Brand Review: KISS

Kiss is one of those excellent drugstore brands that the Japanese are so good at producing. The price range is from 525yen to 1680yen. Kiss usually releases one collection a month. The star products are: Mascara Glamourous Volume WP (1470yen), Dual Fairy Blush (1260yen), Eye Nuance Palette (1470yen), Rouge Melty Syrup (1470yen) and Lip Apricot Jelly (840yen). Personally, I love their loose face powders the most, two of which I review below. The brand is targeted mainly at young women in their teens to 20s, with its princessy, largely pink packaging.

I first got into Kiss when I came across a "lucky bag" promotion in December 2006 where sets with 10 Kiss items that had a total retail value of 8400yen were being sold for the bargain price of 1890yen. Many of the items in the photo above were from various lucky bag sets, limited edition and hence no longer available. Mascara Glamorous Volume WP was voted the top mascara in 2006 at Cosme.net which is the largest Japanese makeup review website. I find the Rouge Melty Syrup to be quite moisturising with a distinctive berry scent but the shade selection is very limited. The eyeshadow palettes do not have the most glamorous packaging but the quality of the eyeshadows, which are all shimmery, is just as good as many department store brands. The colour payoff is excellent when applied with the included sponge applicator and using the cream shade (there's one in every palette) as a base.

Mat Chiffon Powder #01 Lucent Rose and Moist Angel Powder R #1 Translucent
Moist Angel Powder R (1680yen, 6g, right in the pic) was released by Kiss in September 2006 while Mat Chiffon Powder (1680yen, 9g, left in the pic) was just released earlier this month. I've tried both and they're both excellent with a very finely milled, silky texture that goes on like a dream. The puff included is also very soft and feels great against my skin. Moist Angel Powder #1 Translucent is a very light beige while Mat Chiffon #1 Lucent Rose is a very pale pink-toned white. Both apply mostly translucent but Mat Chiffon #1 Lucent Rose give a slightly more dreamy finish. Moist Angel Powder currently has an average 4.6 star rating on Cosme.net while Mat Chiffon has an average 6 star rating (but that is out of only 2 reviews). Here's another pic of Mat Chiffon with the included powder puff.




Kiss is produced by Passion NY which also makes the Susie NY brand. Kiss is currently sold only in Japan so I highly recommend checking it out if you get a chance to travel to Japan! The official website is http://www.kiss-cosmetics.com