TATCHA Luminous Dewy Skin Mist

In TATCHA I trust. Since my introduction to the skincare line four months ago, I'm still following the four-step regimen morning and night with spectacular results. So when CEO Victoria Tsai announced we also needed her new TATCHA Luminous Dewy Skin Mist, I listened to her.

"A silky liquid moisturizer of squalane, red algae and our HADASEI-3 bioactive complex can be misted onto the face for a boost of soothing hydration. The result is dewy, luminous, replenished-looking skin anytime, anywhere."

Initially, I was dubious because I had viewed hydrating mists as an affectation of socialites. TATCHA takes offense, though, if you call their Dewy Skin Mist a hydrating mist. Instead, it should be thought of as a liquid moisturizer.

The online FAQ for the product explains, "Hydrating mists are usually a mixture of fragrance, water and alcohol. They feel cool and smell great when you spray them but the skin is actually drier in moments as the water and alcohol evaporate from the skin. Unlike conventional hydrating mists, TATCHA's LUMINOUS Dewy Skin Mist is a liquid moisturizer. Its delicate emulsion of liquid silk, red algae, camellia oil, and potent moisturizing actives keep skin dewy and hydrated anytime, anywhere."

Is there really a distinction? I'm here to tell you yes.

Appearances first: the bottle is sleek and sexy, and fits into my hand comfortably. I feel refreshed already just looking at the pale ombre blue shell. The bottle arrives sealed with TATCHA's signature geometric sticker ribbon; breaking such a beautiful seal is both thrilling and saddening.

My first trial came late last Friday afternoon, after a week-long graduate class which forced me to spend all day in a stiflingly hot classroom with a barely functioning AC window unit. My skin felt stressed and parched. My TATCHA order had just arrived, and I immediately tried out the Dewy Skin Mist. After priming the pump several times, I held the nozzle about ten inches from my face, closed my eyes, and sprayed once. A delicate mist kissed my face. It felt refreshing and soothing, but hardly impressive or necessary. I then went about my business around the house. After twenty minutes, I lifted one finger to stroke my cheek.

The softness of my skin was extraordinary. The skin on my face had achieved unparalleled softness, smoothness, and even springiness. I assure you this is not hyperbole. Forget a baby's bottom, my skin felt better. I looked in the mirror, and the appearance of my face had also improved: slightly dewy and subtly radiant, neither matte nor shiny.

In the following days, I continued to test out the Dewy Skin Mist under various circumstances. I sprayed it on immediately after applying my day moisturizer (Omorovicza Complexion Perfector BB SPF 20) in the morning, and it infused my skin with extra moisture. After a particularly brutal Barre Fitness class at Ananda Shala, I went home and rinsed my sweaty face with water; I then sprayed the Dewy Skin Mist directly onto my bare skin, and it functioned as well as moisturizer. Now I've fallen into a routine of keeping the bottle around and spraying my face once or twice a day whenever I find that my skin is feeling dry or stressed. Directions recommend 2-3 pumps, but I find that one is perfectly adequate for my combination skin with oily T-zone.

TATCHA claims that the magic ingredient in their Dewy Skin Mist is a special red algae blend from the waters around the island of Okinawa. The actual ingredient list looks intimidating, but once again I have come to trust TATCHA.

Do you need this? Yes. Don't think of TATCHA Luminous Dewy Skin Mist as a hydrating mist. Think of it as a supercharger to bring your face to heights never before imagined.

The Dewy Skin Mist is part of TATCHA's new Water Collection, which includes the Luminous Deep Hydration Lifting Mask. $95 for four masks is just too rich for me, though if you sign up for their e-newsletter, you can sweeten the pot a bit by adding a complimentary Moisture Rich Silk Cream Deluxe Sample with the code HYDRATION by July 31.

TATCHA Luminous Dewy Skin Mist costs a manageable $48 and can be found online at Barneys and TATCHA.

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Unwrapping TATCHA Skincare

I started writing about TATCHA because I couldn't find a comprehensive review of the geisha-inspired skincare line. And if I had searched for a review, I reasoned, then there must be other individuals out there searching as well. Wanting to close the gap, I sent for the sampler kit and put up my review. Essentially, I rolled up my review, put it in a bottle, and tossed it onto the ocean of the World Wide Web.

To my surprise, the CEO of TATCHA herself, Victoria Tsai, found my posts and reached out to me. She signs her e-mails "Vicky" and "Founder," which encapsulates perfectly her business philosophy: professional yet personal. If you follow her on Twitter, where she recently put up beautiful pictures of her research trip to Kyoto, you can see that she genuinely cares about both her brand and her customers.

In my review, I had mentioned that redness was one of my primary concerns. Victoria Tsai e-mailed me an article on inflammation, in which a certified dermatologist recommended antioxidants, and especially green tea, as an effective countermeasure. Victoria then explained, "In a clinical study, we have found that women see a marked reduction in redness after 1-2 months of use and it's because of the anti-oxidants (green tea) + abrasion-free exfoliation." This is promising.

I would have been honored to receive the e-mails alone from the CEO of a beauty company I admire, but Victoria went on to send me a token of appreciation as well: a full-size jar of the Moisture Rich Silk Cream. (My first freebie as a beauty/style blogger! Disclaimer: no affiliation, no profit, no influence, yay.) I got to see once again how thoughtfully she has worked out every detail of her line. Opening this package was like unwrapping a gift of many delicate layers. Shall I show you?

  
A beautiful card with a handwritten message from Victoria Tsai inside, wishing me exquisite skin.

The box resembles mahogany wood, and the logo is in gold foil. On the sides are the ingredient list and the product description. It opens from the side, and accordions out into a exquisite interior. The passage on the inside explains the concept and history behind the line.

Wrapped in a strip of printed rice paper is the jar itself.

The bow holding the little spoon is utterly charming, and practical as well. But that's not all. On the inside of the rice paper "scroll" is a note from the CEO.

Have you ever seen a skincare product so intricately designed and packaged? I've said this before, and I'll say it again: TATCHA gets luxury and customer service right. That is rare.

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Review of TATCHA Skincare

This evening I went in for my regular European facial at the Art of Beauty, and now my skin feels splendid. Since then, I've been lounging around the apartment in pajamas and eating chocolates. It's a good time to talk about another luxurious skincare experience that I've had recently: TATCHA, inspired by the geisha's ancient beauty routine.

I introduced the line in an earlier feature, and over the past weekend, I tried out the deluxe sampler set. I approached this with modest expectations; I'm quite content with my current regime, which works for my sensitive skin, and I receive compliments on the soft and youthful appearance of my face. Still, my skin could be better, especially when it comes to my pores. So why don't I try TATCHA?

Let me go straight to the end: TATCHA skincare is potent and delivers the "baby-pure skin of the geisha" that it promises.

The One Step Camellia Cleansing Oil is a sweet-smelling oil that you rub onto your dry face to remove makeup and also to condition dry skin. It absolutely does not strip the skin of essential oils. When I returned to my beloved argan oil cleanser from Kahina Giving Beauty, in fact, my skin felt dry and tight in comparison!

The Polishing Rice Enzyme Powder may be my favorite product out of the line, because the results are so clear to the naked eye. You pour a tablespoonful of the dry powder into wet hands, then rub them together to create a paste. Using this for the first time, I was shocked at how gentle the paste felt on my skin, and I thought that the exfoliating action mustn't be working. Then I looked into the mirror and saw smooth and glowing skin. More exciting for me, I also saw smaller pores. Nothing else has ever made my pores shrink so dramatically. After two days, I could no longer say that I had enlarged pores on my nose. Of course, now that I have switched back to my old regime, they are beginning to grow again. For the sake of my pores alone, I must have a vat of this polishing powder. I tried both the Classic and Gentle versions, and I can say that the Classic is perfect for twice-daily use on even my reactive skin. Alternatively, I like to use Classic at night and Gentle in the morning.

The Deep Brightening Serum is similarly marvelous. A pump or two of this milky serum absorbs into the skin weightlessly, and delivers a massive amount of hydration; in the first few seconds, also, it delivers an intense warming sensation. The brightening effect was not dramatic, but the company says it takes four to six weeks of regular use for a difference to be noticed. I like this serum simply for the remarkable hydration that it delivers.

The Moisture Rich Silk Cream is the final step in the routine, and it seals all that moisture in to create a protective barrier around the skin. Amazingly, it is as weightless as the serum, and I felt like I had nothing on my face at all. However, I merely had to stroke my cheek to realize that TATCHA skincare had made my skin the softest and smoothest it has ever been. Geisha beauty secrets, indeed.

The only issue I could find was that the products didn't improve the inherent redness in my skin. Most products aggravate the redness, and it's been a lifelong battle to find ones that are kind to my skin. TATCHA skincare made my face porcelain-smooth, but not porcelain-white. Is this a deal-breaker? I'm not sure yet. I haven't used up my samples yet -- it looks like they are meant to last about a week -- so I'm going to continue experimenting. If nothing else, I know I'm getting the Polishing Classic Rice Enzyme Powder for my pores.

Update 3/28: This morning, I still felt great from the facial. I didn't want to bring my skin back down to earth, so to speak, with my regular old products, so I returned to TATCHA. I followed all the steps, going with the Gentle version of the Polishing Powder, then applied my regular tinted moisturizer which has that all-important SPF. The result was flawless skin. The Silk Cream is meant to double as primer for makeup, so it anchored my tinted moisturizer perfectly. My face looked lighter and brighter, due to the serum, and I could find no bumps or pores anywhere except for my nose. TATCHA preserved, and enhanced, the results of my facial. This is the game-changer I was looking for. I need the entire line now. I'm going to cry when my samples run out.

TATCHA skincare delivers on what it promises, and the clean yet luxurious simplicity of its ritual makes for a transformative experience, day and night. I thought my skin was soft, until I tried TATCHA! The line is currently available on the company's website and at Barneys.

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From TATCHA Skincare, with Love

Best Things in Beauty is currently hosting a forum on beauty samples and their usefulness or lack thereof; one point that hit me was that single-serving skin care packets give a user nearly no information on a product's performance or suitability, since our skin requires a regimen. As things would have it, I've just opened my box of samples from TATCHA, and I think the company has solved the sample issue brilliantly.

Recently I featured TATCHA's new skincare line, and pointed out that they offer a deluxe sample set for $49. When they say deluxe, they mean deluxe.

Unwrapping purple paper, you find a sachet made from elegant rice paper and a beautiful booklet.

Inside the sachet is a surfeit of goodies. The packet of blotting papers alone normally costs $12. And the containers are so generously sized.

Really, these are travel-sized. If I decide to get the full-sized containers, I still would order extra sample sets for traveling with. Speaking of full-sized, the package also arrived with a beautiful rice-paper envelope containing a personalized letter with all the information I could need, including a customer service number.

At the bottom of the letter, the CEO of TATCHA had thoughtfully handwritten a note with a code for 15% off any full-sized item should I choose to purchase one. Now that's service!

Skincare shouldn't be just an obligation, but a luxury. TATCHA has this down cold. More high-end beauty companies could afford to follow its example.

Update: My review of the line is now up!

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Spotlight on TATCHA Skincare

The article in Vogue caught my eye. Just one page, it heralded the debut of TATCHA's new skincare line. Their Aburatorigami gold-pressed blotting papers are sheer perfection, so I was intrigued despite the semi-mystical copy text about skincare formulated from ancient geisha beauty secrets.

What convinced me that the line had potential was its use of rice bran, with which I have had an excellent experience via Komenuka Bijin. Could TATCHA's formula stand on its own? Here's what's in its HADASEI-3 Bioactive Complex:

Green Tea Complete DNA Extract—extremely rich in EGCG, 14 times more potent than traditional green tea extracts and 5 times more potent than Vitamin C in protecting against UV-induced oxidative damage, which is a leading contributor to premature skin aging.
Okinawa Red Algae Extract—a vital source of Beterhelin, a natural polysaccharide proven to enhance the skin’s barrier function for long lasting moisture retention and texture improvement.
Japanese Rice Bran Extract—prized for centuries as a rich source of inositol, a multitasking active which is at once a powerful anti-oxidant and nourishing moisturizer.

In case the reader is not sufficiently impressed, TATCHA provides a helpful diagram on its website.

The line itself is streamlined, however, with a few curated products. There is a cleanser, three varieties of an exfoliator, a serum, and a cream. The jars and bottles are designed with an elegant Zen simplicity.

TATCHA skincare is currently available only at Barneys. The complete four-piece set costs $440, and I imagined I would have to admire this line from afar. Then I discovered the line is also sold directly through the TATCHA website; and they are offering a generously sized sampler set for $49. I have one on its way to me right now.

I don't know for how long this special offer is going to run, so if you're at all interested, then I suggest taking advantage of it now. The line is beautiful, luxurious, and sexy. I look forward to testing it. The geisha, after all, knew what they were about.

Update: I have now tried the sampler set, and here is my review. Does this line live up to the hype?

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