I received a leaflet from Kanebo last Friday, which stated some sort of gift-with-purchase promotions for Kanebo at Parkson stores. The gift-with-purchase bit didn't interest me until I saw the portion where there will be free samples for Kanebo Bell Family members (I became one when I went for a free facial and bought some Kanebo products a couple of weeks ago, which I will review on soon). Now THAT, is something worth going for. You know what I sucker I am for freebies :p

Anyhoos, went to Gurney Plaza Parkson on Saturday, and voila! My Kanebo Blanchir 3-day trial set, worth RM40.


The box consisted of Kanebo Blanchir products (they claim to make your skin bright and smooth). It has:

• Whitening Milky Conditioner (x1)
• Whitening Clear Conditioner (x3)
• Cotton Pad (6 pcs)
• Lotion mask with a tray

Thought it was pretty cool that they gave 3 bottles (albeit tiny ones) of the clear conditioner. It's actually a toner, which, according to the instructions on the box, you're supposed to feel a whole cotton pad with it and dab on your face. Okay, can I hear a "what a waste?!" here? I don't think it's necessary to use so much toner on one cotton pad; a 20 to 50-sen coin amount would do.

The milky conditioner works as a moisturiser. The coolest bit of the trial set was the lotion mask on a tray. The "mask" looks like a tablet; you put it on the plastic tray provided, pour the toner into the tray, soaking the mask. Then you take the mask out, which will now look like a very thin sheet of cloth, and put it on your face. I think it's great for traveling. The sales assistant told me that you don't have to use such expensive toner to soak the mask, any ordinary over-the-counter toner would do. This is, of course, up to you, as I know that some would prefer to use the toner of the same range on the mask.

Kanebo Blanchir is the cheapest of the Kanebo International skincare range. It's actually sold in drugstores in Japan, whereas over in Malaysia, it's quite a big deal. Of course, the sales assistants in Kanebo will try to push the Kanebo Sensai range to customers more, as that is more expensive (I'll leave this for another post). Kanebo prices are also hiked up in Malaysia, but I reckon it's inevitable, what with import taxes and so on.

Anyhoos, I digress. So far, I have no problems with the Blanchir range. I think the mask-in-a-tray idea is a hoot :)

I've been told that the Blanchir range is suitable for those with dry, younger skin. Either that, or the sales assistant's just trying to convince me to get the more expensive range. It worked fine on my combination skin, so that's good.