Something I didn't include but was pointed out by many of you is the packaging! I do think a lot of the time K-Beauty have very cute or fancy packaging - whereas J-Beauty tends to be very simple and just there to serve it's purpose💡
Yes! The packaging seems dated. There are some minimal beautiful ones, very functional ones but I remember when I went to Japan and the most I saw were dated and very clinical looking. I think this fits in with both your comments and others about not wanting to appeal to western audiences. It doesn’t need to look pretty to people who don’t understand their culture or brand, and eliminate that fear. Although I think Japan is stuck in a bubble, and Korea is an emerging economy. Old money vs new money. That translation thing is so annoying, but again why should they add Japanese? English products don’t unless they’re international version but never two on one. Both beauty products are wonderful though and excel in different areas.
I think a lot of the success of Kbeauty is really off the back of the international success of Kpop (and kdramas to some extent). Everyone sees these idols with their glass skin and immediately searches for the products they use. There are also soooooo many brand deals with idols.
i personally believe its got more to do with the explosion of the korean 10 step routine a couple years back, people just realized how much more affordable and high quality korean skin care is and the popularity just kept rising
10 years ago, I was watching Kdramas and listening to Kpop, and decided I wanted their skin. I'm not as avid a watcher or listener anymore. But I do still very much look at what's going on in Kbeauty, amongst other places. Because by golly, back then skin care in western countries was a disaster.
Not true, because I was using Korean and Japanese skin care way before K-POP blowing up they had a fan base before. But now I would say the global popularity is a lot from K-POP.
@@katarina7520 I agree, that's how I found out about kbeauty. And I was 16 with eczema so koreans gentle approach and affordable pricing was what really got me, and I haven't looked back!
This is referred to in Japan as "ガラパゴス化 (galapagos syndrome)" and it is not limited to the cosmetics industry, it can be applied to almost everything in Japan. Anyone who has worked with Japanese companies in Japan would observe that, except those concentrating on extending their business internationally, the majority of Japanese companies are just not interested in selling or promoting anything outside of Japan. Many Korean companies, on the other hand, keep the "global market" in mind from the start when creating new products, they actively try to sell their products internationally and invest heavily in worldwide marketing. So yea, it's not surprising that J beauty isn't as popular as K beauty, given that J beauty companies have never aspired to be popular outside of Japan.
True. Maybe Tina isn't aware of this because she's "westernized". Also, regarding products not being sealed, maybe she's just so used to people doing what she said like "has a little sniff" or "testing out" products right there in the store, which more often than not does not happen in Japan, if ever it does, they use the testers. Well at least for its citizens, because -- discipline, respect. Since Japanese products are primarily made for its Japanese citizens, they do not find seals and expiry dates necessary.
Hada Labo appeared in Europe about 2 years ago. They are the same product/formulation but they changed the well know Hada Labo packaging so the product have sakura flowers on them and this way European customers know that they're buying Japanese cosmetics and I have to say Hada Labo has become very popular here.
this is soooo true. I'm into j fashion and i have to hire a physical person in japan to go to a store to buy the thing in person and then mail it to me because many of the brands don't even sell online (or only sell some of their products online, but not all). Or if there is a website they have to buy the item online for me, get it shipped to themselves in japan, and then ship it to me because even if they do sell online you have to have a Japanese address and a Japanese bank to use their website.
Same goes for jpop and jculture in general. Japan has a vast population with strong national sales, they do not need foreign markets and want to protect their brands. But that's also unfortunate because history shows japanese brands can be highly successful abroad and earn trust thanks to reliable quality. I much prefer jbeauty over kbeauty, it's more affordable, ingredients seem more science based and the marketing not being aggressive and pretentious makes me trust the products more.
@@mayomayo3111 that's not true at all, they are usually more affordable than kbeauty. Hada labo, muji, chifure, skin aqua, biore, hemmy k, joie cellule, cellcare, verdio, kose, sana... are all good and from cheap to moderately priced. Japan is not just about skII and shiseido.
@@mayomayo3111 idk most kbeauty breands Ive tried arent super expensive but still more expensive than jbeauty and of much less quality. Only brand i liked was I'm from as mugwort is truly pretty effective.
@@philippillis9393 the skincare that get's trendy in foreign countries usually are not authentic, aren't a quality brand approved by the Korean consumers either. Most of them are rip off Korean themed products with no beneficial ingrdients.
Many people around the world trust Japan when it comes to quality and would love to use j-beauty if they had the option. It’s just unfortunate that they haven’t nailed the things you’ve brought up in the video. Hopefully that’ll change soon! Some major brands like Hada Labo, Rohto and Senka are building their presence is southeast asia and they’re available at major drugstores and online now. I personally am so in love with Japanese sunscreens, they have the best most wearable formulations and I hope the rest of the world could know how brilliant they are! That’s why I love your channel for helping spread the word on j-beauty ❤️
Check the ingredients on the back. If you know the fact that the brands you mentioned in above have a lot of harmful, chemical ingredients in it, you won't choose them any more. This is the reason Japanese cosmetics, especially selling abroad don't have expiry dates. After studying cosmetics ingredients, I never use Japanese cosmetics.
Lately, I’m leaning towards more J-Beauty products but this is true! The price point is kinda frustrating. Its like 2-3x more expensive than the regular price. I think it is also confusing because they have lots of variants but with same packaging like Hada Labo. Some also consider packaging. Not important factor but a plus point if the packaging is nice. K-beauty has a lot of products with cute & pretty packaging.
Is it bad that I kinda like it’s not globally marketed? I feel like the ever increasing need to make more money often ruins products. Burt’s Bees (not j beauty) had a lotion I LOVED and rebought for years- but after they were purchased by a larger company a lot of their products were reformulated with less great ingredients. $$ ruined some of their best stuff imo. I don’t mind buying online or having to go to the Japanese grocery store to find a product if it means the product won’t be tainted by the insatiable need to make more money.
I think the most important point is the fact that they don't follow trends as they don't add any benefit to the customer and the product. Going international is expensive. The international customer is used to trends and want trends so they might be excited at first with Japanese products but pretty quickly they will complain it is not "innovative" enough and will look for other products unless J brands choose to follow other international brands and create new trends that don't bring anything just for consumerism reasons #money money money money.. TH-cam favors new content, so influencers have to create new content, viewers love new content, so brands in order to continue selling as much products as possible it to create new trends with new marketing ingredients or techniques so customers keep buying just because it is "new" . Plus from what I noticed J beauty is really effective but sensitive skin friendly. If you create stupid trends like we've see recently more and more actives, or more and more natural it does not work if your goal is to be effective while minimizing irritation. For all those reasons I understand why J beauty don't want to fall into what has become a very consumerism skincare market trap who is more interested by trends and marketing ingredients rather than long term result without adverse effects. So I understand why it's not worth it for them. In a long run they will loose their identity and I don't think their Japanese customer will be happy about that or they will choose to keep their identity and loose too much money so it's not worth it in my opinion.
Maybe they dont really intend to go international- big clue is on the packaging. Everything’s in Japanese, and they don’t put seals (products like these are probably intended for local use based on my experience from products i can just buy in the supermarkets here in the Philippines, most of them don’t have seals)
I personal prefer J- beauty products, but after returning from Japan and trying to contact a Japanese company about a product I couldn't find anywhere online I was told that they had no intention whatsoever of selling their product on the western market and I believe most Japanese companies feel that way. Their product is by far superior to k beauty products but they don't feel the need because they already believe their products are the best.
Why do you prefer them? Just curious. I use a lot of French and Korean skincare products but I use a Japanese toner which is really good! I wish I could try more Japanese makeup and skincare but they are difficult to find...
because it’s their tradition of not exporting the best products out of Japan, from cosmetics, automobiles to agricultural products. Back in the days when Cle De Peau was only available when I started using Japanese cosmetics and I had to travel to Japan to get those. They are somewhat more open compared to say 10 years ago but the protectionism is still there. I’d say K cosmetics are more affordable and J cosmetics can be very pricy but very very well packed and I prefer J skincare to K skincare from my personal experience. Also Japan has some amazing make up brush brands that you cannot find on K beauty such as Hakuhodo and their brushes are so amazing unlike anything you used, be it Bobby Brown or Make Up Forever which I love…
They are not “far superior” anymore, because Korean women are smarter consumers who can force the industry to adopt better ingredients and leave out harmful ones.
I wonder what your thoughts are on specific brands such as Shiseido, Shu Uemura and SK-II who have had a large presence internationally (some even before Kbeauty hit the international scene). It seems like there are certain Jbeauty brands that care to market to the international audience. For example I live in a suburb on Long Island and there's a Shiseido beauty salon here, which is kind of wild to me when juxtaposed with the majority of Jbeauty's presence (or lack thereof) in the US.
It always feels like Japan has its own bubble. Both for good and bad reasons. As youve said they never consider outside market bec they dont need to.. they rely on their own people as a loyal consumer. Also their population is also more than half of korea and even if the economy has stagnate its population has more buying powers.
I've been using and repurchasing the J-beauty Canmake Mermaid sunscreen for 4 years on Amazon. In the same amount of time, I've also bought so many different K-beauty sunscreens when a TH-camr does a positive review. It's pretty telling that I've never repurchased any K-beauty. Really want to go to Japan to try more of their products.
I totally agree. They didn't have much global advertisement for J-beauty and its also hard to find their products online. If I haven't even saw your vlogs i wouldn't even know some of their products. I wish I knew some of their products before I went to Japan back in 2019.
In my country, Japanese skincares products are far more expensive. While Korea brands, they competed with each other that really benefited us from price aspects. For example, I'm using super cheap sunblock from 3w clinic(korean brand) that only cost me about USD 2.
@@falteredbeauty8563 that's the point. 3w clinics suncreen is seriously cheap. Even compared to SEA suncreen (where cosmetics price is way, way cheaper), it's still cheaper
@@shintapp I've never heard of both brands & of always been trying to look for affordable sunscreens. Does this 3w clinic sunscreen leave a whitecast? If it doesn't, I might just have to buy it.
Hada Labo has just launched in Europe under the name Hada Labo Tokyo. It’s a separate arm of the brand to the actual Japanese brand I believe, but with English branding and ingredient lists to fall in line with EU regulations. It’s a much smaller selection than what’s available in Japan, but I would be interested to see if any more J Beauty brands go down this route and try and crack into the Western market.
As a consumer who loves to try out new skincare products. My experience with J-beauty is very limited to Biore sunscreen, cleansing oil, Senka Whip foam cleanser and Hada Labo Lotion which was recently available in Watsons store around 2018 ish. I still remember before 2018, the only way to get our hands on Hada Labo is when someone we know is traveling to Japan. In late 2018, I got my Senka Whip when I traveled in Taiwan before it went in store in 2019. I want to try more J-Beauty like the Miniso set or the sake toner/lotion but it's not available here or too expensive compare to the price in Japan.
I agree on the first couple points. it’s just like anime, music, cinema, etc - i love these. Japan makes great quality output with these but generally does not need to nor wants to try to market and expand outside the country. I used struggle finding translations and other content for the shows, movies, artists, and books I liked from Japan. The internet and fan translations help a lot. Personally I like J-beauty more because they don’t shift with trendy products and ingredients as much as K-beauty. They make products with tried and true ingredients and stick with it, which is the type of thing consumers should be using for longterm skin health anyway.
I like Japanese products, because usually if it's good, it sticks around! But Korean products are constantly changing, it makes it hard to have consistency ! But yes, being outside of Japan (🇨🇦), it can be hard as anything to even simply obtain some products 😓
You pointed it out so well. Good thing J-beauty brands are now more accessible here in the Philippines. Some J-beauty brands are now available online (legit store) as well in drugstores and supermarkets. I can also see their brands’ FB pages and IG accounts.
I think it's basically the marketing strategies. K-beauty is overall more international centric whereas most J-beauty brands are domestic centric except certain brands like Hada Labo. Language translation plays a big part too in the marketing aspect. It's a shame - tons of innovative ingredients/cosmetic science were originated from Japan (like most of the stable derivatives of vitamin A C etc) so I feel J-beauty is not getting the recognition deserved. K-beauty was inspired by those science and they made it more western-culture oriented (such as include more earthy natural ingredients alongside the science) thus well received. Of course, the boom of K-pop might have played a big part too.
I agree! I also think that it’s just SO japanese to be humble and lowkey about discovering such innovative skincare science. And it’s just SO k-pop to be loud, trendy and aggressive with marketing lol
I prefer J beauty simply because the products tend to be more sensitive skin friendly ie. fragrance and colorant free. However, it is frustrating because the options available to me are so little, and the ingredients list is in japanese so I can't check if there's a sneaky ingredient ; - ;
if you go to olive young in korea its the same lol its all the non popular products in korea that gain popularity overseas but my korean friends use brands that i never if rarely anyone overseas mention it lol
I use more J-beauty than K-beauty, but I can never get J-beauty in store. I agree that K-beauty is pushing harder for global expansion and they have more partnerships with bricks and mortar locations
I have always wondered this question. I thought it was just me leaning towards to k culture, I d love to try more j beauty and they don’t advertise their goodies as much as k beauty does and I don’t read Japanese so makes it harder for me to choose
I’m leaning more on JBeauty since I’m using shiseido for a looooooong time. Then I visited Japan, my eyes opened with more than just shiseido & now using Kosè Medicated Sekkisei especially days where I have dry skin. JBeauty is eesssspensive however it does the job, my cheapest brand that actually using now is Hada Labo, Fancl & suisai for powder cleanser… ♥️
Tinaaaaaa this is honestly such a good video, spitting the truth about what frustrates all of us. Thank you so much. Let’s write a letter to at least all of our faves and politely ask them to change this.
i agree with you being j-beauty not as popular as kbeauty. i get to know more j-beauty from watching your videos but i have to admit i didnt realised there's actually alot of j-beauty products sold in local drugstore compare to kbeauty 😂 i think it's bcoz as u mentioned, the packaging, it is not appealing at all compare to kbeauty.. i will walk past through them in the shop and go straight to kbeauty ones 😅 and again: the marketing, i hardly see any ads on j-beauty other than shiseido which are extra expensive products...
I totally agree with you on every aspect you mentioned. Especially the non-existing translations on the products made it impossible for me to shop j-beauty products when I visited Japan. Now thanks to your channel and yesstyle I was able to try a few products and I love them. But without that help it would be impossible. When it comes to that non-existing seal on some products it isn’t that problematic for me personally since we have that in Germany too. At least on some products, so I’m used to it. However I get your point.
Haha yes! All of this - what speaks to me especially is the “no English” (I live in Tokyo and have the luxury of JP husband so he helps me with some of the translations - bless him) 😅😅😅 Also I feel like Japan has their own trends in beauty - and they are more seasonal rather that the new global trends.. still love it tho! Hadalabo shirojyun rich for life haha 😂
I am from Russia, and we have a comparable amount of Korean and Japanese products in local stores with translated stickers on them with expiry date added if it didn't have it and normal prices, here Japanese products cost much lower than the same goods at Yesstyle. But we are neighbors from the East coast, and when it comes to trading, Russia is often considered to be an Asian market, so we get more of these. And you can easily find many Japanese products in countries like Thailand, Singapore, etc. It would be more correct to say that they pretty much ignore the Western market, but it's not hard to buy Japanese products outside of Japan. when it comes to Asia. In terms of skin care I have no preference, I like both K and J-beauty, but I think that Japanese hair products are much nicer, at least they work better on my hair than Korean ones.
Agree. I live in Indonesia and we can access J-beauty products like Hada Labo, Biore, DHC cleansing oil, etc just fine. They're such popular products too.
It's because of your regulations. I used to work for a multinational drink company and all our products needed to have special labels with Russian translation, ingredients, expiry date etc. And we needed to get the labels approved by the Russian team, the regulations changed so often.
Some of the points made in this video could be applied to other things like music, movies, and dramas. A lot of times it's so hard to access these forms of Japanese entertainment overseas. Japanese record labels don't even upload full music videos to TH-cam sometimes, just a one or two minute clip. I feel like the only thing that has become somewhat easy to access overseas from Japan is anime, maybe manga too, but to a lesser scale. Like mentioned in the video, I feel that whoever is producing these forms of entertainment/skincare, etc., in Japan just don't feel the need to push it to overseas markets. Before I was living in Japan, I used to scour the internet for ways to watch Japanese dramas and listen to my favorite Japanese music. Now that I live here, I rarely watch Japanese dramas or listen to Japanese music. I basically only listen to Kpop now lol.
Totally agree with your points but have to say that I also kind of appreciate the "lack of trend" of J-Beauty. K-Beauty often really overwhelms me with the sheer number of different innovations the have to offer. When I went shopping in Japan I did not even bother to look at the labels properly I was just grabbing everything based on you recommendation :D
I get this too! I would even fall in love with K-Beauty product and by the time I'm close to finishing it and go to find it again... it's gone 😅 awwwww I hope my recommendations worked for you too!!!
Actually, the population of Japanese here is giving us a lot of selection of J-Beauty in Singapore and they are cheaper than K-beauty. I have also seen the same in a Bangkok high-end supermarket. Being Chinese, it does help with the translation of some Kanji characters. My number 1 hate is a lot of Japanese products come with high alcohol content. Also, some Japanese brands are already so well known for such a long time that people tend to forget they are Japanese brands, for example, Kose, Shiseido, SKII. I have seen people mistook Shiseido as K-beauty.
9:40 most products in tubes, sprays, and bottles in Canada don’t have seals either and it does make me nervous sometimes, but more so regarding sprays that people test out and mean you don’t get a full bottle. It’s hit or miss sometimes, like lotions have the bottle that locks until you open it but shampoo bottles are just open.
I’m Japanese , and as for skincare, I trust my country’s brand . That’s because the company is research for Japanese women’s skins so well . K beauty is so pretty and makeup is fun ! Japanese is not interested in selling out the products to the western market. K beauty is good . I wish we have Sephora in Japan . I love western makeup ( eyeshadows , mascaras and such ) they are affordable and so pigment !!
Formula wise, The Majority of J-beauty contains Parabens, they use Alcohol a lot too, I guess it’s because of their humid weather. They use plastic packaging (earth quake proof?). I feel like their products are designed specifically to use in the region. Living outside J, we can use prettier skincare with cleaner ingredients, while people who live inside Japan don’t use imported skincare since they’re not that suitable. I think that’s why companies don’t bother to market globally. But what I love about J-b is the minimalist routine, and how easy to choose according to skin type. Edit: this is what I've observed, doesn't mean J beauty is not good. They just don't go with the trend and if you like J beauty, JUST USE IT! I still use J products along with products from other countries
@@genshinF2Play still, it’s a controversy ingredient and in other weather like in my country, my non-parabens products hadn’t spoiled before I finished them
Natural or ‘Clean beauty’ sounds appealing but according to science it’s nothing but a baseless marketing tactic. Lab muffin explains it very well here: th-cam.com/video/wkWX2AXNuxg/w-d-xo.html she talks about the appeal to nature principle and how natural =\= better. She even invites an actual cosmetic toxicologist to explain the science and debunk myths about stigmatized ingredients like parabens and sunscreen filters. I use both K and J beauty but i found that a lot of korean products are loaded with unnecessary random botanicals just to seem more natural and ‘clean’. And skincare uses a ton of plastic regardless of country. Even eco-friendly brands use plastic.
@@minhtrang1991 Of course. But going natural just for the sake of it is baseless. Beside, a lot of times, companies would basically just replace paraben with another synthetic preservative so the products would still not be "natural"
Maybe I’m missing something, but I find it extremely difficult to find cruelty free J-beauty products. Not all K-beauty products are cruelty free of course, but there is a decent range of them that is readily available at a good price point
@@epifanny Japanese cosmetic brands are offering quite amount of vegan products recently, but their authenticity is being questioned for one reason that they export to china.
I agree 100% with everything specially about lack of English words on packaging. Living in Tokyo, I have to rely on your channel for information about products. I have just accepted the fact that I will need to get better at Japanese but sometimes I do wish there was some guidance.
J beauty is exclusive, Much better quality & ingredients vs K beauty. K beauty is mostly strategic marketing. I am true fan of all Japanese sunscreens. They work so well on my skin, most skin agree too. Prices are also reasonable. Hyaluronic acid even introduced first in shisheido product long before others starting now. Hada labo range can never go wrong.
Oooo this was a really good video! I completely agree with you on all your points and while I’m less bothered by the expiry date side of things, I don’t understand why they can’t seal products more efficiently. I’m just grateful I live in Japan and can get most of the skincare I want from my local drugstore that is literally 2 minutes from my apartment and not have to deal with unnecessarily marked up prices.
I live in Thailand and J-beauty products have been a staple here since a very long time you can find them everywhere and we even have several japanese drugstore chains like matsukiyo, tsuruha, cosme store etc. which offer a wide variety of japanese brands apparently. K-beauty is also very popular among teenagers at the moment but J -beauty products in general are much easier to find and are more widely known imo. Brands like hadalabo, bifesta we can literally get them in 7-11
Definitely agree with your rationale! I have to do quite a bit more research to find out about J-Beauty (though your channel really helps!). I recently ordered a lotion from Amazon Japan called Angel's Beauty Skin Moisturizing Lotion based on the description/ingredients. I could not, however, find any information about it anywhere else. It’s my skincare mystery lol. Despite some barriers I do love J-Beauty and very much appreciate your channel. Thank you 🙏 💕
In Malaysia , it's so much easier to purchase Japanese beauty products (Hada Labo, Biore, senka etc) in affordable prices because they are usually sold in local pharmacies . Heck I even knew about SKII at a very young age (8-9 years old) . I'm 23 now . Meanwhile for k-beauty , much more expensive and it does not work for me . I never repurchase any of the k-beauty products that I bought ( except for sunscreen and aloe vera gel) .
Think about kpop vs jpop too. I barely saw jpop artists try to promote outside of japan. Fair there is world tours etc they know they have fans across the world, however japanese music is usually made just with japanese in mind while kpop is trying to (at least currently) thinking about global market. I really always just thought the struggle with jbeauty is they truly just market to the locals and don't feel the need to cater to anyone else. Which is fine... but does make jbeauty not as accessible.
Also, Japan does not have regulations on animal testing. It's not really a concept there. The only thing I can find that has any information on the cruelty-free status of a brand is from JAVA.
this is interesting, thanks for sharing your take on it. I think it's also about the packaging design. as much as I love some J-beauty products, I don't think the packaging design is their forte. K-beauty has more appealing, aesthetically pleasing designs for sure.
From a very personal view. I just enjoy j- beauty more. I guess my only issue is the translation, as you said; very difficult to find. Specially when you want to try new brands or products. HOWEVER, their formulations, again in my view, are sometimes superior. Never had problems with their packaging. Always, renewing their formulations, sometimes improving them. At least in Europe, even though j- beauty is not so popular, we can get quite a good selection of regular j brands through STYLEVANA and yesstyle. Even IHERB has a small selection . I still enjoy k beauty... sunscreens... only Japanese!!!!.. greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱
Hi Tina. So glad that I found ur channel. I too think J beauty are under rated. I lived in the region where I do get a good mix of j beauty pdt but u are right abt the prices. It’s more expensive here then if I purchase it in Japan itself. Also there are lack of TH-camrs for j pdts. My biggest challenge is to understand them and their usage cos of the lack of info in english. Whereas k pdts did very well in this aspect. So I end up having a lot more k pdts in my drawers. Pls continue to show us what j beauty can offer. Love it!
I've been using J Beauty of years as I went to Japan every year in uni and also lived and studied there as I love Japan, gaming and anime etc. But I only discovered K Beauty in 2020 with lockdown, otherwise I was using Hada Labo, Nameraka sana, Shiseido, Kose and Rosette for many many years which I bought when I was in Japan, or on ebay and harajuku culture Japan which had a lot J beauty. Now I use both, but I still use more J Beauty only because I like Japan a lot, and their huge range of 美白 products and also prefer Japanese sunscreens. I prefer K Beauty for the essences, ampules, sheet masks and sleeping masks which seem to be unique to Korean beauty. Some western brands are not sealed, like all the body lotions and soaps. I see people giving them whiff all the time in the store
Hey girl! I totally agree with you about the sealing, especially when we look at big brands, like SK-II and it's products. I would really appreciate a little cover on the top of the item that I'm paying 'well enough', let's put like that. ;)
Japan is so trusting 😳. Here in the US everything has to be wrapped up in some way (usually multiple ways, like the foil over the opening and plastic shrink wrap on the outside). But we're also the country that had someone add something into aspirin bottles, and I think someone injected stuff into drinks too...so you know, people are scary and we have a lot of the crazies here apparently.
right? I remember when I lived in the States (it would sometimes happen here in AUS too) where even if they were wrapped up and everything - people would open the packaging, take a dip and just leave it on the shelf 😑😑😑 legit never happens in Japan haha
I seems that it is lots of trust in people in Japan, I think that speaks volumes about the culture which is good, plus it is less garbage not using more seals etc.
What people forget is that shipping is VERY expensive! Seems to be getting worst every day. Taxes can be extremely high as well depending on the country. All of this has to be factored in to the price when purchasing products outside of Japan.
For me, its because there's waaaay more kbeauty products that are safer for darker skin. I use kbeauty because is a safer with no ittitating alcohols, fragrance and oils and it actually helps my skin with acne and keeps it healthy. I've looked for some Japanese ones but there's not really any thats safe for darker skin other than hada labo, even to which soe peoples skin may react.
I like that Japanese brands are more focused on loyalty and improving their formulas. Kbeauty isn't bad but I find a lot of their products feel more like fads to me. I have never repurchased a K-beauty product but I have repurchased and become loyal to some j-beauty products.
I don’t mind paying for quality products but do need to know what I am paying for. Instead of listing ingredients one often get some marketing spiel about tradition or in-depth unspecified research. Sometimes it’s just nonsensical like Biore’s Barrier Me which protects your skin like a lotus flower huh? In reality It’s a good physical sunscreen with silicon as a first ingredient forming a protective barrier from dust and pollutants hence Barrier Me LOL.
But i do loooove j beauty.. i think they're consistent.. u could still buy your fav item yrs ago until the present time.. quality item.. and it's really effective.. downside only is that it's difficult to purchase most especially if you're not living in japan.. and it becomes costly because of the shipping.
I have a very sensitive skin. Even Cetaphil gentle cleanser & bioderma sensibio gel moussant irritate me. Then I tried COSRX Salicylic acid daily gentle cleanser and it's amazing. But since my skin is dry, I have to moisturize after washing. I tried bioderma sensibio lotion but it makes my skin oily after a few hours.. then I tried Etude House Soonjung 2x barrier intensive cream. It's really lightweight and calms the redness. I also love COSRX ABC toner. It's fragrance free and doesn't make my skin angry. So for now I believe in Korean skincare supremacy hahahaha. They're (at least cosrx, Soojung, Benton) so transparent about the ingredients, less gimmicky, and I believe are backed up with newer research. But I also love my jbeauty sunscreen from illuminare, I use it on my hands (it irritates my face). If anybody knows some sunscreen for sensitive skin please let me know! (I prefer no alcohol, no fragrance, and no HA)
Basically because Japan is a group of islands and Korea is not. 🤣🤣🤣 (the state of mind is to enjoy remaining isolated). Hada Labo is my favorite Asian brand but one has to deserve it ! Thank god we have your channel to better understand the lines. 😃
On one hand it's nice to see some companies that don't want to be bigger and better than anyone else, that are content within their local market. Not everything needs to be on a global level and increase profits at a perpetual rate. On the other hand it sucks if you really like something or want to try something, but can't get it.
I love jbeauty since it works well for people with sensitivities, but getting your hands on it is so hard. I wish Japan was more open to international shipping and of course have product details in English bon their websites at least. For now I'll still struggle since it's true love, but I hope it becomes easier...
K-beauty often has fragrance in it and I am sensitive to fragrance. Causes migraines and redness. But the Koreans are really pros at marketing. I often reach for Japanese beauty products because they have similar results, ingredients and are often mindful that not everyone can tolerate fragrance (including essential oils). There are a few fragrance free J beauty products but I have yet to find a fragrance free cc or bb cream in the Korean market. And the one or two that I've seen often have shades too dark for me (Klair's Mochi BB Cushion for an example is fragrance free but their latest shade is tan on me) which is weird because I thought Koreans like being fair. Something I also noticed about Japanese culture in general is that I feel they are stuck in the late 90s. Their famous Johnny Boys are still popular, as far as I am aware, they havent changed their style in anyway. They are still keeping true the same J-Rock aesthetics with the jagged layered hair. Their music has not adapted to the world's stage; dance and rock music is still the prevalent music genre over there whereas elsewhere, it is now all about K-pop music styles that incorporate a variety of pop, rap and r&b styles. It's like a time machine in Japan. Their music choices, dramas, product marketing have not deviated much from the late 90's and early 2000s aesthetics. But our society is ever changing and I think Korean companies are aware of this and adapt according to modern cultural trends. That's why they are successful. Korean companies are always trying to push the envelope and try something new that will attract a larger audience. While popular Japanese companies like Kanebo Kate, Kao have not changed their aesthetics since the 2000s.
Lol yeah, i always like to compare JBeauty to Jpop, they don't care about going global😂 That said i have my trusted Jbeauty shops that sells with reasonable prices and decent shipping cost so all is good💗💗💗💗💗
I think I agree on all your points. Like everyone mentioned in the comment, they cater more towards their own people. They formulated products taking consideration of environment in Japan, hence it is easier to regulate the formulation and expected result. Also, on the expire date, I guess they expect us to use it right away once you have bought it while these days, we tend to keep our supplies "in stock". Gosh my stocks are pilling up too much to keep up with the current trend. Yes I blame u kbeauty 🤣🤣🤣🤣
This is such a brilliant video! I'd like to second this by saying I'd read an article on the BBC that Japan, despite it's brilliance, is so reluctant to change and in an ever changing environment where you need to evolve it could result in their decline and eventual downfall, sadly!
Regarding your last point about Japanese brands not putting expiration dates on their products...I've noticed this a bit (I live in Tokyo) but what bothers me even more is that a lot of their products (food products included), don't actually have their weights listed! So much for a scientific/accurate country...
not sealing beauty/skincare products is wild… especially seeing how much packaging is used in japanese products (Especially food) agree with the price point being a main factor for j-beauty’s unpopularity - i think related to this is perhaps there are larger korean communities outside of korea than there are japanese communities outside of japan so there is more demand for affordable korean products in general (not just skincare but also goods and food products)
so agree... they over-package and individually wrap food but can't put a seal on a cleanser? 🤣 maybe they think since you don't consume it it's not as... bad? haha
I have more jbeauty products than kbeauty ones. I was never disappointed by J products. My Holy grail is the Shirojyun premium whitening lotion by Hada Labo. This changed my skin so much!
I think that the marketing issue aside, J-beauty products are quite expensive although they have good formulations. In addition, K-beauty products are advertised in various ways on an aggressive front internationally even via K-pop stars and actors and actresses. This is quite different from J-beauty which might not use celebrities to endorse them comparatively.
Regarding the lack of seals on packages, I always thought this was related to the Japanese culture of trust and appropriate behavior (sorry, I don’t know how to say it…). I imagine a Japanese person wouldn’t think of using the product before buying it, etc. I personally prefer they do it their way. I don’t think every country needs to always adapt their standards of behavior or production to other countries (like US and Australia…who often kind of demand things be done their way…and I’m American so no I am not trying to offend anyone, I’m talking about systemic behaviors or thoughts). Plus, additional seals, etc., drives up the product cost. Haven’t you ever really asked yourself why products can sell so cheaply in Japan???? It always amazes me how nobody gives this any thought.
I tend to have mixes of products that I liked from J and K beauty, nowadays I like exploring Japanese products more because I find that Korean products became less fun than it used to, I remember as a teen seeing so many colourful Kbeauty products but nowadays it's all the same just in a different packaging so that killed my enthusiasm over them, not to mention 90% of Korean products that I've tried since my teenage years are not Fungal Acne safe, but the good thing is it kept my overspending in check, plus the globally praised wet Glass Skin look is something that I despised since childhood (it also looked like those videos where girls put lube and their boyfriend semen on their face), I still have some products that I checked from K beauty but the love for it definitely diminished like 80%, And frankly I don't regret going back to my enthusiasm over JBeauty (plus some western brands) products again
I for one leans toward J products and has been for many years. They believe beauty towards natural, using natural ingredients, minimalist makeup and skin care regime (light, flawless skin) that allow one to keep good skin for many years ahead (ie into your mature age). They believe in prevention (wear your sunscreen), not hide under products that promise temporary effects ( eg dewy makeup) or use plastic surgery. You are right about the marketing part - look at their Disneyland, they do not need tourists to sustain it 😂. I believed they dun use international influencers cos the locals mostly recognise and believe in their own artists ( maybe except Shiseido who is moving towards international the recent years). I read somewhere that Japan Cosmetic Industry association has a much stricter regulations standards than Korea. You are also right about the seal - they do not need that. Cos the locals know it is not polite to open a new product if they are not buying it. It just like if you buy fruits in Japan, it is a taboo if you press on it, pick it up, smell it and put it back…..etc. You can only eyeball the fruit, take the one on top and put in your basket ( cos their products are guarantee fresh with no bruises). I feel it is the difference in culture that leads the Japanese to do what they are doing, or you can say - what they are not doing. 😀
oh 1000% it has to do with the culture of Japan - I can say myself when I was living there, the longer I was there the more I 'became more Japanese' if that makes sense 🤣 I also worked at Disney in Japan so... Tourists/foreigners were way less common compared to the US parks and what they focused on were completely different too! (e.g. Japanese fans love the characters/merch!)
Most Jbeauty products in my country are more affordable compared to Kbeauty products. Used to use Hada Labo and Biore before, really love the Hada Labo's lotion. Recently change to my country local brand to support my local products which is much cheaper and work for my skin.
I always figured J-Beauty followed the Johnny's model of marketing- which is namely, we're going to anti-market 😂😂 But just to side with J-Beauty for a tiny minute (after agreeing with everything you said): I trust J-Beauty way more (is trust the right word tho, idk), than K-Beauty. K-Beauty is always hit or miss for me, and quite a few items make my skin break out, even if they are noted for being for sensitive skin or acne or dry skin etc., but I don't think J-Beauty has ever done that to me. Granted I'm an extremely cautious shopper, but I feel like I trust the J-Beauty labels more 😅😅 Also, while a tangentially related topic: For me when I was a kid in Japan, I never realised that even "mainstream" brands (think Maybelline) had products exclusive to Japan... When I left Japan I realised that outside of Japan, a tonne of BB creams and cushion foundations simply don't exist 🤦
yes yes! One of my favourite BB creams is from Maybelline - but only Japan, as well as a mascara of theirs. I love them but it's so hard to recommend them to people overseas 😭
@@TinaTanakaHarris omg would you consider doing a video along the lines of "What to buyif you (or a loved one) goes to Japan" and it just contains all the things that are a real hassle to get?? It's a niche topic but I'd love to hear it while watching you do your makeup or something like that idk ❤️❤️❤️
Something I didn't include but was pointed out by many of you is the packaging!
I do think a lot of the time K-Beauty have very cute or fancy packaging - whereas J-Beauty tends to be very simple and just there to serve it's purpose💡
totally agree.. i find it hard to throw away kbeauty product packaging because its soo pretty hahaha
Yes! The packaging seems dated. There are some minimal beautiful ones, very functional ones but I remember when I went to Japan and the most I saw were dated and very clinical looking. I think this fits in with both your comments and others about not wanting to appeal to western audiences. It doesn’t need to look pretty to people who don’t understand their culture or brand, and eliminate that fear. Although I think Japan is stuck in a bubble, and Korea is an emerging economy. Old money vs new money.
That translation thing is so annoying, but again why should they add Japanese? English products don’t unless they’re international version but never two on one.
Both beauty products are wonderful though and excel in different areas.
Thank you for pointing out that J beauty products are hard to find specially here in US.
I think a lot of the success of Kbeauty is really off the back of the international success of Kpop (and kdramas to some extent). Everyone sees these idols with their glass skin and immediately searches for the products they use. There are also soooooo many brand deals with idols.
i personally believe its got more to do with the explosion of the korean 10 step routine a couple years back, people just realized how much more affordable and high quality korean skin care is and the popularity just kept rising
10 years ago, I was watching Kdramas and listening to Kpop, and decided I wanted their skin. I'm not as avid a watcher or listener anymore. But I do still very much look at what's going on in Kbeauty, amongst other places. Because by golly, back then skin care in western countries was a disaster.
Not true, because I was using Korean and Japanese skin care way before K-POP blowing up they had a fan base before. But now I would say the global popularity is a lot from K-POP.
@@katarina7520 I agree, that's how I found out about kbeauty. And I was 16 with eczema so koreans gentle approach and affordable pricing was what really got me, and I haven't looked back!
This is referred to in Japan as "ガラパゴス化 (galapagos syndrome)" and it is not limited to the cosmetics industry, it can be applied to almost everything in Japan. Anyone who has worked with Japanese companies in Japan would observe that, except those concentrating on extending their business internationally, the majority of Japanese companies are just not interested in selling or promoting anything outside of Japan. Many Korean companies, on the other hand, keep the "global market" in mind from the start when creating new products, they actively try to sell their products internationally and invest heavily in worldwide marketing. So yea, it's not surprising that J beauty isn't as popular as K beauty, given that J beauty companies have never aspired to be popular outside of Japan.
True. Maybe Tina isn't aware of this because she's "westernized". Also, regarding products not being sealed, maybe she's just so used to people doing what she said like "has a little sniff" or "testing out" products right there in the store, which more often than not does not happen in Japan, if ever it does, they use the testers. Well at least for its citizens, because -- discipline, respect. Since Japanese products are primarily made for its Japanese citizens, they do not find seals and expiry dates necessary.
The irony is that J beauty was introduced to the western world earlier than K beauty.
Hada Labo appeared in Europe about 2 years ago. They are the same product/formulation but they changed the well know Hada Labo packaging so the product have sakura flowers on them and this way European customers know that they're buying Japanese cosmetics and I have to say Hada Labo has become very popular here.
this is soooo true. I'm into j fashion and i have to hire a physical person in japan to go to a store to buy the thing in person and then mail it to me because many of the brands don't even sell online (or only sell some of their products online, but not all). Or if there is a website they have to buy the item online for me, get it shipped to themselves in japan, and then ship it to me because even if they do sell online you have to have a Japanese address and a Japanese bank to use their website.
@@LexiLadonna that sounds awfully expensive
Their philosophy is : you wanna enjoy J Beauty, visit or live in Japan. We’re not gonna share our secrets 😎😎
which makes it so hard during current times where we can't travel there 😭😭😭😭
@@TinaTanakaHarris soooon I hope your borders will open as I can’t bloody wait to visit my sister and family in Melbourne. Keep safe ❤️
@@natsl3049 Officially opened yesterday! 🙂
@@TinaTanakaHarris you can travel soon next year, or this month. Japan eases their international border for traveller
Same goes for jpop and jculture in general. Japan has a vast population with strong national sales, they do not need foreign markets and want to protect their brands. But that's also unfortunate because history shows japanese brands can be highly successful abroad and earn trust thanks to reliable quality. I much prefer jbeauty over kbeauty, it's more affordable, ingredients seem more science based and the marketing not being aggressive and pretentious makes me trust the products more.
did you just say that it's more affordable? mam j-beauty products are hella expensive😂
@@mayomayo3111 that's not true at all, they are usually more affordable than kbeauty. Hada labo, muji, chifure, skin aqua, biore, hemmy k, joie cellule, cellcare, verdio, kose, sana... are all good and from cheap to moderately priced. Japan is not just about skII and shiseido.
@@philippillis9393 those Japanese brands cost about 10$~ Literally has same price with quality Korean skincare brands..
@@mayomayo3111 idk most kbeauty breands Ive tried arent super expensive but still more expensive than jbeauty and of much less quality. Only brand i liked was I'm from as mugwort is truly pretty effective.
@@philippillis9393 the skincare that get's trendy in foreign countries usually are not authentic, aren't a quality brand approved by the Korean consumers either. Most of them are rip off Korean themed products with no beneficial ingrdients.
Many people around the world trust Japan when it comes to quality and would love to use j-beauty if they had the option. It’s just unfortunate that they haven’t nailed the things you’ve brought up in the video. Hopefully that’ll change soon! Some major brands like Hada Labo, Rohto and Senka are building their presence is southeast asia and they’re available at major drugstores and online now. I personally am so in love with Japanese sunscreens, they have the best most wearable formulations and I hope the rest of the world could know how brilliant they are! That’s why I love your channel for helping spread the word on j-beauty ❤️
Curel face moisturizer and cleanser are available at Ulta.
I use pretty much all Hada Labo.
i bought some japanese cleansers and moisturizer on yesstyle without really knowing what to expect (bought them based on reviews) and they are SO GOOD
Check the ingredients on the back. If you know the fact that the brands you mentioned in above have a lot of harmful, chemical ingredients in it, you won't choose them any more. This is the reason Japanese cosmetics, especially selling abroad don't have expiry dates. After studying cosmetics ingredients, I never use Japanese cosmetics.
I really love the Senka facial wash! I personally like the foaminess of it.
Lately, I’m leaning towards more J-Beauty products but this is true! The price point is kinda frustrating. Its like 2-3x more expensive than the regular price. I think it is also confusing because they have lots of variants but with same packaging like Hada Labo. Some also consider packaging. Not important factor but a plus point if the packaging is nice. K-beauty has a lot of products with cute & pretty packaging.
Is it bad that I kinda like it’s not globally marketed?
I feel like the ever increasing need to make more money often ruins products. Burt’s Bees (not j beauty) had a lotion I LOVED and rebought for years- but after they were purchased by a larger company a lot of their products were reformulated with less great ingredients. $$ ruined some of their best stuff imo.
I don’t mind buying online or having to go to the Japanese grocery store to find a product if it means the product won’t be tainted by the insatiable need to make more money.
I think the most important point is the fact that they don't follow trends as they don't add any benefit to the customer and the product. Going international is expensive. The international customer is used to trends and want trends so they might be excited at first with Japanese products but pretty quickly they will complain it is not "innovative" enough and will look for other products unless J brands choose to follow other international brands and create new trends that don't bring anything just for consumerism reasons #money money money money.. TH-cam favors new content, so influencers have to create new content, viewers love new content, so brands in order to continue selling as much products as possible it to create new trends with new marketing ingredients or techniques so customers keep buying just because it is "new" . Plus from what I noticed J beauty is really effective but sensitive skin friendly. If you create stupid trends like we've see recently more and more actives, or more and more natural it does not work if your goal is to be effective while minimizing irritation. For all those reasons I understand why J beauty don't want to fall into what has become a very consumerism skincare market trap who is more interested by trends and marketing ingredients rather than long term result without adverse effects. So I understand why it's not worth it for them. In a long run they will loose their identity and I don't think their Japanese customer will be happy about that or they will choose to keep their identity and loose too much money so it's not worth it in my opinion.
This!!
Maybe they dont really intend to go international- big clue is on the packaging. Everything’s in Japanese, and they don’t put seals (products like these are probably intended for local use based on my experience from products i can just buy in the supermarkets here in the Philippines, most of them don’t have seals)
I personal prefer J- beauty products, but after returning from Japan and trying to contact a Japanese company about a product I couldn't find anywhere online I was told that they had no intention whatsoever of selling their product on the western market and I believe most Japanese companies feel that way. Their product is by far superior to k beauty products but they don't feel the need because they already believe their products are the best.
Why do you prefer them? Just curious. I use a lot of French and Korean skincare products but I use a Japanese toner which is really good! I wish I could try more Japanese makeup and skincare but they are difficult to find...
No, it is because most of them make enough money selling products within Japan.
because it’s their tradition of not exporting the best products out of Japan, from cosmetics, automobiles to agricultural products. Back in the days when Cle De Peau was only available when I started using Japanese cosmetics and I had to travel to Japan to get those. They are somewhat more open compared to say 10 years ago but the protectionism is still there. I’d say K cosmetics are more affordable and J cosmetics can be very pricy but very very well packed and I prefer J skincare to K skincare from my personal experience. Also Japan has some amazing make up brush brands that you cannot find on K beauty such as Hakuhodo and their brushes are so amazing unlike anything you used, be it Bobby Brown or Make Up Forever which I love…
They are not “far superior” anymore, because Korean women are smarter consumers who can force the industry to adopt better ingredients and leave out harmful ones.
@@absentminded7230 Truth, being so closed off can be really limiting
I wonder what your thoughts are on specific brands such as Shiseido, Shu Uemura and SK-II who have had a large presence internationally (some even before Kbeauty hit the international scene). It seems like there are certain Jbeauty brands that care to market to the international audience. For example I live in a suburb on Long Island and there's a Shiseido beauty salon here, which is kind of wild to me when juxtaposed with the majority of Jbeauty's presence (or lack thereof) in the US.
It always feels like Japan has its own bubble. Both for good and bad reasons. As youve said they never consider outside market bec they dont need to.. they rely on their own people as a loyal consumer. Also their population is also more than half of korea and even if the economy has stagnate its population has more buying powers.
The lack of translation definitely does make it hard to buy, but I love J-Beauty! Can't wait to go back to Japan to buy skincare! ❤👏
I can't wait alsooooo 😭
I've been using and repurchasing the J-beauty Canmake Mermaid sunscreen for 4 years on Amazon. In the same amount of time, I've also bought so many different K-beauty sunscreens when a TH-camr does a positive review. It's pretty telling that I've never repurchased any K-beauty. Really want to go to Japan to try more of their products.
Same
I totally agree. They didn't have much global advertisement for J-beauty and its also hard to find their products online. If I haven't even saw your vlogs i wouldn't even know some of their products. I wish I knew some of their products before I went to Japan back in 2019.
In my country, Japanese skincares products are far more expensive. While Korea brands, they competed with each other that really benefited us from price aspects. For example, I'm using super cheap sunblock from 3w clinic(korean brand) that only cost me about USD 2.
What country do u live in for sunscreen to be that cheap???
@@falteredbeauty8563 that's the point. 3w clinics suncreen is seriously cheap. Even compared to SEA suncreen (where cosmetics price is way, way cheaper), it's still cheaper
@@shintapp I've never heard of both brands & of always been trying to look for affordable sunscreens. Does this 3w clinic sunscreen leave a whitecast? If it doesn't, I might just have to buy it.
@@falteredbeauty8563 It doesn't. It's also non greasy, and it has a nice mild fragrance. You can find it online.
Hada Labo has just launched in Europe under the name Hada Labo Tokyo. It’s a separate arm of the brand to the actual Japanese brand I believe, but with English branding and ingredient lists to fall in line with EU regulations. It’s a much smaller selection than what’s available in Japan, but I would be interested to see if any more J Beauty brands go down this route and try and crack into the Western market.
As a consumer who loves to try out new skincare products. My experience with J-beauty is very limited to Biore sunscreen, cleansing oil, Senka Whip foam cleanser and Hada Labo Lotion which was recently available in Watsons store around 2018 ish. I still remember before 2018, the only way to get our hands on Hada Labo is when someone we know is traveling to Japan. In late 2018, I got my Senka Whip when I traveled in Taiwan before it went in store in 2019. I want to try more J-Beauty like the Miniso set or the sake toner/lotion but it's not available here or too expensive compare to the price in Japan.
I agree on the first couple points. it’s just like anime, music, cinema, etc - i love these. Japan makes great quality output with these but generally does not need to nor wants to try to market and expand outside the country. I used struggle finding translations and other content for the shows, movies, artists, and books I liked from Japan. The internet and fan translations help a lot.
Personally I like J-beauty more because they don’t shift with trendy products and ingredients as much as K-beauty. They make products with tried and true ingredients and stick with it, which is the type of thing consumers should be using for longterm skin health anyway.
I like Japanese products, because usually if it's good, it sticks around! But Korean products are constantly changing, it makes it hard to have consistency ! But yes, being outside of Japan (🇨🇦), it can be hard as anything to even simply obtain some products 😓
You pointed it out so well.
Good thing J-beauty brands are now more accessible here in the Philippines. Some J-beauty brands are now available online (legit store) as well in drugstores and supermarkets. I can also see their brands’ FB pages and IG accounts.
I think it's basically the marketing strategies. K-beauty is overall more international centric whereas most J-beauty brands are domestic centric except certain brands like Hada Labo. Language translation plays a big part too in the marketing aspect. It's a shame - tons of innovative ingredients/cosmetic science were originated from Japan (like most of the stable derivatives of vitamin A C etc) so I feel J-beauty is not getting the recognition deserved. K-beauty was inspired by those science and they made it more western-culture oriented (such as include more earthy natural ingredients alongside the science) thus well received. Of course, the boom of K-pop might have played a big part too.
I agree! I also think that it’s just SO japanese to be humble and lowkey about discovering such innovative skincare science. And it’s just SO k-pop to be loud, trendy and aggressive with marketing lol
I prefer J beauty simply because the products tend to be more sensitive skin friendly ie. fragrance and colorant free. However, it is frustrating because the options available to me are so little, and the ingredients list is in japanese so I can't check if there's a sneaky ingredient ; - ;
Completely agree
if you go to olive young in korea its the same lol its all the non popular products in korea that gain popularity overseas but my korean friends use brands that i never if rarely anyone overseas mention it lol
What about alcohol in them tho?
I agree 100%! I love the products I have used but wish I could try more!!
I use more J-beauty than K-beauty, but I can never get J-beauty in store. I agree that K-beauty is pushing harder for global expansion and they have more partnerships with bricks and mortar locations
I have always wondered this question. I thought it was just me leaning towards to k culture, I d love to try more j beauty and they don’t advertise their goodies as much as k beauty does and I don’t read Japanese so makes it harder for me to choose
I’m leaning more on JBeauty since I’m using shiseido for a looooooong time. Then I visited Japan, my eyes opened with more than just shiseido & now using Kosè Medicated Sekkisei especially days where I have dry skin. JBeauty is eesssspensive however it does the job, my cheapest brand that actually using now is Hada Labo, Fancl & suisai for powder cleanser… ♥️
Tinaaaaaa this is honestly such a good video, spitting the truth about what frustrates all of us. Thank you so much. Let’s write a letter to at least all of our faves and politely ask them to change this.
i agree with you being j-beauty not as popular as kbeauty. i get to know more j-beauty from watching your videos but i have to admit i didnt realised there's actually alot of j-beauty products sold in local drugstore compare to kbeauty 😂 i think it's bcoz as u mentioned, the packaging, it is not appealing at all compare to kbeauty.. i will walk past through them in the shop and go straight to kbeauty ones 😅
and again: the marketing, i hardly see any ads on j-beauty other than shiseido which are extra expensive products...
I totally agree with you on every aspect you mentioned. Especially the non-existing translations on the products made it impossible for me to shop j-beauty products when I visited Japan. Now thanks to your channel and yesstyle I was able to try a few products and I love them. But without that help it would be impossible. When it comes to that non-existing seal on some products it isn’t that problematic for me personally since we have that in Germany too. At least on some products, so I’m used to it. However I get your point.
Haha yes! All of this - what speaks to me especially is the “no English” (I live in Tokyo and have the luxury of JP husband so he helps me with some of the translations - bless him) 😅😅😅
Also I feel like Japan has their own trends in beauty - and they are more seasonal rather that the new global trends.. still love it tho! Hadalabo shirojyun rich for life haha 😂
I am from Russia, and we have a comparable amount of Korean and Japanese products in local stores with translated stickers on them with expiry date added if it didn't have it and normal prices, here Japanese products cost much lower than the same goods at Yesstyle. But we are neighbors from the East coast, and when it comes to trading, Russia is often considered to be an Asian market, so we get more of these. And you can easily find many Japanese products in countries like Thailand, Singapore, etc. It would be more correct to say that they pretty much ignore the Western market, but it's not hard to buy Japanese products outside of Japan. when it comes to Asia.
In terms of skin care I have no preference, I like both K and J-beauty, but I think that Japanese hair products are much nicer, at least they work better on my hair than Korean ones.
Agree. I live in Indonesia and we can access J-beauty products like Hada Labo, Biore, DHC cleansing oil, etc just fine. They're such popular products too.
@@sasstsuma1467 I know, I’m just laughing at her 😂 finally they have the same struggle as us to western products
It's because of your regulations. I used to work for a multinational drink company and all our products needed to have special labels with Russian translation, ingredients, expiry date etc. And we needed to get the labels approved by the Russian team, the regulations changed so often.
Some of the points made in this video could be applied to other things like music, movies, and dramas. A lot of times it's so hard to access these forms of Japanese entertainment overseas. Japanese record labels don't even upload full music videos to TH-cam sometimes, just a one or two minute clip. I feel like the only thing that has become somewhat easy to access overseas from Japan is anime, maybe manga too, but to a lesser scale.
Like mentioned in the video, I feel that whoever is producing these forms of entertainment/skincare, etc., in Japan just don't feel the need to push it to overseas markets. Before I was living in Japan, I used to scour the internet for ways to watch Japanese dramas and listen to my favorite Japanese music. Now that I live here, I rarely watch Japanese dramas or listen to Japanese music. I basically only listen to Kpop now lol.
i so agree with the marketing reason. i actually prefer so many jbeauty products even if those are much more expensive.
Totally agree with your points but have to say that I also kind of appreciate the "lack of trend" of J-Beauty. K-Beauty often really overwhelms me with the sheer number of different innovations the have to offer. When I went shopping in Japan I did not even bother to look at the labels properly I was just grabbing everything based on you recommendation :D
I get this too! I would even fall in love with K-Beauty product and by the time I'm close to finishing it and go to find it again... it's gone 😅
awwwww I hope my recommendations worked for you too!!!
Actually, the population of Japanese here is giving us a lot of selection of J-Beauty in Singapore and they are cheaper than K-beauty. I have also seen the same in a Bangkok high-end supermarket. Being Chinese, it does help with the translation of some Kanji characters. My number 1 hate is a lot of Japanese products come with high alcohol content. Also, some Japanese brands are already so well known for such a long time that people tend to forget they are Japanese brands, for example, Kose, Shiseido, SKII. I have seen people mistook Shiseido as K-beauty.
9:40 most products in tubes, sprays, and bottles in Canada don’t have seals either and it does make me nervous sometimes, but more so regarding sprays that people test out and mean you don’t get a full bottle. It’s hit or miss sometimes, like lotions have the bottle that locks until you open it but shampoo bottles are just open.
J beauty are like hidden gems. Quality over popularity.
I’m Japanese , and as for skincare, I trust my country’s brand . That’s because the company is research for Japanese women’s skins so well . K beauty is so pretty and makeup is fun ! Japanese is not interested in selling out the products to the western market. K beauty is good . I wish we have Sephora in Japan . I love western makeup ( eyeshadows , mascaras and such ) they are affordable and so pigment !!
I will defintiely agree with you on eyeshadows - haha I could never find heavily pigmented eyeshadows in Japan!
Formula wise, The Majority of J-beauty contains Parabens, they use Alcohol a lot too, I guess it’s because of their humid weather.
They use plastic packaging (earth quake proof?). I feel like their products are designed specifically to use in the region. Living outside J, we can use prettier skincare with cleaner ingredients, while people who live inside Japan don’t use imported skincare since they’re not that suitable. I think that’s why companies don’t bother to market globally.
But what I love about J-b is the minimalist routine, and how easy to choose according to skin type.
Edit: this is what I've observed, doesn't mean J beauty is not good. They just don't go with the trend and if you like J beauty, JUST USE IT! I still use J products along with products from other countries
Parabens isn't bad. it's one of the safest preservatives out there.
@@genshinF2Play still, it’s a controversy ingredient and in other weather like in my country, my non-parabens products hadn’t spoiled before I finished them
Natural or ‘Clean beauty’ sounds appealing but according to science it’s nothing but a baseless marketing tactic. Lab muffin explains it very well here: th-cam.com/video/wkWX2AXNuxg/w-d-xo.html she talks about the appeal to nature principle and how natural =\= better. She even invites an actual cosmetic toxicologist to explain the science and debunk myths about stigmatized ingredients like parabens and sunscreen filters. I use both K and J beauty but i found that a lot of korean products are loaded with unnecessary random botanicals just to seem more natural and ‘clean’. And skincare uses a ton of plastic regardless of country. Even eco-friendly brands use plastic.
@@j3j3monbuster Yes, “natural” doesn’t automatically mean better or safer. But you know there’s a sweet spot in-between, don’t you?
@@minhtrang1991 Of course. But going natural just for the sake of it is baseless. Beside, a lot of times, companies would basically just replace paraben with another synthetic preservative so the products would still not be "natural"
Maybe I’m missing something, but I find it extremely difficult to find cruelty free J-beauty products. Not all K-beauty products are cruelty free of course, but there is a decent range of them that is readily available at a good price point
Is mainly bc lots of j beauty brands has counters in Chinese department stores
J beauty is not tested on animals
@@epifanny most of them does actually
@@mayomayo3111 not true
@@epifanny Japanese cosmetic brands are offering quite amount of vegan products recently, but their authenticity is being questioned for one reason that they export to china.
I agree 100% with everything specially about lack of English words on packaging. Living in Tokyo, I have to rely on your channel for information about products. I have just accepted the fact that I will need to get better at Japanese but sometimes I do wish there was some guidance.
J beauty is exclusive, Much better quality & ingredients vs K beauty. K beauty is mostly strategic marketing. I am true fan of all Japanese sunscreens. They work so well on my skin, most skin agree too. Prices are also reasonable. Hyaluronic acid even introduced first in shisheido product long before others starting now. Hada labo range can never go wrong.
Oooo this was a really good video! I completely agree with you on all your points and while I’m less bothered by the expiry date side of things, I don’t understand why they can’t seal products more efficiently. I’m just grateful I live in Japan and can get most of the skincare I want from my local drugstore that is literally 2 minutes from my apartment and not have to deal with unnecessarily marked up prices.
I totally agree with you.. and i love your lippie by the way.. you always wear lippies that totally suits you :) love you Tina!
I live in Thailand and J-beauty products have been a staple here since a very long time you can find them everywhere and we even have several japanese drugstore chains like matsukiyo, tsuruha, cosme store etc. which offer a wide variety of japanese brands apparently. K-beauty is also very popular among teenagers at the moment but J -beauty products in general are much easier to find and are more widely known imo. Brands like hadalabo, bifesta we can literally get them in 7-11
Definitely agree with your rationale! I have to do quite a bit more research to find out about J-Beauty (though your channel really helps!). I recently ordered a lotion from Amazon Japan called Angel's Beauty Skin Moisturizing Lotion based on the description/ingredients. I could not, however, find any information about it anywhere else. It’s my skincare mystery lol. Despite some barriers I do love J-Beauty and very much appreciate your channel. Thank you 🙏 💕
J-Beauty 🙌🏼 never had bad skin reaction.
In Malaysia , it's so much easier to purchase Japanese beauty products (Hada Labo, Biore, senka etc) in affordable prices because they are usually sold in local pharmacies .
Heck I even knew about SKII at a very young age (8-9 years old) . I'm 23 now .
Meanwhile for k-beauty , much more expensive and it does not work for me . I never repurchase any of the k-beauty products that I bought ( except for sunscreen and aloe vera gel) .
I definitely agree ! Japanese beauty is more refine in many ways !
This make me realize Shiseido is among the only Japanese beauty company that is kinda global but that they have doing that for many many years
Think about kpop vs jpop too. I barely saw jpop artists try to promote outside of japan. Fair there is world tours etc they know they have fans across the world, however japanese music is usually made just with japanese in mind while kpop is trying to (at least currently) thinking about global market. I really always just thought the struggle with jbeauty is they truly just market to the locals and don't feel the need to cater to anyone else. Which is fine... but does make jbeauty not as accessible.
Also, Japan does not have regulations on animal testing. It's not really a concept there. The only thing I can find that has any information on the cruelty-free status of a brand is from JAVA.
Ooo yes very good point I forgot to mention!
this is interesting, thanks for sharing your take on it. I think it's also about the packaging design. as much as I love some J-beauty products, I don't think the packaging design is their forte. K-beauty has more appealing, aesthetically pleasing designs for sure.
From a very personal view. I just enjoy j- beauty more. I guess my only issue is the translation, as you said; very difficult to find. Specially when you want to try new brands or products. HOWEVER, their formulations, again in my view, are sometimes superior. Never had problems with their packaging. Always, renewing their formulations, sometimes improving them. At least in Europe, even though j- beauty is not so popular, we can get quite a good selection of regular j brands through STYLEVANA and yesstyle. Even IHERB has a small selection . I still enjoy k beauty... sunscreens... only Japanese!!!!.. greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱
I’ll be there in 3 west which beauty brands are there ?
I notice that this is the same for jpop vs K-pop; Korea markets for international and is an extroverted country compared to Japan.
Hi Tina. So glad that I found ur channel. I too think J beauty are under rated. I lived in the region where I do get a good mix of j beauty pdt but u are right abt the prices. It’s more expensive here then if I purchase it in Japan itself. Also there are lack of TH-camrs for j pdts. My biggest challenge is to understand them and their usage cos of the lack of info in english. Whereas k pdts did very well in this aspect. So I end up having a lot more k pdts in my drawers. Pls continue to show us what j beauty can offer. Love it!
Hi tina. I hope you can do a video recommending us cheap j-beauty skincare products to buy! 😅
Yes please!
I've been using J Beauty of years as I went to Japan every year in uni and also lived and studied there as I love Japan, gaming and anime etc. But I only discovered K Beauty in 2020 with lockdown, otherwise I was using Hada Labo, Nameraka sana, Shiseido, Kose and Rosette for many many years which I bought when I was in Japan, or on ebay and harajuku culture Japan which had a lot J beauty. Now I use both, but I still use more J Beauty only because I like Japan a lot, and their huge range of 美白 products and also prefer Japanese sunscreens. I prefer K Beauty for the essences, ampules, sheet masks and sleeping masks which seem to be unique to Korean beauty. Some western brands are not sealed, like all the body lotions and soaps. I see people giving them whiff all the time in the store
Hey girl! I totally agree with you about the sealing, especially when we look at big brands, like SK-II and it's products. I would really appreciate a little cover on the top of the item that I'm paying 'well enough', let's put like that. ;)
YES TO THE MARKED-UP PRICE 😭 I've been wanting to try out some J-Beauty products but they would only leave a hole in my wallet
Japan is so trusting 😳. Here in the US everything has to be wrapped up in some way (usually multiple ways, like the foil over the opening and plastic shrink wrap on the outside). But we're also the country that had someone add something into aspirin bottles, and I think someone injected stuff into drinks too...so you know, people are scary and we have a lot of the crazies here apparently.
right? I remember when I lived in the States (it would sometimes happen here in AUS too) where even if they were wrapped up and everything - people would open the packaging, take a dip and just leave it on the shelf 😑😑😑 legit never happens in Japan haha
I seems that it is lots of trust in people in Japan, I think that speaks volumes about the culture which is good, plus it is less garbage not using more seals etc.
What people forget is that shipping is VERY expensive! Seems to be getting worst every day. Taxes can be extremely high as well depending on the country. All of this has to be factored in to the price when purchasing products outside of Japan.
For me, its because there's waaaay more kbeauty products that are safer for darker skin.
I use kbeauty because is a safer with no ittitating alcohols, fragrance and oils and it actually helps my skin with acne and keeps it healthy.
I've looked for some Japanese ones but there's not really any thats safe for darker skin other than hada labo, even to which soe peoples skin may react.
High my God I'm so jealous of Full cabinet
I love every single products I see there😂😍
I definitely agree with you Tina.
Love from India.
I like that Japanese brands are more focused on loyalty and improving their formulas. Kbeauty isn't bad but I find a lot of their products feel more like fads to me. I have never repurchased a K-beauty product but I have repurchased and become loyal to some j-beauty products.
@Trinity M The other person was literally just expressing their experience and opinion with the products. You came off as more judgmental to me
@Trinity M ??
In the middle of class rn, but had to come watch ur upload asap! 😅💖
awwww you are the sweetest! 💕 I hope you got back to studying after watching 😏 hehe
I don’t mind paying for quality products but do need to know what I am paying for. Instead of listing ingredients one often get some marketing spiel about tradition or in-depth unspecified research. Sometimes it’s just nonsensical like Biore’s Barrier Me which protects your skin like a lotus flower huh? In reality It’s a good physical sunscreen with silicon as a first ingredient forming a protective barrier from dust and pollutants hence Barrier Me LOL.
Great video and agree on the points you raised, especially the lack of expiry and PAO! Also the little montage of you was too cute and funny :)
But i do loooove j beauty.. i think they're consistent.. u could still buy your fav item yrs ago until the present time.. quality item.. and it's really effective.. downside only is that it's difficult to purchase most especially if you're not living in japan.. and it becomes costly because of the shipping.
I have a very sensitive skin. Even Cetaphil gentle cleanser & bioderma sensibio gel moussant irritate me. Then I tried COSRX Salicylic acid daily gentle cleanser and it's amazing. But since my skin is dry, I have to moisturize after washing. I tried bioderma sensibio lotion but it makes my skin oily after a few hours.. then I tried Etude House Soonjung 2x barrier intensive cream. It's really lightweight and calms the redness. I also love COSRX ABC toner. It's fragrance free and doesn't make my skin angry. So for now I believe in Korean skincare supremacy hahahaha. They're (at least cosrx, Soojung, Benton) so transparent about the ingredients, less gimmicky, and I believe are backed up with newer research. But I also love my jbeauty sunscreen from illuminare, I use it on my hands (it irritates my face). If anybody knows some sunscreen for sensitive skin please let me know! (I prefer no alcohol, no fragrance, and no HA)
Basically because Japan is a group of islands and Korea is not. 🤣🤣🤣 (the state of mind is to enjoy remaining isolated). Hada Labo is my favorite Asian brand but one has to deserve it ! Thank god we have your channel to better understand the lines. 😃
I agree. This is a well thought after video
On one hand it's nice to see some companies that don't want to be bigger and better than anyone else, that are content within their local market. Not everything needs to be on a global level and increase profits at a perpetual rate. On the other hand it sucks if you really like something or want to try something, but can't get it.
I love jbeauty since it works well for people with sensitivities, but getting your hands on it is so hard.
I wish Japan was more open to international shipping and of course have product details in English bon their websites at least.
For now I'll still struggle since it's true love, but I hope it becomes easier...
youre soooo right! cuz the jbeauty with english and heavy international marketing (sk ii) become sooo big they're like cult status
Fact! Thank you for your vdo :)
K-beauty often has fragrance in it and I am sensitive to fragrance. Causes migraines and redness. But the Koreans are really pros at marketing. I often reach for Japanese beauty products because they have similar results, ingredients and are often mindful that not everyone can tolerate fragrance (including essential oils). There are a few fragrance free J beauty products but I have yet to find a fragrance free cc or bb cream in the Korean market. And the one or two that I've seen often have shades too dark for me (Klair's Mochi BB Cushion for an example is fragrance free but their latest shade is tan on me) which is weird because I thought Koreans like being fair.
Something I also noticed about Japanese culture in general is that I feel they are stuck in the late 90s. Their famous Johnny Boys are still popular, as far as I am aware, they havent changed their style in anyway. They are still keeping true the same J-Rock aesthetics with the jagged layered hair. Their music has not adapted to the world's stage; dance and rock music is still the prevalent music genre over there whereas elsewhere, it is now all about K-pop music styles that incorporate a variety of pop, rap and r&b styles. It's like a time machine in Japan. Their music choices, dramas, product marketing have not deviated much from the late 90's and early 2000s aesthetics. But our society is ever changing and I think Korean companies are aware of this and adapt according to modern cultural trends. That's why they are successful. Korean companies are always trying to push the envelope and try something new that will attract a larger audience. While popular Japanese companies like Kanebo Kate, Kao have not changed their aesthetics since the 2000s.
Lol yeah, i always like to compare JBeauty to Jpop, they don't care about going global😂
That said i have my trusted Jbeauty shops that sells with reasonable prices and decent shipping cost so all is good💗💗💗💗💗
I think I agree on all your points. Like everyone mentioned in the comment, they cater more towards their own people. They formulated products taking consideration of environment in Japan, hence it is easier to regulate the formulation and expected result. Also, on the expire date, I guess they expect us to use it right away once you have bought it while these days, we tend to keep our supplies "in stock". Gosh my stocks are pilling up too much to keep up with the current trend. Yes I blame u kbeauty 🤣🤣🤣🤣
This is such a brilliant video! I'd like to second this by saying I'd read an article on the BBC that Japan, despite it's brilliance, is so reluctant to change and in an ever changing environment where you need to evolve it could result in their decline and eventual downfall, sadly!
Regarding your last point about Japanese brands not putting expiration dates on their products...I've noticed this a bit (I live in Tokyo) but what bothers me even more is that a lot of their products (food products included), don't actually have their weights listed! So much for a scientific/accurate country...
not sealing beauty/skincare products is wild… especially seeing how much packaging is used in japanese products (Especially food)
agree with the price point being a main factor for j-beauty’s unpopularity - i think related to this is perhaps there are larger korean communities outside of korea than there are japanese communities outside of japan so there is more demand for affordable korean products in general (not just skincare but also goods and food products)
so agree... they over-package and individually wrap food but can't put a seal on a cleanser? 🤣 maybe they think since you don't consume it it's not as... bad? haha
totally agree with you!!!
I have more jbeauty products than kbeauty ones. I was never disappointed by J products. My Holy grail is the Shirojyun premium whitening lotion by Hada Labo. This changed my skin so much!
I think that the marketing issue aside, J-beauty products are quite expensive although they have good formulations. In addition, K-beauty products are advertised in various ways on an aggressive front internationally even via K-pop stars and actors and actresses. This is quite different from J-beauty which might not use celebrities to endorse them comparatively.
Really interesting. I never knew why it was so hard to find.
Regarding the lack of seals on packages, I always thought this was related to the Japanese culture of trust and appropriate behavior (sorry, I don’t know how to say it…). I imagine a Japanese person wouldn’t think of using the product before buying it, etc. I personally prefer they do it their way. I don’t think every country needs to always adapt their standards of behavior or production to other countries (like US and Australia…who often kind of demand things be done their way…and I’m American so no I am not trying to offend anyone, I’m talking about systemic behaviors or thoughts). Plus, additional seals, etc., drives up the product cost. Haven’t you ever really asked yourself why products can sell so cheaply in Japan???? It always amazes me how nobody gives this any thought.
I tend to have mixes of products that I liked from J and K beauty, nowadays I like exploring Japanese products more because I find that Korean products became less fun than it used to, I remember as a teen seeing so many colourful Kbeauty products but nowadays it's all the same just in a different packaging so that killed my enthusiasm over them, not to mention 90% of Korean products that I've tried since my teenage years are not Fungal Acne safe, but the good thing is it kept my overspending in check, plus the globally praised wet Glass Skin look is something that I despised since childhood (it also looked like those videos where girls put lube and their boyfriend semen on their face), I still have some products that I checked from K beauty but the love for it definitely diminished like 80%,
And frankly I don't regret going back to my enthusiasm over JBeauty (plus some western brands) products again
I for one leans toward J products and has been for many years. They believe beauty towards natural, using natural ingredients, minimalist makeup and skin care regime (light, flawless skin) that allow one to keep good skin for many years ahead (ie into your mature age). They believe in prevention (wear your sunscreen), not hide under products that promise temporary effects ( eg dewy makeup) or use plastic surgery. You are right about the marketing part - look at their Disneyland, they do not need tourists to sustain it 😂. I believed they dun use international influencers cos the locals mostly recognise and believe in their own artists ( maybe except Shiseido who is moving towards international the recent years). I read somewhere that Japan Cosmetic Industry association has a much stricter regulations standards than Korea. You are also right about the seal - they do not need that. Cos the locals know it is not polite to open a new product if they are not buying it. It just like if you buy fruits in Japan, it is a taboo if you press on it, pick it up, smell it and put it back…..etc. You can only eyeball the fruit, take the one on top and put in your basket ( cos their products are guarantee fresh with no bruises). I feel it is the difference in culture that leads the Japanese to do what they are doing, or you can say - what they are not doing. 😀
oh 1000% it has to do with the culture of Japan - I can say myself when I was living there, the longer I was there the more I 'became more Japanese' if that makes sense 🤣
I also worked at Disney in Japan so... Tourists/foreigners were way less common compared to the US parks and what they focused on were completely different too! (e.g. Japanese fans love the characters/merch!)
your J beauty shines
Yes all points are true
Most Jbeauty products in my country are more affordable compared to Kbeauty products. Used to use Hada Labo and Biore before, really love the Hada Labo's lotion. Recently change to my country local brand to support my local products which is much cheaper and work for my skin.
I prefer J-Beauty products, and they do have a certain elegance to them.
Hi Tina. I live in Germany I want to ask what are the best J Beauty products which I can purchase online. Thank you I would appreciate your help. 🥰😍😘
Germany also doesn't have a seal on everything
But I like it this way
You can test the smell of shampoo and lotion
I always figured J-Beauty followed the Johnny's model of marketing- which is namely, we're going to anti-market 😂😂
But just to side with J-Beauty for a tiny minute (after agreeing with everything you said): I trust J-Beauty way more (is trust the right word tho, idk), than K-Beauty. K-Beauty is always hit or miss for me, and quite a few items make my skin break out, even if they are noted for being for sensitive skin or acne or dry skin etc., but I don't think J-Beauty has ever done that to me. Granted I'm an extremely cautious shopper, but I feel like I trust the J-Beauty labels more 😅😅
Also, while a tangentially related topic:
For me when I was a kid in Japan, I never realised that even "mainstream" brands (think Maybelline) had products exclusive to Japan... When I left Japan I realised that outside of Japan, a tonne of BB creams and cushion foundations simply don't exist 🤦
yes yes! One of my favourite BB creams is from Maybelline - but only Japan, as well as a mascara of theirs. I love them but it's so hard to recommend them to people overseas 😭
@@TinaTanakaHarris omg would you consider doing a video along the lines of "What to buyif you (or a loved one) goes to Japan" and it just contains all the things that are a real hassle to get?? It's a niche topic but I'd love to hear it while watching you do your makeup or something like that idk ❤️❤️❤️