My trip to Japan for Pocky was one of the best media trips i’d taken in my life.
I actually feel nervous writing about this, cos there’s so much to cover – things i learnt, information i was enamoured with, freaking amazing food, the loveliest people i got acquainted with, and endless new sights and sounds that contributed to my experience in Japan.
When i told some girl friends that i was going to Japan for Pocky, two excitable responses distinctly stood out.
Cammy said, “Pocky!? Oh my god i love Pocky! Are you bringing back Pocky? Bring back loads of Pocky! I once had a Pocky phase… where i ate so much Pocky every day, i had to stop!”
Before my trip to Tokyo, i was in London for a week where Yishyene was, and she said, “Pocky. It’s POCKY Joyce! That’s it. You’ve reached the highest point in life. There’ll be nothing for you after.”
Damn drama right.
I mean, *i* love Pocky. I even remember it being called Rocky when i was a kid, and always choosing the strawberry over the chocolate one when i was 5 years old and allowed it as a treat. I discovered on this trip that Rocky = Pocky! Malaysia is the only country where its name was officially changed to Rocky when it was first imported here in the 80s because market research showed that Pocky might not be a suitable name… (take a wild guess why).
Pocky has been around since the 60s… 1966 to be exact. Isn’t that insane? That’s how established the brand is!
If you think that’s long, wait till you hear how long the mothership company has been around for: Pocky was invented by Glico, one of the top confectionary brands in Japan. You may recognise other popular products under the Glico umbrella like Pretz, Caplico and Collon, to name a few (do you remember Collon? I LOVE IT!!!). Glico has been around since 1922. That’s older than my grandmother.
Today, Glico is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and has almost 10,000 employees. Glico and Pocky are such a phenomenon that you just have to search the hashtags #pocky or #glico on Instagram to see for yourself how much they’re loved!
But before i run off on a spiel, let’s start from the beginning… when i was on the plane to touch down in Narita airport.
There was a glimmering spot in the distance where the morning sunlight hit the top of some clouds in the most spellbinding way.
My view from my hotel room in Shinagawa, where the Glico Tokyo headquarters is at.
The first few members of the Glico team i met: Hiroyuki Okamoto, Takuya Ichida, and Osamu Nakahara, and Bettina Gasser.
Little did i know how attached we were all gonna get!
Pocky and Pretz to greet me! Packaging i’ve never seen in my life… and such CUTE ones too! It was almost a shame to eat them cos the packaging was too delectable itself to tear open.
The one with the cute yellow face on the top right is pear-flavoured Pretz, which i just shared with Baby/Faridah last Saturday. Or rather, i had one stick while she quietly kidnapped the rest…
The choc Pocky on the lower left is a special edition one for Christmas, with chocolate that would never make it to Malaysia cos it’s too hot here to last; and the remaining three on the bottom row are 2014 Halloween editions of strawberry, pumpkin, and i’m guessing white chocolate flavour. I whacked the strawberry and pumpkin ones myself, but gave the panda one away to either Tai Yong or Claudia cos they’re crazy about pandas.
Oh my, THIS was such a delightful discovery. You have to eat this when you go to Japan. YOU MUST.
It’s called Pucchin Pudding and is officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s best-selling pudding, with sales surpassing the 5.1 billion mark in 2012. (< I only knew all these facts AFTER i’d eaten the pudding and loved it so much i asked the Glico team whether it was possible for me to bring some home for my friends in Malaysia to try and they said it’s impossible due to our weather conditions and how it won’t last in transit/taste the same. #cry)
Pucchin Pudding was launched in 1972 after the Glico development team devised an ingenious method to serve this product similar to how Japanese pastry chefs do it in stores – whereby the container is turned upside-down over a plate and poked with an icepick so that the contents slide out smoothly with the soft caramel that’s at the bottom still intact and beautiful on the top.
After much thought, effort and time; an unassuming tiny stick is made just on the base of the Pucchin Pudding, so when it’s snapped off (that makes the sound ‘pucchin!, hence its name), the air that flows above the caramel area allows the whole dessert to slide effortlessly out in one gliding motion. That cool function, and the fact it’s got an amazing texture and taste just did it for me.
Oh Pucchin Pudding, i miss you so.
…. Wow three paragraphs on a pudding. Back to the story.
It was approaching lunch time when we were in the office, so the team packed us salads and sandwiches (i couldn’t eat anything more then cos i’d had so many snacks!) and we were chauffeured to the Glico Pia East factory in Kitamoto.
I was really excited about visiting the factory cos it was one of the highlights of the trip and i felt like i’d won a Golden Ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
When i told friends i was going to the Pocky factory, it was one of the occurrences in my life where more than five people commented, “I wish i had your job.”
I couldn’t believe it too!
Me, going all the way to the Pocky factory!
To see how POCKY IS MADE.
Seriously, just bringing myself back to that moment and how i felt is so joyous.
It was such a happy day!!!
When we first arrived at the factory entrance, i spotted some signs stating you can’t take photographs so i didn’t get a picture of a group of female Glico tour guides all smiling and bowing simultaneously to greet us. It was such a cartoonish sight, i felt like i was truly entering a magical factory. It was only after that, i was told i *could* take pictures (darn it, but it’s okay. Some things are more precious left in the mind’s memory).
We were brought through the history of Glico which i found absolutely riveting based on the true story of its founder Mr. Ri-ichi Ezaki.
Born in 1882, he worked in his family’s pharmaceutical business at the tender age of 14 while continuing his studies with borrowed lecture notes. During this phase in his life, he also learnt various subjects by visiting a teacher living in his neighbourhood called Mr. Sayokichi Naramura.
One of the many topics he learnt included business, with invaluable lessons being:
“Business is not only for oneself, but also for society.”
“A seller profits from selling goods, while a buyer profits as a result of obtaining a product that is worth the money spent.”
What brilliant things to learn as a boy!
Those phrases were combined to become “Business is equivalent to service” – an ideal that Mr. Ezaki practiced throughout his illustrious career.
In 1919, Mr. Ezaki put two and two together when he encountered a fisherman boiling oysters on the bank of a river. He recalled a newspaper article stating that glycogen in oysters is a source of energy and good health, and got Kyushu Imperial University to confirm it via a sample he took to them.
While the glycogen was in research stage, Mr. Ezaki’s son got terribly ill with typhoid fever. When all hope seemed lost, Mr. Ezaki fed his son the glycogen and he regained his health much to everyone’s surprise. As a result of that experience, Mr. Ezaki wanted to turn glycogen into a pharmaceutical product, but he was advised by a doctor that it was better to build a body that was resistant to sickness rather than curing a sick one, and that growing children were most in need of glycogen. Why not merge glycogen with caramel so kids would love eating it?
With that, the efforts to create a nourishing confection kicked off… and the birth of Glico came to be. (The name Glico is short for glycogen, and was chosen because it was short, catchy and pleasing to hear.)
I don’t want you to think that all he did was *stumble* upon this idea and everything happened like magic. There’s so much more to the story than that!
Mr. Ezaki delved into Glico’s naming, form, trademark, marketing, manufacturing… down to the colour of the packaging.
He was adamant that the candy to be in a heart shape, and pretty much invented the first ever heart shape candy in the world in 1922. I was stupefied when i saw a video of the special machinery they invented to make HEART SHAPED SWEETS. “This guy is nuts!” i thought. But then again, its the crazy inventors and dreamers that push evolution ey?
Mr. Ezaki even cracked his head over the logo, which is now a cult pose in Japan. It’s like, everyone in Japan knows the pose. Everyone. I made the pose to exemplify to some new friends in a bar why i was in Tokyo for, and they immediately said, “Oh Glico!!”
Me doing the Glico trademark pose with Ruba Nackeeran from Cleo Malaysia and William Lim from Sisters magazine. (I had such a great time being around these two… i felt like they were my adopted brother and sister during the trip.)
A guitar signed by famous Japanese rock band Glay in the shape of the Glico trademark.
Mr. Ezaki came up with this concept as he was pondering over the trademark for Glico and saw some children racing each other. Their joyful pose as they crossed the finish line with raised arms inspired him and he included it into his sketches. When he showed his selection of possible logos to some elementary school kids, the picture of the runner turned out to be the most popular and that was how the Glico trademark came to be.
Talk about giving power to the consumer, Mr. Ezaki was practicing it almost 100 years ago. Amazing.
Once the product with its full packaging was ready, Mr. Ezaki was determined for the most credible store at the time to sell it. After trying lots of times without giving up, Glico caramel was finally sold at Mitsukoshi Department Store in Osaka on February 11, 1922.
Mr. Ezaki was concerned that healthy bodies should come with healthy hearts, and believed that both nourishment and playtime are essential for a wholesome childhood. This is why he implemented the insertion of a small toy with the Glico caramel since its inception. Glico ALWAYS comes with a toy.
Over 20,000 pieces were designed from 1927 till present; with 1,500 pieces displayed where i was that day. See all the rows of little perspex boxes above? Each one contained a little toy from ages ago up till recent times!
Look how tiny and delicate some of the old toys are! Absolutely incredible how they made them like they used to – out of metal, wood and paper! I wish they would make more toys like these again…
Teeny tiny pop up cards!
This was a newer toy, as you can tell from its make in plastic. My finger is there to show you how miniscule ALL of them are!
Ahhh i wanted to study them all a lot longer but the group was waiting for me so i had to go…
We moved on to a replica of vending machines that sold Glico candy back in 1931.
I found this yet another fascinating part of the Glico history. They had vending machines that were each fitted with a projector to show parts of a black and white action ‘movie’. Every time a Glico caramel candy was purchased, a 20-second film would play. There were 5 parts to a whole show (bear in mind this is in 1931) so if someone bought 5 candies, they’d be able to enjoy the whole reel!
How clever is that? (I need to stop sounding so impressed… but it’s hard because i am!!)
Pretz went on sale under Glico in 1962, and 4 years later, Pocky (the chocolate-covered version of Pretz) was launched.
I never knew how global Glico is. The company established factories in Thailand in 1970, referred to as Thai Glico, making it possible for Pocky (or rather, Rocky) to enter Malaysia. The Glico brand then extended its arm into Europe in 1982, selling Pocky under the name “Mikado”. Shanghai Glico Foods was established in 1995, and Glico opened in Malaysia and Indonesia in 2014.
This is proper world domination right here.
Then came the part where we got to see how Pretz and Pocky gets made!!!
I should have guessed that being as hygienic as they are, we were allowed to observe from behind wide panes of glass.
Long strips of flour are created, before they’re cut into equal lengths and baked for 4 minutes in a 300°C oven that’s 45m in length. If you’ve ever noticed how Pretz has texture on one side of it, it’s from the net it lies on while baking! 😀
The factory uses 9 tonnes of flour to make over 55,000 packets of Pretz daily! It never shuts. It is open 24 hours a day with 600 people working in there. Regulations are stringent, with examples being how uniforms are checked every hour, and only spectacles are allowed to be worn (to avoid contact lenses falling in by accident).
Machines with vendor belts can tell whether sticks are too light or heavy, and automatically chucks those that are of imperfect weight. The sticks are also randomly weighed in groups of ten as part of tests.
When it came to how the chocolate is applied onto the stick, we had to walk through a corridor instead cos this is their manufacturing secret. I must say, even the corridor was something. It was made to look like you were walking through a giant Pocky stick..!
Choc info-wise, i was told that 7 tonnes of chocolate is used to make over 70,000 packets of Pocky daily.
Cameras and screen capture ensure that no stick gets broken once it’s in the box, and each box is weighed to confirm the right number of sticks is encased. There are 17 sticks in every packet of Pocky, and 30 sticks in every packet of Pretz.
It was such a beautiful day!
There was a small Glico shop outside the factory and i went a bit mental.
Giant Pocky! They were a hit at my Christmas party… people kept on stealing each others’.
Glico lollipops
I bought two bags of souvenirs to take home… i couldn’t help it! How could i go to the Pocky factory and not buy all the cool stuff!?
Pix from the rest of the day, when the team took us for a lavish Japanese dinner at sky tower in Tokyo:
Jaeger-LeCoultre hosted a press preview for their latest addition to the brand, the Master Calendar. As Joyce was busy attending a handful of events, Baby and I were the representatives for the #KinkyBlueFairyTeam to attend the posh affair. When we arrived at the Jaeger-LeCoultre boutique, we were greeted by three lovely ladies at the reception desk. As we entered the premise, we were enthralled with the setting and mood, everything looked so classy and exclusive! We were being very mindful with our manners and Baby wished she wore a cocktail dress instead 😆
While following the aesthetic that is so characteristic of the Rendez-Vous line, the Rendez-Vous Moon watch opens up a new chapter in the catalogue of watch complications for ladies. Equipped with a wide moon phase indication, its great legibility and femininity is expressed by a mother-of-pearl moon display. A mysterious hand in the form of a star subtly indicates the chosen time for your next rendez-vous, perhaps? 😉
These two timepieces were the stars of the night – the all new Master Calendar.
On the left is from the Pink Gold collection, and the right from the Steel collection.
The new Master Calendar of Jaeger-LeCoultre is distinguished by the virtues and indeed the very face of astronomy. Endowed with all the attributes that have forged the success of this line, it is also imbued with a seductive appeal exercising its own laws of gravity, thanks to the choice of meteorite stone to compose its dial (taken from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter)!
The characteristics of the Master Calendar will blow each and everyone one of you off your seats.
Mechanical automatic winding movement, 43 hours power-reserve, 305 parts, and 32 jewels are encapsulated in a timepiece measuring 26mm in diameter.
The Master Calendar functions by the hour, minute, second, day, date, month and even moon phase. The case of this impressive watch is made of steel or 18-carat pink gold with a diameter of 39mm and 10.6mm thick; with polished finish, cambered with sapphire crystals, and water-resistant at 5 bar making it suitable for everyday use and even swimming. Straps are made out of alligator leather with either steel folding clasp or 18-carat pink gold pin buckle.
Inès de la Fressange is a name you must store in the fashion drawer(s) of your head.
A muse to Karl Lagerfeld and other top designers around the world; Inès was the first ever model signed exclusively to Chanel in the 80s and more recently walked for the fashion house again in 2011. She’s also been the ambassador for Roger Vivier, and served as the model of Marianne – the symbol of France. That’s just crazy. Imagine the image of yourself being used to represent your country!
The French model/fashion designer/perfumer was born an aristocrat in 1957 to a French stockbroker and Argentine model. I found her age terribly surprising as her exquisite features belie its figure (as you will see in the pictures below).
She declared the navy sweater being a definitive item, “This is universal – for men, women and children. Every one has a black one and thinks they look like Juliette Gréco but they look like a rat. Navy will always be beautiful – whether you buy it at Uniqlo or Céline.”
I will never be able to look at a person wearing a black sweater without dispelling images of a rat in my head ever again. (I’m glad to say that i DO own a navy sweater, and from Uniqlo too, so yay me!)
Due to Inès’ authority as a fashion legend and being the quintessence of French chic, UNIQLO has collaborated with her for a third collection for Spring Summer 2015.
I had the immense pleasure of being flown to Paris by Uniqlo for their SS15 press preview to speak to Inès, and Naoki Takizawa – UNIQLO Design Director whom Inès worked closely with for the collection.
The press preview was held at Atelier Richelieu and spanned two floors. A large airy room on the ground floor was decorated specifically to show off the SS15 Inès de la Fressange x UNIQLO collection; complete with plentiful of interior props for a Southern French ambience and style inspirations on the walls.
New items in this collection include sports jackets and sweat shirts in vintage styles, each added with subtle yet distinctive feminine accents that is emblematic of Inès. Her signature use of indigo is broadened with the inclusion of caramels and delicate grays.
I love how many cotton and linen pieces there are, making me think of how i’m going to be needing them on my holidays in Asia or summer trips in Europe. Also watch out for a concurrent theme of playful and feminine touches as can be seen in neckline openings, fit and slim silhouettes.
Parts of my Interview with Naoki Takizawa & Ines de la Fressange
Naoki: We’re all naturally inspired by something. By each other.
Inès: Naoki shows me vintage things that he has, I show him vintage things that I found at a flea market. And then we discuss about fabrics. We don’t have the work feeling that much but don’t tell Mr. Yanai. It’s like seeing a friend and showing them what you’ve found at the flea market and saying ‘let’s do a jacket that is similar’. We have great fun. Fashion is done by crazy people who are finally the most reasonable because we are the ones doing the business in the end. But there’s no planning, he’s much more French than I am, I’m the Japanese one, the serious one. That’s how fashion should be done, with desire and happiness and enthusiasm. It’s not something for intellectual people.
Naoki: I think for a brand like Uniqlo, we don’t follow the trends. We try to think about what the customer needs.
Inès: A lot of down-to-earth things. I don’t find a real raincoat that I want. So I say ‘let’s do it’. We don’t even have a list of things to do. Usually when you design a collection you need two shapes of pants, two shapes of shirts, one coat. It’s done like this nowadays in all the studios. But we never thought of those, we had such freedom, I must say.
Naoki: Also the model and how to show the clothes. With high profile designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Jean-Paul Gaultier, we see what are the good clothes for women. This is a good thing for us, we don’t need to talk a lot, I don’t need to explain to her about the fabric – ‘this is wool, this is the front, this is the back.’
Inès: We work a lot like in the 80’s. It was all about ‘let’s do the things we want’. Now in the studios it’s no longer like that. The fact that there are a thousand shops in the world means that (there is) a lot of fabric and we cannot afford to have good quality fabric because of that. I didn’t expect that (for this collection), having such good quality. I noticed that the pieces that we prefer in the first collection (became the greatest hits in the shops) and this gives us a certain power now. We’ve been showing what we like and what we believe in, and it was disappearing very quickly in the shops.
Which are personally your favourite pieces?
Inès: I think the jacket and jeans is perfection because it is well cut. And that first jacket there, it is very light and with no lining. I could fold it quite small and put it in my case. Wrinkle is beautiful and it will fit with the shirt, T-shirts, it would be easy. This has a classic cut, the colour is great the detail is there.
This is a very strong collection. I can imagine the lifestyle for it.
Naoki: This collection is much bigger than the last collection.
Inès: And it is also exclusive fabric. Design exclusive. Like this print, it is just for us. We had more time to work and I hope they (Uniqlo) will order more clothes in the shops. I have my friends complaining that they can’t find something in their size. Just today I received a text saying ‘I can’t find the pants in my size.’
Better be quicker next time!
Inès: Haha yeah maybe!
Naoki: What is the temperature during winter time in Malaysia?
We don’t have winter, so it’s 30 degrees all year round.
Naoki: Oh, so quite constant?
Yes quite constant tropical weather.
Inès: Oh that’s good. Because in France when you go outside you can’t go in a swimming suit into the city. But you don’t want to carry something heavy. And these for instance, they are not shirts and jackets but they are light like shirts. When it’s very heavy, humid and warm you have to dress up a little bit but you don’t want anything. I have the same problem, because sometimes during summer in France it is very very warm but I have to dress very chic so I can’t go just in a T-shirt. I would love to but I have to be a bit dressy because some personality or journalist is arriving. Linen is a dream when it’s very warm, even wrinkle is very beautiful. Cotton is perfection too.
+ + + + + + +
I had such a great chat with the both of them. It was comfortable as they were jesting and laughing, yet would sit upright when excitedly defending a point. What struck me most was their undeniable passion and devotion to fashion and style, yet not losing their zest for happiness and a fulfilling life.
And i think, no, i don’t think, i KNOW why i feel more connected to the brand after that day. I could see and feel so apparently that their core value is happiness, and it’s so strongly my own too, which is why i’ve felt more of an affinity thereafter.
During another part of our conversation, Inès went off into a passionate spiel. Read it, you can just feel her words spilling out of her soul:
“I prefer not to be that selfish and talk about myself, my image. But I really trust that if I sincerely like something, the others are going to like it. I always notice that things left during sales, left in the shops are the less good things. I trust the customer, even more than the professional people.
The customers are the best, they recognise the best immediately. I don’t think I’m such an example but I trust my desires. And if I think I’m gonna wear it, for the others it will be the same.
I do lots of interviews explaining the Parisian style, on how to mix up things. Most of my life I explain what is the Parisian style. But at the end I know that in a shop, it’s not style that you sell, it’s items.
If there’s a really nice white jacket, people are not going to buy the whole collection they are just going to buy a few items. The whole atmosphere has to be in that one item. They have to be happy even buying just one item.
Each of the things in the collection, we like it. If we didn’t like something it’s out of the collection. Everyone has been asking us which one we prefer, but we like everything. There are many people in Malaysia who have bought our clothes who haven’t even heard of me, they’ve never seen a picture of me and sometimes they don’t even understand that the girl in the picture in the shop is the designer. They just think it’s an old mother. And I don’t care about this, I had all the luck in my life, been famous, been modelling, working with all the best photographers. So my ego is fine.
I’m now much happier if people tell me that they bought a jacket that I did than if they told me they saw my picture in a magazine. It’s like when you have children, people tell you ‘Oh they’re so polite they’re so sweet.’ You’re happy from that much more than if people told you ‘Your skin looks great.’
I’m happy with the success whether they do or don’t put my name in it, it’s not important to me. The rest of the collection of Uniqlo are things that could have been done by me, could have been inspired, and I’m quite proud of it. I know some people are going to wear these clothes in a way that I didn’t expect and mix them up with other clothes that I didn’t do and that’s the game of it.
Finally to answer you shortly, I don’t care if there’s some of me in it or not. I just want people to be happy and I want them not to make a mistake. When they buy something it’s something that they will actually wear and be happy that they bought it. I want them think “Uh oh I only took the white one. I should have also taken the navy blue.” It’s possible at Uniqlo to buy two.”
I’ve had my fair share of The Lunch Club Asia meals in the office and at events, and wanted to share this bit of news with you all cos it’s founded by Rengee and i love her so, teehee, favouritism la. (I think the woman is insane and i have no idea how she runs so many business projects simultaneously…)
In conjunction with Valentine’s Day and the Lunar New Year, desktop gourmet crafters The Lunch Club Asia are gifting busy urbanites with refreshing candle-lit lunches. All subscription sign ups to The Lunch Club Asia in the month of February will receive a complimentary scented candle by Tish worth RM29.90 each.
“With a special focus on serving time-constrained city dwellers, The Lunch Club Asia is a refreshing alternative to traditionally fat- and preservative-laden fast food meals. Driven by the belief that “good food is only good for you if it tastes amazing and leaves you energized long after your last bite”, each weekly recipe from The Lunch Club Asia is carefully crafted in-house, with attention not only on balanced proportions, but also on delivering exciting medleys of colour, taste and texture.
Serving ONE fresh weekly recipe, subscribers to The Lunch Club Asia are alleviated of the question of “what shall I have for lunch today?” and avoid having to resort to fast food. All meals are conveniently packed for busy people on-the-go and designed to be consumed chilled or at ambient temperature.” – Rengee
I was flown to Seoul by Kiehl’s last year as a representative of KinkyBlueFairy for a 2-day symposium in conjunction with Kiehl’s Dermatologist Solution 10th year anniversary celebration.
It was my first time visiting the city, and I was excited for weeks prior to the trip because Seoul is the title holder of World Design Capital in 2010. Along with all the stories I’ve heard from Joyce along with some tour books I got, I couldn’t wait to see what the city had to offer.
The view from my room overlooking N Seoul tower. We were checked into Hotel Grand Ambassador, which was conveniently located near popular areas such as MyeongDong and HongDae.
Waking up to this view daily brightened up my mood despite the cold weather, which I wasn’t a big fan of.
I didn’t pack much skin care as winter wear took up most of my luggage space. I figured that since the country is widely famous for its skin care products (and regime: 7-steps, guys!) I could just fulfil all my skin care needs over there.
But surprise, surprise! When I entered my hotel room, I found TWO bags of Kiehl’s travel-sized skin and body care products! I was excited and a little bit relieved because I didn’t need to spend my Korean Won on skin care products anymore!
Let me list down the products that I received:
Basic Skin Care: Ultra Facial Cleanser, Ultra Facial Toner, Ultra Facial Cream (for normal and dry skin) and Ultra Tight Daily UV Defense SPF 50++ UVA.
Serums: Clearly Corrective Dark Spot Solution, Powerful Strength Line Reducing Concentrate, Midnight Recovery Concentrate (this is one of their star products), and Powerful Wrinkle Reducing Eye Cream.
Hair Care: Amino Acid Shampoo and Amino Acid Conditioner.
Body Care: Bath & Shower Liquid Body Cleanser “Grapefruit”, Vetiver & Black Tea Body Lotion & Body Cleanser.
Extra: Ultimate Strength Hand Salve and Creme de Corps.
See what I mean? ALL of my skin care needs were taken care of! I feel so spoilt. THANKS, KIEHL’S!
A selfie is mandatory when you’re in a hotel room with great natural morning light. This was after 3 days of using the samples provided by Kiehl’s, the result was far better than what I expected (which explained why I’m such a BIG FAN to the brand now).
I was deeply worried that my dry skin might take a turn for the worse due to the cold and dry weather there, but I was wrong. My skin’s condition actually got so much better and my face felt more moisturised than it was in Malaysia.
