We tried the weirdest Japanese and Korean beauty products

Hi. I’m Rhiannon. My face is basically an oil-factory, so when I heard that Japanese and Korean beauty products can dramatically improve your skin, I was very excited. Asian Beauty, or ‘AB’, is slow but surely filtering into Western markets, meaning we could all soon have the pristine skin of Korea’s K-Pop stars.

That aside, some of the products are slightly bizarre. We decided to put them to the test – from creepy sheet masks to washing your face with a bag, we’ve officially now seen it all. By ‘we’, I mean that my cousin Gaby was visiting, so I decided to slap some stuff on her face too. For science. All products are under £10 and available online.

Stick-on winged eyeliner

Rhiannon: These are such a cool idea, I laughed when I found these in the shop but was secretly really excited, because I can’t do eyeliner for shit. The Japanese literally says ‘cat eye’. I found them very easy to apply and, after filling in the gaps with liquid eyeliner, it looked really cool and natural – or at least better than my attempts. On the other hand, it did feel like I had stickers on my eyes. Which I did. For that reason, I’d probably only save them for special occasions. 8/10

Gaby: I don’t use make up on a daily basis, and I rarely put on a full face of make-up when I go out so I didn’t expect to get the best results with the stick-on eyeliner. But it turned out better than I thought. They weren’t difficult to apply and looked good if you didn’t look at them too up close. I’d recommend them to people who get sick and tired of messing up their eyeliner and want a quick solution. 7/10

Eyelash curler

Rhiannon: Admittedly I don’t use eyelash curlers on a regular basis. Whenever I’ve used the traditional ones they’ve always pulled on my lashes and it’s hurt LIKE A BITCH. I liked these because they were comparatively easy to use and stopped me from pulling, but because I have such fair lashes I wouldn’t use them on their own. With a slick of mascara I’m sure they’d look fabulous, because this curler really does do the job. 7/10.

Gaby: The one thing I do use when I want to look prettier than normal is curl my eyelashes. At first I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to see what I was doing because it’s got a huge top half – but that turned out to not be an issue. It was incredibly effective even on the first go and it does a better job than the other eyelash curlers I’ve had. I’d definitely recommend to everyone. 10/10

Undereye mask

Rhiannon: Mine contained snail, which is a very popular product in South Korea. It’s meant to make your skin softer and smoother. Though I don’t have crows feet yet, I thought I’d give it a go. Alas, it felt like the snail cream was trying to wriggle off my face. It’s meant to be left on for thirty minutes, but my skin started to sting at about 15 minutes and, as I didn’t want big, puffy, red eyes, I removed them pronto. It’s a shame, but I don’t feel I can rate this product because it was stinging. N/A

Gaby: My under-eye mask contained something called ‘Sny-Ake’. Looked suspiciously like snake but I got it anyway. The lady in the shop denied that it contained anything snake related so I took her word for it. They kept slipping a bit on my face so I had to lean back and readjust them until I finally thought to lean back. It felt really nice and soothing while I had them on, but I’m not entirely sure it did anything for me. 5/10

Face masks

Rhiannon: These look adorable. They were not so cute on and my cats were afraid of me. I wouldn’t greet the Dominos man like this. Even so, I dig a sheet mask. It left my skin feeling supple and smooth, and though it was ‘whitening’ (as if I could get any more white), it really did do wonders for my oily skin. Even with prescribed medication from the doctor, my skin has never been this spotless. 10/10

Gaby: I’ve never worn a face-mask, at least not one from a shop, so I was really surprised at how gooey it was. Mine made me look like some sort of lizard woman but after taking it off and cleaning myself up my skin felt so soft and I kept touching my face, like, every 10 seconds. It felt great, basically. 10/10

Foaming bag

Rhiannon: I have used brushes, towels, wipes, all sorts on my face. When I came across this ‘foaming bag’, I was definitely excited. As I had to keep it under £10, plus postage and packaging from Amazon, it ended up being pretty low quality plastic – but it didn’t matter. It did its job, and I ended up with a wonderfully foamy foam. Despite being fun, my skin didn’t feel drastically cleaner than when I use what God gave me (my fingers). 6/10

Gaby: I didn’t use this because hygiene-wise, it didn’t feel like a good idea to use the same one that Rhiannon had. Feeling the fabric, I agree about the quality. Might be better to invest in a higher-quality version if you’re going to use this every day on your face. N/A

Conclusion: We agree that we’d only go out of our way to buy the face masks again. You really can’t beat them in terms of quality. However, we both had so much fun trying some really unusual and cool products that we wouldn’t find anywhere else. The eyeliner was a fantastic idea. If you want to add some fun, adorable and unique products to your daily routine, definitely do some searching online. There’s a Reddit community for Asian Beauty and plenty of resources around. Give it a go!