Beauty
A new-to-Canada Japanese skin care line you'll be obsessed with
Image: Tatcha
Beauty
A new-to-Canada Japanese skin care line you'll be obsessed with
Tatcha, the skin-care line based on ancient Japanese beauty rituals, has arrived north of the border.
When you think of a geisha, chances are the first thing that comes to mind is her thickly-painted face—not so much skin goals. But underneath the waxy coating is the bright and beautiful complexion you pray for with every face mask you apply. So, it’s no surprise the geisha was the inspiration behind the skin-care brand Tatcha, which has arrived in Canada via Sephora.
Known for its traditional Japanese blotting papers and four-step skin rituals, Tatcha has become an essential brand for those after a luminous complexion.
Still wondering what all the fuss is about? Here, five reasons why you’re about to become obsessed with the brand.
1. It’s based on effective Japanese skin-care techniques that are hundreds of years old.
In 2009, Tatcha founder Victoria Tsai journeyed to Kyoto, Japan and was introduced to a modern-day geisha, who divulged the 200-year-old beauty techniques used by the Japanese entertainers to remove their performance makeup and care for their skin. They rely on a multi-step ritual that features powerful, natural ingredients to cleanse skin and provide a polished, glowing complexion. Tsai adopted the geisha beauty regimen in an attempt to cure her acute dermatitis, and after just a few months, her skin healed completely. With that, the foundation of Tatcha was established.
2. The products are made with superfoods.
Instead of concentrating on treatments, creams and serums, the geisha skin care routine focuses on cleansing and demands powerful superfoods to do so. These superfoods—including green tea, rice and seaweed—are the ones that are regularly consumed by Japanese women, which many claim contributes to their having the longest lifespan in the world. Tsai saw these superfoods as the essential ingredients in her products to achieve geisha-like results and has her lab team in Tokyo source such raw materials all over Japan, so they're able to include the most authentic ingredients as possible in their products. “For rice, we go back down to the Akita portion of Japan, where rice is considered most beautiful for its nourishing properties, and get it from there,” says Tsai. The scientists also source their own green tea and camellia oil, among other materials.
3. The products are free of harmful ingredients.
Formulating effective, gentle and safe products was important for Tsai. “I actually found some of the most famous scientists in Japan in the skincare space,” says Tsai, “and asked them to bring back the most beautiful efficacious formulas.” She had just two requirements for them: 1) Ingredients must be clean and raw, and 2) The ingredients have to be authentic to the geisha’s skin-care ritual. And the scientists were able to follow Tsai's requests. Tatcha's lab team in Tokyo creates its own key raw materials to effectively keep parabens, fragrances, and other common harmful ingredients out of their products.
4. The company’s four-step skin care treatment makes total sense.
Tatcha is one of the fastest growing companies in America, and its top-selling products are those included in their four-step skin ritual.
Geishas use oil to take off their performance makeup, so the first product in Tatcha’s four-step regimen is an oil cleanser that “melts away everything including waterproof makeup, eyelash glue, excess oil on the skin,” says Tsai.
The next step is a gentle exfoliator made with rice enzymes, which geishas use to ensure all traces of performance makeup have been removed and to polish their skin like a jewel every day. This also works for us non-geishas because was we get older the rate at which our skin replenishes starts to slow—and increases to do so indefinitely—meaning less collagen production and cell turnover. “So when you exfoliate your skin every day, you’re helping keep the cell turnover going at a really healthy rate,” says Tsai.
The third step is for plumping—what we know as an essence. It’s proven to increase the hydration of your skin by 148% clinically, and can also be used to super-charge your other products; when applied before a serum, mask, or moisturizer, the essence helps the products applied after seep deeper into the skin and therefore be more effective.
The last step is for moisturizing the skin. Tacha has a few different creams that target various skin concerns, but one of the most popular options is one that's hydrating and anti-aging and is formulated with an unexpected ingredient—silk. “The reason we decided to make a face cream out of liquid silk is that we found silk has almost an identical amino acid composition as skin, so it’s like a second skin,” says Tsai. The result is a smooth, plumped complexion with the appearance of fine lines significantly reduced.
5. The company is making a huge difference in the lives of underprivileged girls around the world.
For every Tatcha purchase, no matter the product or size, a portion of the sale goes to an organization called Room to Read, which helps fund schools and education for girls around the world. Tatcha has already funded about 2 million days of school.
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