SK-II Skin ReflnlngTreatment uom!, £55)

Newto the UK,SKU's celebrity fans includeKate Moss and Sadie Frost. It firms, enhances

and regenerates the face, and puts back

nutrients removed by cleansing

Shlseldo Relaxing Bath Tablets (box of eight,

£s6.50) and Shu Uemura Pleasure of Japanese

Bath (s80ml, £S5)

Create a Japanese hot spring in your own home and

reap the benefits of relaxing aromatherapy

Kanebo Sensal La Creme (/fom!, £360)

"How much?" We hear you cry as you pick

yourself up off the floor. Just how good can a

face cream be? Despite research going on for

over14 years, can the price really be justified?

"One 'miracle' sHmmingproduct is a tape )IOUtieWhile few of us would spend the price of a weekend away on a pot of slap, the technical

innovations that the Japanese cosmetics firms have looked into are intriguing. There's

a trend in Japan for pale, white skin. So almost every skin care product contains a sun

protection, and 25% of them contain some kind of bleaching agent.

What goes into Japanese potions is hard to gauge because there are very few

regulations in Japan, and many claims cosmetic companies make don't have to be

backed up. Recent top-selling products in Japan include a mineral water thaI's said to

smooth the skin, facial moisturisers that stimulate the lymph system and therefore reduce

cellulite - and a miracle slimming product involving a tape that you tie round your finger.

Some astonishing products from Japan have bucked the miracle-fix trend, and one

that's making headlines in Asia is a slimming lotion by Shiseido. Itworks by producing the

smell of grapefruit or pepper, which helps release a hormone that encourages the burning

of fat. In tests, 20 women who used their scented body lotion forone month lost an

average of 1.1kg (we're not kidding). Sniffing yourself slimmer's a novel development to

say the least, but there's no UK release date as yet.

Very often, the demand for technical innovations in Japan is overwhelming. Last year,

concerned by the low sales of deodorants in the country (Oriental skins have fewer pores

'4 WHSMITH FIT +HEAlTHY

Mister Mascara Formulash Japanese (£12.50)

The perfect tool for geisha-girl eyes

MyMy Spot and Blemish Treatment Stickbom!, £4.99)

Zap those spots with this fantastically

packaged stick

Shu Uemura Depsea Water

(soml. £7.50; 150m!, £12.50)

This skin hydrator contains minerals taken from

350m beneath the sea. There are nine flower extractsto choose from, depending on your mood

... ..

WORLDBE.AUTV

SK-II FacialTreatment Mask

(£8, slxfor £40)Boosts radiance and moisture levels. It can

be used once or twice a week as a natural

complementto otherSK-1i skincare products

round \,c LII ~'nger that ssaid t., hfotp 1I0lJ t.h~ d pound~

and so sweat less than Caucasian), companies came up with deodorising tissue wipes.

Within four months of its launch, the first brand on the market sold eight million packs.

Skin care was the largest cosmetics and toiletries sector in the Asian Pacific area

throughout 2000, according to Euromonitor, who forecast that skin care sales will grow

in Japan by 12% over the period of 2000-5.

Will we follow suit? Well, we're more cynical about extreme promises. Euromonitor says

our main beauty concern is wrinkly skin, yet only 3% of us use an anti-ageing product.

One person who isn't happy with this boom is Anita Roddick, the founder of the Body Shop

empire. She famously claimed that anti-ageing creams were 'complete pap" and accused

the cosmetics industry of perpetuating a "scandalous lie". It seems the 97% of Brits

without a pot of anti-wrinkle cream agree with her.But on the other hand, it seems our skin care sales are forecast to climb by 14% over

the 2000-5 period. Sales of beauty products in the UK reached £466 million in 2000

compared with £314 million in 1995. So maybe we're becoming more like the Japanese.

Though if women there can spend £300 on a face cream that promises miracles,

Japanese cosmetics companies will need Harry Potter to conjure up the right kind of

spells to get us to part with that amount of dosh. .

t ~I i[~

Kanebo 01635 46 362www.kanebo.co.jp/engUshMister Mascara Mail order

02073948800MyMy Available at Boots08450708090www.wellbeing.comShlseldo 020 7630 1515www.shiseido.co.uk

Shu Uemura 020 7493 4349SK-II 0800 072 1771WWW.Sk2.CO.uk

WHSMITH FIr +HEAlTHY 95