Spring is here with the blooming of Sakura, here's what you need to know about the symbolic flower of spring and Japan.
K-beauty is renowned in the skincare realm with many ingredients and tips originating from Korea before making its way into mainstream cosmetics. For example, tips the infamous 7-step toner, pimple patches and face sheet masks. While ingredients that found fame would be mugwort, snail mucin, cica and plenty more. And now J-beauty is slowly garnering more attention as many are paying attention to Japanese sunscreen brands like Biore, Allie and Anessa as one of the many.
Whenever we think of Japan, the first few things that probably come to mind is Sushi, Tokyo, Mochi or Green Tea. But for me its Sakura. The iconic pinkish-white scenic like environment only runs from late March to mid-April. And other making you feel like you’re the main character of a movie, Sakura also boasts amazing skin benefits that everyone needs to know.
Sakura, also known as Cherry Blossoms in English, is a symbol significant to Japanese culture and is said to symbolize Japanese beauty. They even have a traditional custom called Hanami that is a festival to view and relinquish in the beauty flowers, most often sakura.
Benefits
Detoxes the skin
- Sakura is rich in antioxidants that detoxes the skin of impurities and environmental pollutants that reside in your skin. These can cause buildup that can lead to breakouts, a weakened skin barrier and possibly irritate your skin.
Calms inflamed skin
- Sakura possesses anti-inflammatory properties that helps tone down irritation, redness or itchiness. It does so by inhibiting nitric oxide production that stops the inflammation.
Repairs damaged skin
- Not only calming the skin, sakura can also rejuvenate and heal the skin as it is rich in fatty acids (prunetin, polyglutamic acid) that improve the skin’s barrier and overall health.
Slows down aging skin
- The antioxidants in sakura can prevent damage from oxidative stress that damages the healthy collagen and elastin in the skin.
- Not only preventing collagen degradation (anti-glycation) from occurring, sakura boosts collagen production contributing to plumper, smoother and brighter-looking skin.
Lightens pigmentation
- Sakura can lighten discoloration by suppressing the production of melanin resulting in a more even looking skin tone.
What to note?
- As with all new ingredients and products, we advise customers to conduct a patch test 24-48 hours prior to application.
Products we recommend and where to find them
Innisfree Cherry Blossom
Innisfree’s Cherry Blossom line is formulated with Jeju cherry blossom and promises to help you achieve brighter, clearer skin. They also contain natural betaine from sugar beet that prevents dehydration by boosting skin moisture.
Garnier Sakura White
This product line by Garnier says is can help brighten the skin and reduce any discoloration to up 60% by using Sakura extract as its main component.
Hada Labo Gokujyun Hydrating Light Cream
This lightweight moisturizer combines up to 4 types of Hyaluronic Acid for intense hydration. It also contains shea butter that forms a protective barrier on top of the skin, and sakura extract to even out the skin for a healthier complexion.
Pleasing to both the eyes and skin. I bet you didn't know that Sakura were this beneficial to the skin, especially for brightening and clearing the skin. Feel free to leave a comment down below if you're curious about anything, be it any ingredient, skincare tip or topic.
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