Apr 08 2008
Japan: Chomping at my wallet since 1999.
Pardon me
for this post, I’m trying to make it relevant but it seems my blog is slowly turning into my encounters with all things Japan rather than an anime blog these days due to lack of any good anime to write about. Anyway, when I began watching anime just as all anime fans, the first thing we think of is “I want to purchase merchandise from THIS show!” Needless to say I spent some share of my otaku money on sailormoon chibi figures, shirts, keychains and whatever other nonsense was available from DiC at the time. Nowdays, all I really buy is manga, and as I ranted before, even the funds for that are starting to dry up. But there is one thing that still keeps gnawing at my wallet: DHC.
DHC is a Japanese company, similar to Shiseido, that produces all sorts of skincare products targetting women. While they do have a mans line, I find it to be lacking but I force JP to use it anyway. 
I always bought their products ever since my non-anime mother introduced me to them. While the “american” branch that sells them is expensive as crap, apparently in Japan DHC is like a basic convenience store brand - kinda like Maybeline or something in the US. (I discovered this through some Japanese friends on Lang8) After hearing I was being incredibly ripped off for 2 years I shrugged saying that when I use Neutrogena or whatever other American product is on a shelf of my local pharmacy, it burns my skin, makes it all itchy etc.
Sooo..I continued buying this stuff. It wasn’t the best, but it was better than any other cheaper alternative that I had used. So today in the mail I get yet another DHC catalog and as I’m leafing through I come accross this picture:
Wtf. She’s putting on a toner, which is what you put on after you wash your face and REMOVE makeup, while her face is caked with makeup. It made me realize, how in Japan they have these bullshit commercials for products (such as spray on deodorants) that don’t work at all. I mean hell they have these on Russian TV too but that’s another story. So now I feel even more ripped off than when I was paying like $50 in shipping for manga from Amazon.jp. And on the topic of stinky people, imagine the B.O. levels at Comiket. I mean if you think otaku in the US who don’t shower are bad, imagine 95% of the attendies at comiket, who are men that have no deodorant marketed for them and they spend 4hours in line to get that erodoujin from a popular circle. 
At this point it’s not even my inner weeabooism that’s forcing me to buy this stuff. This stuff coulda been made in India for all I care but it doesn’t turn my face into sandpaper…but after seeing this photo I start thinking, if they have blatantly false advertising, does this mean their products are actually getting shittier as well? I’m seriously going to need to reconsider purchasing from DHC again, with the US economy being in the poohole, I can’t see myself throwing money in the wind for products that I can no longer trust.
This reminds me when me and JP went to Muji in Manhattan and how everything there costs 2x or 3x as much as it would in Japan.
Tags: disappointment, oh japan, weeabooing in new york
23 Responses to “Japan: Chomping at my wallet since 1999.”
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They don’t have quite the controls on advertisement accuracy that we do in the States it seems…
Calawain> I think that’s how it is in Russia too…it’s kinda like imagine if every commercial in he US was an infomercial (which is basically how it was in the 90s - thighmaster anyone?
)
That’s why I never buy anything based on the ads, because 9 out of 10 times it’s not going to work and I’m only going to waste my money.
Good thing I know what works with my skin type… but the bad thing is that nothing works well with my hair… orz
And you probably have sensitive skin and that’s why things don’t work for you.
It’s times like these I’m happy to be a guy.
Scheris> I probably do
It’s such a drag. I hate paying so much money for this but I can’t seem to find a cheaper alternative TT_TT
You should go to a place like sephora and ask what would be the best product for you. Or whenever you buy a skin product dab a small amount of whatever your going to buy on the inside of the forearm, if after some time it’s gets red then don’t buy it.
Also, I think clinique has kind of cheap products.
Being a woman is hard work.
How do you girls stand going into places like Sephora? I went there once to buy a gift for a girl and even standing outside of the place gave me a headache just from the smell. While I like the scent of girl, the intensity of it, even at just a makeup counter in a department store, just makes me queezy
The advert I keep yelling at currently is the jane fonda l’oreal one. yes that cream really got rid of those wrinkles not a surgeon stretching your skin behind your ears.
marmot> LOL I haven’t seen too many make up commercials - in the morning at least. most commercials in the morning are always car commercials for some reason (or commercials for that yogurt lol)
John> I guess you don’t like bath & body works either? actually that place is a rip off too, I now go to the body shop as a cheaper alternative XD
scheris> I know right T_T; At least i don’t wear makeup that often in an attempt to do less damage to my already crappy skin lol
JohnG> Like I said being a woman is hard work, I only go there to buy eye make up, because for some reason using the cheaper stuff gives me an eye infection.
marmot> That’s why I change the channel whenever there’s an ad.
Hinano> Maybe you should make your own facial masks, instead.
And bath & body works is horrible just passing by it gives me a headache. I don’t know how they can work in that place.
You should know that the majority of the ads are all dazzled up and set up on stage. They put a supermodel girl in make-up commercials. The McDonalds food in the commercials look so clean and larger than what you actually get. People exaggerate and are always like “OH MY GOD! This is the best ever!” As everyone been saying…don’t believe the ADs.
I will reiterate that I am a guy. So no, I don’t like bath & body works
I buy toiletries from the supermarket.
i’ve always wondered by stuff from Japan is always twice or triple the price when imported by other countries - maybe it be manga, plamos, food products and make-up.
Shiseido!
I have some Japanese soap I got at Mitsuwa, it smells nice.
[...] boxes of the stuff laid out for me like pre-packaged heart attacks. Which is probably why I found Hinano’s post on buying merchandise interesting because I own two wall scrolls. That’s [...]
Sometimes the cheapest crap works the best.
The $2 facewash I got at a local grocery store works to much better than the Clinique set that I spent nearly $100 on. Shiseido’s the same. It feels like it’s working so well the first couple of times you use it, but after that it’s really no diff. than washing your face w/ handsoap.
My friend says the tea oil stuff from The Body Shop’s pretty good though…never tried it myself, and she stopped using it after a couple of months too.
the days i will enter a body shop and buy something to use for myself will be the day the world comes to a end
Accuracy? In advertisements? NO WAI
I’ve used Gatsby hair gel for the longest time. To which I fancy myself as a metrotaku or something lawl.
Haha I remember the Gatsby commercials! They had these guys whose afros made clapping sounds
Try putting milk and pappya peals on your face! My mom used them once, and it looked like it worked…plus, it cheap! (I think)
hahaaa, infomercials - eto nechto nezabyvaemoe. Chasy provedennye pered televizorom, i bespoleznye tonny informacii v moem mozgu…
hahaaa, i am glad i don’t see those anymore.
wow, Body Shop is cheap??? whenever I go there, for SOME reason I end up with a 10 bucks balance for the rest of the month….Their stuff is pretty good though. I like L’Oreal stuff, some of it, and it is not advertised actually. It is ok, I guess, but I am afraid to try something new. I used to buy Evian stuff, but it was so expensive that I, as a student, couldn’t afford it anymore.
I have some japanese facial masks that were supposed to miraculously improve my skin’s condition (it’s kinda dry in some places and oily in others), and, well, it didn’t. In fact, I think it made it worse. And shit, I paid lotsa’ money for that.
man, all of this makes me think that all the stuff in stores is crap, which it is probably.