beauty drinks - do they have them at your local drugstore?
Maybe it's the legacy of my small-town-upbringing, but I was quite surprised the first time I saw this:
A refrigerator shelf in a drugstore dedicated solely to beauty products applied by... drinking. They are usually positioned right next to diet supplements and energy drinks, so you might overlook them at first. But since we're in Japan, sooner or later you're bound to realize the pink glow... yes, as they are targeted at ladies, those beauty drinks usually pretty much always come in pink bottles.
In Poland, it is naturally widely known that substances like collagen or aloe vera extract don't get through the foreskin, but creams containing them still sell very well, marketing seems to count on the fact girls either don't know, or want to believe in their cosmetics anyway. In Japan (?) though, with new knowledge came new solution, and it lives in small bottles.
The drinks could be roughly divided into two categories: skin nutrition/moistening and whitening. The first contain collagen, the second are usually based on hyaluronan. They may come with some additional vitamins, mostly C and various Bs, but in 9 cases out of 10 you won't even realize that until you read detailed contents on the back of the bottle. As I said, supplements, vitamin drinks, and hangover medicine have their own shelf.
Does it work?
Honestly? No idea, but I'm tempted to believe that it does.
I have very dry skin and a tendency for allergic reactions to life itself, but since I came to Japan, my problems significantly decreased. They didn't disappear completely (they do have pollens, animals, dust and chemicals here as well, duh), but it seems my skin got stronger. Additionally, when my mum and best friend visited me last summer, mum realized instantly that I had very good complexion. However, this might actually be more thanks to me developing a habit of eating aloe.
Still, it's impossible not to realize Japanese women usually have very clean skin, and believe me - it's not because they were born that way. At least not all of them. Take a look at people on the streets and you'll see acne cases painful to the eye. There will simply be less of them, and next to none in the target group of those beauty drinks companies - young working women.
Of course young working women generally tend to look good because they simply have to. They use a lot of cosmetics, they wear make up, finally the fact they are successful may be a result of their good looks, not the cause. There's no way to tell how influential beauty drinks are, not without some actual research anyway.
The bottom line is: no guarantee, but if I can choose between a collagen cream I know won't work but for my foreskin, and a collagen drink that at least in theory should make a difference, I choose the latter.
Are they affordable?
That's another story. From as cheap as 178 yen (the biggest bottle on the picture) for a plastic bottle of a beverage produced by LOTTE (sweets manufacturer) with an actual fruit juice, meant as something halfway between a beauty drink and a simple refreshment, to as much as over 300 yen per 50 ml bottle signed by some top Japanese cosmetics company.
It looks like a good deal compared to creams, but one cream lasts much longer, and those drinks, to be effective, should probably be consumed on a regular basis. On the bottle of Shiseido's Collagen drink it says you should drink one bottle a day. If I were to buy one every day (for 210 yen), I'd reach the price of a top shelf face cream in a little over two weeks.
So no, it's definitely not an alternative to daily skin care. But once in a while, it is an alternative for that big purin and whipped cream dessert you were about to put in your basket...
Taste
Nothing to enjoy. The producers do whatever they can to make those drinks actually taste like something (often like peach), but they mostly fail. However, it's usually only 50ml, and if you drink it cooled down, the taste won't bother you.
Are there beauty drinks in your countries? Are they popular?
A refrigerator shelf in a drugstore dedicated solely to beauty products applied by... drinking. They are usually positioned right next to diet supplements and energy drinks, so you might overlook them at first. But since we're in Japan, sooner or later you're bound to realize the pink glow... yes, as they are targeted at ladies, those beauty drinks usually pretty much always come in pink bottles.
In Poland, it is naturally widely known that substances like collagen or aloe vera extract don't get through the foreskin, but creams containing them still sell very well, marketing seems to count on the fact girls either don't know, or want to believe in their cosmetics anyway. In Japan (?) though, with new knowledge came new solution, and it lives in small bottles.
The drinks could be roughly divided into two categories: skin nutrition/moistening and whitening. The first contain collagen, the second are usually based on hyaluronan. They may come with some additional vitamins, mostly C and various Bs, but in 9 cases out of 10 you won't even realize that until you read detailed contents on the back of the bottle. As I said, supplements, vitamin drinks, and hangover medicine have their own shelf.
Does it work?
Honestly? No idea, but I'm tempted to believe that it does.
I have very dry skin and a tendency for allergic reactions to life itself, but since I came to Japan, my problems significantly decreased. They didn't disappear completely (they do have pollens, animals, dust and chemicals here as well, duh), but it seems my skin got stronger. Additionally, when my mum and best friend visited me last summer, mum realized instantly that I had very good complexion. However, this might actually be more thanks to me developing a habit of eating aloe.
Still, it's impossible not to realize Japanese women usually have very clean skin, and believe me - it's not because they were born that way. At least not all of them. Take a look at people on the streets and you'll see acne cases painful to the eye. There will simply be less of them, and next to none in the target group of those beauty drinks companies - young working women.
Of course young working women generally tend to look good because they simply have to. They use a lot of cosmetics, they wear make up, finally the fact they are successful may be a result of their good looks, not the cause. There's no way to tell how influential beauty drinks are, not without some actual research anyway.
The bottom line is: no guarantee, but if I can choose between a collagen cream I know won't work but for my foreskin, and a collagen drink that at least in theory should make a difference, I choose the latter.
Are they affordable?
That's another story. From as cheap as 178 yen (the biggest bottle on the picture) for a plastic bottle of a beverage produced by LOTTE (sweets manufacturer) with an actual fruit juice, meant as something halfway between a beauty drink and a simple refreshment, to as much as over 300 yen per 50 ml bottle signed by some top Japanese cosmetics company.
It looks like a good deal compared to creams, but one cream lasts much longer, and those drinks, to be effective, should probably be consumed on a regular basis. On the bottle of Shiseido's Collagen drink it says you should drink one bottle a day. If I were to buy one every day (for 210 yen), I'd reach the price of a top shelf face cream in a little over two weeks.
So no, it's definitely not an alternative to daily skin care. But once in a while, it is an alternative for that big purin and whipped cream dessert you were about to put in your basket...
Taste
Nothing to enjoy. The producers do whatever they can to make those drinks actually taste like something (often like peach), but they mostly fail. However, it's usually only 50ml, and if you drink it cooled down, the taste won't bother you.
Are there beauty drinks in your countries? Are they popular?