Tatcha Blotting Papers

 

The love of all things Japanese in beauty continues with these lovely blotting papers, currently gracing the shelves of Manhattan's hidden beauty spot, New London Pharmacy, and to be stocked exclusively in the UK at Space NK next month.

Yes, you've seen blotting papers before. In fact, before you were of age to drink, drive or vote, you probably had a few packets tucked away in your purse. Mostly, they just removed your makeup and were used in bulk due to their tiny size.

Tatcha papers are much more akin to a tissue in size than a a cigarette paper. And, like all interesting things, there's a history. The papers are born from a centuries-old craft technique, which created strong, thin, soft papers ideal for blotting oil (how the Geishas figured this out, I do not know), called Aburatorigami. They don't absorb makeup, dry out the skin or leave residue a la Nicole Kidman (with her recent undereye/nose powder foible).

It looks like blotting papers have finally grown up, or at least the grown up version has finally left Japan and made its way to our western shores.

Tatcha Aburatorigami blotting papers are available at The New London Pharmacy now and Space NK from February 2010.

"a scent by issey miyake"

If you were in high school during the mid-1990s (como yo) then your olfactory system should be intimately acquainted with original scent created by Miyake, L'eau d'Issey. It was the cologne of choice among the athlete-casanova variety, the ones who showered religiously 3x per day and saturated their skin in cologne in efforts to rid themselves of any natural odor (god forbid one's body possesses such a thing) in what they believed was a sure-fire way to win over the ladies by (from what I can tell) stunning them into a compliant stupor with cologne vapors.

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