Dupe/Replacement for Sasatinnie Facial Cleansing Brush!

Hi Everyone!

Today I will talk about great replacements/alternatives or almost a dupe of the Sasatinnie Facial Cleansing Brush!

Here is the Sasatinnie Facial Cleansing Brush, I wrote a review on it in my Fourth Sasa Haul!

So I did buy this online from Sasa and I loved this cleansing brush! And I wanted another one to carry around with me when I traveled or as a spare after my first one broke down. However, this product is very popular, often out of stock, and can be a bit pricy being internationally shipped.
So, I decided to go to a couple of stores in Irvine, CA to see if I could find any similar products.

Lo and behold I have found 2 cleansing brushes! =D One from Daiso and the other from Tokyo Japanese Lifestyle. There is are Daiso stores in Irvine and San Francisco. There are Tokyo Japanese Lifestyle stores in Irvine and Los Angeles.

Daiso Facial Cleansing Brush

This brush costs $1.50.
So as you can see, the shape of the brush is different than the Sasatinnie one. You also hold it differently. It is a little smaller but I actually think it is easier to hold and use. It is easier to reach smaller and harder to reach areas of my face such as between my eyebrows, the inner corners of my nose, and around my mouth.
The brush bristles are a little bigger or thicker than the Sasatinnie one and the bristles are more firm and less soft than the Sasatinnie one.

Tokyo Japanese Lifestyle Cleansing Brush

This brush costs $2.29.
Just like the Daiso brush, the Tokyo Lifestyle brush has a similar shape to the Daiso one but also different than the Sasatinnie one. I also find it easier to use and hold than the Sasatinnie brush for smaller and harder to reach places on my face. However, I find the material to be softer and the brush bristles are smaller and softer than the Sasatinnie brush.

What do I think of these products?
I think that both the Daiso and Tokyo Japanese Lifestyle facial cleansing brushes work well and I personally recommend the Tokyo Lifestyle brush. However, it really depends on your preference of shape and how soft and small you like the bristles to be. Other than that, the material is the same as the Sasatinnie one. They both work wonderfully well, same results as Sasatinnine for cleansing and gently exfoliating the face. Both of them will not harm or irritate sensitive skin and you can adjust the exfoliation by the amount of pressure you use on your face!

Do  I recommend any of these products?
I recommend both the Daiso and the Tokyo Japanese Lifestyle facial cleansing brushes as great dupes or similar products to the Sasatinnie facial cleansing brush. They all product the same result and are gentle on the skin. Daiso and Tokyo Lifestyle are each cheaper than the Sasatinnie brush and Daiso is the cheapest. In terms of material for brush bristle softeness: Daiso is the most firm, Tokyo Lifestyle is the softest, and Sasatinnie is in the middle!

So if you cannot get the Sasatinnie brush from Sasa because you live in a different country and it is too expensive to buy internationally, maybe these stores are near you or closer by to take a look. I know Sasa is a really popular department store but it is just like Sephora, Nordstrom, Macy's etc. which are big popular department stores that carry a variety of popular brands. However, these 2 other brushes are both great alternatives to the Sasatinnie brush and more affordable as well! =)
I am pretty happy because now I can leave the Daiso one at my parent's house and use the Tokyo Japanese Lifestyle brush for traveling. This way I can leave my more expensive Sasatinnie brush at home!

I hope you liked this review! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to write in the comment box below! Thank you for reading and I hope this was helpful! Have a great day. ^_^

Where to find Sasa products? (besides buying from the store or the online store)

Hi Everyone! =)

Today I will talk about and tell you where else to find Sasa products and other popular Asian brands besides going to the store or buying from their online store!

Sasa is a popular beauty department store in many Asian countries especially in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. However, many of their products are made by Asian companies in China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Therefore, these products are rather difficult to find in other countries such as the US, Europe, South America, Canada, Africa, India, etc.

So, I have been looking around locally, where I live in California, to see if I could find stores that sold many of the products that Sasa sells. Given I can't travel around the world and it's only in Southern California, I have a limited selection. However, the store names that I will list here may be somewhere nearby you and you may not even know it!
Also, California is a special place =) (not just because I live here and I like it XP) but it's special because it is so multicultural in a sense that it is more influenced by other countries than the rest of the US (in my opinion) and therefore, you can find a wider variety of culture, entertainment, art, ethnicity, food, clothes, languages, people, etc. So if you would like to go to on a vacation to the United States, please come to California =) And you can also buy stuff that you want in Sasa XD.

This post is to help people who are looking for the many popular skincare and cosmetic products that Sasa sells, that they see on Youtube, blogs, etc. that is difficult for them to find/buy. If the stores that I list here are no where near you, you can always go to Sasa's online store, which has good sales and many days (especially on holidays) that they have free shipping!

Okay, onto the stores listing from least expensive to most expensive! =P

Daiso
Daiso is a $1.50 store. It sells a variety of things and everything is almost $1.50. It's really great for cheap things from utensils, to folder, ceramic plates, arts and crafts, random cute things etc. Their cosmetic section has a lot of cheap things and you will never find any popular brand name cosmetics, skincare, or haircare products. So, if you like to try cheap makeup and $1.50 won't hurt you're pocket you might want to try this. But I can't guarantee anything will be of good quality because it's so cheap. Also, I probably would not recommend any of the hair and skincare products they sell.
What I like to buy in Daiso the most and what I recommend to buy in Daiso is the body wipes, cosmetic cotton sheets for removing makeup and putting on toner, Q-tips, and tissue packets. There are also a lot of great small travel bottles, travel sprays and little containers for creams etc. Also great to buy, because they're so cheap!

Marukai and more specifically Marukai Lifestyle/Living
Marukai is made up of 3 stores, the Marukai $1.50 store where you can find super cheap makeup, cheap false lashes and eyelid tape. Then there's the Marukai Lifestyle/Living where I recommend to go for haircare and skincare and Marukai Market, which has food. If you are looking for Shiseido hair products and skincare products, Lucido-L hair products, Tsubaki products, Essential Rich Premier, and the Juju Aquamoist brand this is a great place to go. There's also the famous makeup brands Dolly Wink and K-Palette with their eyeliners, eyeshadows, and eyebrow pencils and powders. There are also masks, but there's no My Beauty Diary. And there are cheap oil blotting papers, body massages, underarm roller massages, face massages, etc.

99 Ranch/Ranch 99
99 Ranch is a Chinese supermarket. It mainly sells Chinese food and Chinese fresh meat and vegetables. However, if you go to the beauty/skincare row in the market, they do sell a handful of products. I definitely know that they sell the My Beauty Diary masks, for a bit cheaper than most places. Other than that, I'm not sure what is there, because I don't go there often to buy beauty/skincare products. However, this market is probably the most popular and most common market in the United States compared to the rest of the stores, so I do recommend to go and take a look, especially for the My Beauty Diary masks. Don't be shy, okay, lots of Asian people speaking Asian languages may weird you out, but really, to those of you who know who you are, go out there and be more cultured. =P I'm not saying this as a foreigner, I was born and bred in the US and I like living in this country, but seriously, some people need to be more educated in more than just reading, math, and science.
Quick story: In northern CA and southern CA, there's like this debate about which name is correct for this market. In reality, the stores are actually labeled differently north and south. So, in northern CA the store sign in Ranch 99 and in southern CA the store sign is 99 Ranch. So, people, you are both right and be happy and get over it!

Tokyo Lifestyle
This store is more known for selling anime and manga related things, Japanese cooking utensils, and cute random Asian things XD. It does sell mostly Japanese products so you won't really find other Asian products besides Japanese things. I recommend to go for the haircare and skincare products in this store. They have Shiseido, Tsubaki, sometimes NYX products. They also sell oil blotting papers that are much cheaper than Sephora or Ulta. They also have really cheap makeup like eyeshadows and false lashes there, but I have never tried them. =P I think this is a fun store to go to, they have lots of cool things so it's also fun to take a look. You can probably find this store in a mall in Los Angeles. There is one store in Irvine as well near UCI.

Beauty Diary
I have recently found this store and this store is actually from the brand My Beauty Diary! It is located in Arcadia, California, next to Pasadena. This store sells a variety of BB Creams (all the well known and famous brands), My Beauty Diary masks, Dolly Wink false lashes, eyeshadows, and eyeliners. It sells Juju aquamoist and Shiseido I think . It also sells other higher end brands such as dermalogica and For Beloved One (which has good eye masks). If you are looking for more brand named Asian skincare and cosmetic products, I recommend this store. However, it is a small store, so there might be a limited variety for some things.

Mitsuwa
This is a popular Japanese supermarket, that mostly has Japanese food, food courts, a bookstore, etc. Depending on the setup of the market, the skincare/cosmetic products are either in one of the aisles or in a section of the market. I recommend this place for Japanese brands/products such as Shiseido, Tsubaki, Essential Rich Premier, Lucido-L, Gatsby hair wax, Juju Aquamoist, Dolly Wink and K-Palette. It will be on the pricier side but Mitsuwa has opened many markets and branch markets throughout California.

Takashima
This is a new store that opened in Irvine and the original one is in Rowland Heights. This is like a version of Beauty Diary but even better. The problem is that they are more pricey, maybe $1-5 more, generally. This store has a large selection and great variety of products. You can find, K-Palette, Dolly Wink, Sasa products (like the Sasa brand), Tsubaki, Lucido-L, Shiseido, Juju Aquamoist, My Beauty Diary, Mentholatum (a popular acne treatment brand in Taiwan and China) and a lot of other Asian brands especially Japanese, Taiwan, and Korean.

Maneki Neko
This is a new store that just opened in Pasadena/LA area in the Westfield Mall in Santa Anita. The main store is in Little Tokyo. This store sells the largest and greatest variety of NYX products I have seen! It also contains many popular Japanese makeup and skincare brands such as Dolly Wink, Shiseido, Tsubaki, Essential Rich Premier, Juju Aquamoist, etc. It sells a large variety of My Beauty Diary masks as well as Japanese and Korean BB creams. However, this store is pricey, I would say it would be $1-5 more expensive than what you can get at other places.

So, I hope you like this post and I hope it helped you. I'm sorry if this doesn't seem helpful to you because most of these stores are in California. I'm also sorry if it seems like I am repeating the same brand names over and over again. It is because these brand names are very popular, good quality, and many of them are the leading skincare and cosmetic brands in Asia.

If all hope is lost and going to Sasa's online store won't work for you, try Amazon. It has good prices and you might be able to find some things there. I don't recommend eBay since there is a higher chance that people will sell you fake products.

Thank you for reading =) I am thinking of doing a video blog and take you with me into these stores to get a better idea of what they look like and the products they sell. If you want me to do that, please tell me! XD If you have any questions or comments, feel free to write in the comment box below! I'll see you later!