Someone on Instagram asked me last week about how I keep my legs looking smooth and even. That’s when I realized that I haven’t talked about this nifty technique yet despite “discovering” it some time back! It became viral on TikTok at one point, but I found out about it before I saw it on Tiktok via a “Eureka!” moment in the shower. It just makes complete sense.

Go to the beauty section of any drug store or supermarket and you’ll find an iconic white box with a winking geisha. Kojie San has been a solid mainstay in the skin lightening sector, and it’s become so popular among international Asian Beauty fans that you can find listings for the brand’s famous soap on Amazon! While we at Project Vanity are not interested in skin lightening and whitening per se, we find that the Kojie San’s soap is one fo the most effective products to help even out darker areas.

If you’ve been a regular reader of Project Vanity, you’ve probably seen that we now have a podcast! I’ve been very excited since Liz and Den first announced it to the team as it’s something that I’ve long wanted for us to do. The topics have been very interesting but my favorite one so far is Episode 4, which discusses skin whitening. 

Let’s be honest: sticky sunscreens will certainly have us preferring to skip sun protection altogether. This is probably why I’ve always turned to Japanese sunscreens because of their non-stickiness and comfortable wear. But good news to those want to patronize our local products - there are actually some good (and non-sticky) proudly Filipino sunscreens in the market! Even better news is that these are all under P500 so we have no more excuses to skip on sunscreen. Here’s what I tried!

The very first sunscreen I ever purchased was a Kojie San sunblock. It came in a little white and orange bottle, and I picked it up from a convenience store when I realized I didn't have any sun protection for my beach trip. Not gonna lie - that formula turned out to be greasy and scented but I cared more about preventing sun damage than being comfortable!

The brand is best known for its amazing kojic acid soap for lightening skin (I love using this as a body exfoliant!), so it only makes sense that they also offer products that protect skin from sun damage. No one likes a sticky, heavy sunscreen, and so I was happy to see that Kojie San has made great improvements in their formulas since I last tried them.