Hey guys, ralf here, so, after graduating from junior high, me and my family went straight to vikings to eat our way into type 11 diabetes, and after getting out of the buffet, we passed by a daiso, and i though, “maybe i should buy some makeup, cause i heard daiso makeup quality got better!” and so I did.
after debating on whether i should buy eyebrow sealant or highlighter (after desperately going through the whole store for lippies) i settled on a highlighter, and here it is:
This is Daiso’s &. powder highlight and it comes in two shades, snow beige and natural beige. it comes in a grey and clear rectangular plastic clamshell packaging with a glossy finish, and it is infused with argan oil. Its main ingredients are talc, mica, and dimethicone, which in of itself is quite usual to have in highlighters, it also has ethylhexyl palmate, which acts as an emollient and corn starch, which I assumed was just filler but it turned out that it kept oil at bay really well.
But, before I give my thoughts on this powder, what is daiso and what is the concept behind it?
In order to truly understand the idea behind daiso, we must first understand the origins and the history of the 100 yen shop.
100 yen shops first started about 300 years ago with “Ju-Ku Mon Mise” (19-Mon shops, Mon was a unit of currency that was used in Japan at the time and they were discontinued in 1871. These shops sold items at only 19 Mon and were very popular with the Japanese, and appeared around the time Tokugawa Yoshimune Adopted “Kyoho no Kaikaku” or Kyoho Reforms which made people more frugal.
There were other variants, like Shi Mon Ya (4-mon shops) and San-Ju Hachi Mon Mise (38-mon shops).
Though the term “100-yen shop” would not be coined until 1985, daiso had already begun working on the concept in 1977, 5 years after the founders first store, “Yano Shoten”, was opened. this when they also developed the business model of Volume Purchasing and volume sales.
Though they had been selling 100-yen goods since the 70’s, Daiso wouldn’t have its own store (that was actually named Daiso) until 1991; Over time, the company grew and grew, opening new branches around the world, and in 2018, they opened their 5,000th branch.
Daiso is just one of the many 100-yen shops in Japan, others include Seria, Watts and CanDo.\
Now, how do these 100-yen shops lower costs? here are some of the ways they lower cost (from Begin Japanlogy)
These ensure that consumers get to have quality products at cheap prices.
Now, onto the review…
The shine it gives is quite nice, though it is a bit light for my skin tone, i was able to blend it out nicely, i do have to say though, this highlighter,
while it is very nice for its price, isn't something that you should go out to buy ASAP,
its fine, its ok, it does its job well ut it isn't that revolutionary, overall, i think it gets a 6/10 for me, the price is very cheap, and you get a decent highlighter that is ok.
That's all!
See you on the other side!
-Ralf