So you go in with the salmon, and it's very creamy, it's high coverage, and it blends amazingly. Did you that it's gone. Salmon shades cancel out the purple dark circles because it's the color wheel, it's on the opposite, so it's doing its thing. But then you can go into this a little bit of the lilac shade. This brightens everything, and it's also SPF 40+++. So this is what it looks like without the lilac, and this is what it looks like with the lilac. It's actually more high coverage than my favorite one, which is the Skinfood Salmon Dark Circle Corrector. You don't need a brush, you don't need fancy tools, you just use your fingers and dab it on. So let's talk about the fact that it's $35, that's also steep. Is the coverage excellent? Yes, I would give it like almost 9.5 out of 10. It actually smooths over your fine lines and doesn't accentuate it. Like these two together, do you see how perfect this is? Oh my gosh, next category was best shading, so this is kind of like contouring, and the first place went to this one. It's the Cezanne shading pencil, and there's actually two different shades. So I have both of them here. So it comes in this little pen, and you open it up and it's just kind of like a crayon. These crayon pens are really popular in Japan because I think it's just a little bit more user-friendly in that you can just chuck it in your bag, you know, you draw it on wherever you want and you don't need a brush. So you can kind of just start from here and just draw a definition and then you can just pat it in like this. And then you can see your nose now has definition. I just use the warm shade and actually the shade is perfect. I also got the cooler toned one, and this one is a hot mess for me, it's just not the right shade. If you have lighter skin, this will probably be for you, but for me, it looks kind of purple. So my thoughts are actually I'm very impressed by this, because I think it's perfect for you guys who don't normally contour, who are maybe like beginners at contour because it makes it so easy. Moving on to brow products. This set of brow products, there is one product in particular that has completely changed the game for me. It's actually really interesting because all three of them are completely different brow products. So number one best eyebrow was the Sana Newborn Shooting eyebrow pen. This pen is so fine, so this little brush itself is 0.01 millimeter ultra fine. And what it does is create basically natural brow hairs, like the thinnest, finest brow hairs. Draw individual hairs like this at the front. And voila, like I actually instantly have hair. It's amazing, oh my gosh, the pen itself is so fine and thin, but it gives you such control.
[9:03]And they actually made it with a blend of two different types of bristles to give it the perfect flexibility, but it's still firm so that, you know, you can draw it smoothly and easily. It's also smudge and resistant finish, so it will stay all day. Do you see that? I've never tried anything like this. I'm glad this was the first one that I tried and it will be the last one that I do because it's perfect. The number two, which was the Kate Designing Eyebrow 3D. Dual color, Kate is a really popular brand in Japan, you can find it at the drugstore. It's a little bit difficult to find even in New York, I had to get this off of Yesstyle. So actually Yesstyle and Yami, go-to places for like buying Japanese products. It's definitely not as easy to find as Korean makeup. This one's not the exact one that was number two, because that one had a additional section here, but it's the same formula, same brand. It looks pretty much the same in this compact little thing. So to me, powder brow products are the best if you already have basically a very full and prosperous bunch of hair and you just want to kind of even it out, make it a little bit thicker and prominent. So what you want to do with these is take the fluffy side, and I just kind of start in the middle. Work it in, this is a great shade. I can see where I want to make it a little bit more defined here and fill in this, that's where I'll flip it over to this brush and kind of mix the dark shade with the middle shade. And then you can kind of even it out and fill in just the tail end. And then at the top here, because it's very dark, I'll fill in the top. Now it looks very even, there's a little gradient and what you can do is take the lightest shade, blend it with a little bit of the middle shade and work this backwards just to marry the two. Overall, my thoughts on this one, great for traveling, it has all the three shades that you need. It does a really good job at defining it, and I honestly can't complain, it's just the only downside is that it's a little bit harder to find the Kate product. Okay, now the third pencil, it was ranking as number three best cosmetics as well. It's the Kate powdery pencil. So this one comes in four shades, I got the one in 03 natural brown, a very soft powdery finish. And I think it achieves that because it's very similar to the hard pencils that I talked about in the Korean makeup video. If you put it on normally, nothing shows up. But when it interacts with the oils on your hair and your skin, it will release the pigment. And there was a comment that was like, um, I think that's just a bad dry pencil. No, no, my friend, it is very different, a hard pencil is a hard pencil and it's designed to be that way because it gives you more control over how much product is coming out. They are very different formulas. This one, I always start once again from the end, extend it out a bit, and honestly, you just want to follow the natural shape of your brow.
[12:05]I do enjoy a straighter kind of shape. brush over and soften it with the little spoolie. This is a very important step. If you don't do this, you'll see the strokes of the pencil and that's not a vibe. This is the easiest one to use because you don't need to carry around a brush. This one's just all over one color, soft powdery. We're in the eyeliner category, and I have three that were ranking, and the first one is a brand called Ilm, the super thin liquid eyeliner. And I'm very excited because I haven't heard of this brand before. So this was the best eyeliner of 2025. First impressions is this bottle is beautiful. It's kind of like heavy, it feels luxurious and expensive. And what I was interested in is just how thin the thin liner would be. And it's actually 0.01 millimeter. So that's the same as that really fine eyebrow pencil. This is like probably the finest eyeliner I've ever used in my life.
[13:16]I got it in the shade mocha brown because that is the most popular one. And it says it's great for, you know, creating a delicate line, you can also use it to create lower lashes and also you can build on it to become a thicker line. So I was very intrigued by this. So I don't know if you can tell but this liner is smooth, it's buttery, it is accurate and it makes creating a winged line so easy. That was one stroke. I don't know if I can ever go back to a thicker pen liner. On top of that, it's really smooth, it's quick drying, and it's also a waterproof formula, so it stays all day. Moving on to number two best liner is actually this brand. It's called Anna Sui. And Anna Sui, I swear is like a brand that's really only popular I feel like in Japan and for a long time, because even in the States, I don't hear anyone talk about it, but when I go to Japan, it's everywhere because they love it. So this actually came out in January this year. They say it's an extremely thin liner that locks in place. There's a bunch of different colors and people love it for the packaging, they love it for the brand. And they love how the tip is fine and it's very smooth and melting, making the application very easy. They say it's got a waterproof formula that can withstand tears and sweat, um, but we will be the test of that. So it is a pencil. Curious to see if this will last all day. So going back to how I like to use black and especially the pencil is in the tight line. And the tight line is essentially under your eyelashes. So what you want to do is kind of just like tilt your head up but look down, and that's the easiest way to just put it all in there. I like to take it all the way to the inner corner. And then you don't even need any eyeliner on the top, which means that you have more space on the lids, which kind of gives your eye a bigger look in general. It is very smooth, it glides onto the waterline effortlessly. I have used pencils where when you put it onto the waterline, because it's a little bit like wet from your tears, it doesn't catch onto the skin and just kind of like moves around. This one applied perfectly. So most people just love it for that reason, it's very creamy, it's smooth, apparently it stays all day. I'm sure it will stay all day if you have dry skin. The real test is whether it stays on with oily skin, so I will show you at the end of the video after we wear it for a day. 10 out of 10 for the shape, for the formula, also 10 out of 10, it's not smudging, it's not budging, it fills it in effortlessly. Next category is probably what I'm most excited to test when it comes to makeup because I'm very particular and that's mascaras. My lashes are actually quite long, but they're very heavy and straight, so if I wear a mascara and it's not curl defining and it's not lifting and it's not separating, it will just fall down and clump together. So that's why I'm very particular about mascaras. So I have four different types. Starting with the top mascaras for 2025. First, we have the Canmake Metal Look Mascara, so this was the number one. Canmake is a pretty popular Japanese brand, you can find them in most drugstores. It's quite easy to find, you can get it on Yesstyle. This metal look mascara, I think for maybe a lot of you, you'll be like, what the heck is that? This one is actually just a piece of metal with like ridges in it. So it has a 2.9 mm thickness. What it's supposed to do is kind of grip onto each lash and comb through it like a screw. Do you see how it's kind of like pushing up the lashes from the root and individually defining the lash? And it's very easy to get into these like little nooks and crannies of the eye. And it's not messy because this one is so petite. This formula is also waterproof, sweatproof, sebbum proof and apparently does not smudge. I tested it and whoa, it definitely is. People love it for the color retention and the smudge resistance the most, and they also loved how affordable it was and it gives your eyelashes nice volume. Let me refer to my notes. For curl holding, I gave an 8.5 to 9 out of 10. Lengthening, I gave a 7.5 out of 10 because it doesn't have the fibers. So it's not attaching extra length to my lashes. For thickening, I would also give a 7.5 out of 10. This is one layer, but it's very buildable. And then for separating, I would give almost a nine. So for something that's affordable from a brand like this, I think you really can't complain. Next is this brand called Ririmew, the lash keep mascara. This is number two. So this is a mascara that adds length without fibers, once again, and it comes in this really like aesthetic clean packaging, and it comes in two different colors. The mascara brush is more of a traditional like brush, but it is quite tapered and slightly curved on one side. This mascara is crazy. It is lifting, it's curl holding, and it's really lengthening. And I think what's most interesting like from this one compared to the Canmake, it doesn't clump in a bad way, but it gives you those like triangular anime looking lashes. It's much more dramatic. And then for the bottom lash, because one side is more flat and one side is more curved, it also is very easy to apply. So for this one, I'm just amazed. I don't know how it is formulated without fibers, but it's so lengthening. So for my rankings, this one actually got one of the highest ratings. Like this is up there with my favorite mascara, which is the Clio Kill Lash Superproof. It is very, very similar. Curl holding is about a nine out of 10, lengthening is like a 8.5 out of 10, thickening is 8.5, like it really thickens the baseline and the separating gives it a full-sy effect. Now the third product is a brand called Cape, and it's called the Active Curl Lock Mascara Base. So this is actually a mascara base, and the thing is you can wear it as your mascara, but it's designed to kind of prime the lashes and keep it there, locked in place for all day. And I tested one eye not using a base and one eye with the base with this mascara, and it's night and day. It took this mascara, which is actually very average, because on my one eye, my lashes drooped, it it didn't hold the curl, it was not amazing whatsoever. I actually wouldn't rate this without this, but with this, it was insane. It was smudgeproof, it stayed all day, it held the curl. Holy cow, I was not expecting this. When you use it at first, it glides through every single hair so smoothly, it's actually a little bit glossy. And then when it sets, it really sets. If you're like sweating a lot, if you rub your eyes, and anything that's related to like water resistance, this literally locks your eye in place. To the point where like a normal cleansing oil actually won't take it off easily. And how I get it off is with a balm, and you got to like slowly melt it in there, and that's how much it works. When you put it on and it's still starting to set, that's when you want to go in with a mascara over the top, when it's still slightly drying, and it will give you the best long-lasting effect. Holy cow, I was not expecting this. So quickly, um, for this one, this was not part of the 2025, but it was the Hall of Fame best mascara. The most highly rated reviews, it's the Dejavu lash up. This to me was not very impressive. It did give a very, very natural mascara look. It was like soft and a little bit wispy, but it wasn't that lengthening. Maybe because my lashes are quite thick, so they're heavy. So if you have like kind of thick, heavy lashes and long, I don't think this stood the test whatsoever. But once again, when I paired it with this, they were amazing. But I can see this working for people who have very thin fluttery lashes and you want a very natural look. So that is my full face of the best new cosmetics. I'm going to leave this on for the entire night, check back in with you at the very end, and I'm going to tell you which products I think were my top, top, top of favorites. Hello, it is now 12:50. Look how good the eyes look, guys. I'm actually shocked that the Ana Sui eyeliner did not stamp at all. Oh my goodness, for a pencil, that is amazing, that's almost like unheard of. I am very shiny, that is a given, and my brows have stayed really nicely. I do really enjoy this, it's just expensive, um, but the standouts for me are this pen liner, the eyebrow pen, the strokes, the Anna Sui eyeliner for the tight line, I'm actually really, really impressed, and the Canmake mascara and the Ririmew whatever gray one because it looks fantastic. So these are totally worth the high ratings and I understand why the Japanese girls are raving about them.
