All time fave, a holy grail: KATE Tokyo foundation is the best drugstore base makeup you should try.
Hello, how have you been? It's been 2-3 years since my last post and tbh I can find time to review some new products due to my hectic schedule at office. Things also have been going South due to Pandemic but I hope you are well and will enjoy enjoy my new post.
KATE Tokyo: The Base Zero Series, Powdery Skin Maker 04 is a must-have, holy grail Japanese drugstore makeup product.
The quality goes like high-end product but with a slate of price and won't broke your wallet.
Personally, this is my holy-grail Japanese drugstore foundation and I kept repurchasing it over 3 times; nothing can beat its quality.
Powdery Skin Maker is the upgrade version of previous Powderless Liquid for Cover: it has liquid-to-powder formula, matte finish but with longer staying power and better formula.
PHOTOS
KATE Tokyo is licensed under Kanebo cosmetic and categorized as drugstore makeup; because it's sold and distributed in many drugstores and chain-stores in Japan. It is retailed for ¥1.600+ for 30mL product and formulated with SPF15 PA++ to help protecting your skin.
Currently, Indonesian consumer can only buy it through personal shopper in Japan:( since Shopee ID dismissed foreign seller to sell it in Indonesia platform.
KATE Tokyo also has been expanding their distribution network circa 2017 to several South-East & East-Asian countries (e.g. South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, etc) to penetrate deeply into local market. They also managed to provide inclusive (deeper) shades from common Japanese shades.
East-Asian brand is rarely launched darker shade (because deeper shade might not popular in their domestic market), but KATE Tokyo has 2 medium shades that (surprisingly) suitable for medium skin tone: 04 and 05.
04 : Early Tan (relatively tanned skin)
05 : Honey Beige (tanned skin)
KATE Tokyo launched The Base Zero campaign with Ayami Nakajo as their muse and promotes a formula that melts and matches to your skin with Zero effort and creates an effortless matte finish.
Powdery Skin Maker promotes quick matte result within 15 seconds; it dispersed as a liquid but turned powdery-matte when oxydized.
Both The Base Zero series products, Powdery Skin Maker (matte finish) and Secret Skin Maker Zero (semi-glow), comes in 6 shades varied from 00 (the lightest shade) to 06 (the deepest shade).
I bought this foundation directly from South-Korean offline drugstore retailer (Olive Young); furthermore once I bought it also from Thailand offline drugstore retailer (Watson) & Taiwan online seller in Shopee; to my surprise deeper shades are available in these countries.
Retailed price might varied in each country but when I converted it to IDR it ranges around 250K+ (comparing to original retailed price in Japan ¥1.600+)
Powderless Liquid for Cover is no longer available and already re-formulated into Powdery Skin Maker.
However, I still have the previous product photos as brief comparison; as you can see Powderless Liquid for Cover (old version) comes in a short-tube packaging while new Powdery Skin Maker (new version) comes in a tall, edgy rectangle packaging. Both products are using pumped-tip and has 30mL liquid products.
Moving to its pigmentation, both products are categorized as the same shade spectrum 04 or OC-D. Since KATE re-formulated the product, they also change their shade spectrum into numbering sequence (e.g. 00 into 06). The old version was leaning more yellowish comparing to new formulated product. Imo, old version feels more light-weight comparing to new formula version: it blends easily into my skin and doesn't feel 'sticky' (new version feels a bit sticky imo). However, new version has better staying power and able to lasts up to 4 hours under normal wear and also able to cover uneven and dark spot better than the previous.
To sum it up:
Old version (Powderless Liquid for Cover):
- More light-weight texture
- Light-weight matte finish
- Doesn't get cakey easily
- Coverage medium
- Yellowish undertone
New version (Powder Skin Maker):
- Feels bit stickier than the previous
- Matte finish
- Get cakey easily if not blends well (especially under eyes wrinkles)
- Coverage medium-heavy
- Pinkish undertone
- Staying power up to 4 hours onward
- Can't mixed well with my compact powder (personal opinion)
Despite its ups and downs, I'm still relying on this product. I can tolerate its slight downside comparing to the other Secret Skin Maker Zero (it has even more stickier feeling, ugh) but I will try to review it when I have the chance.
Thank you for reading and I hope you find it informative.
