Updates: Tattoos, Teeth, and Retinoids

plus, the one foreign beauty product I'd recommend

Welcome readers, old and new!

Please hit the ❤️ above to find very good reasons (like better health and peace of mind) to give away a bit of your time for free.

Aware that I spend around four months a year living in Tokyo, readers have asked me for skincare product recommendations when they travel to Japan or other places outside the U.S. I tell them—risking their disappointment—that I don’t recommend skincare products here or elsewhere because, except for sunscreens, there isn’t a big difference in their quality or effectiveness. (Sunscreen is the exception, because the FDA in the U.S. prohibits the use of some ingredients that improve effectiveness. See this clip for a clear explanation.)

Having said that, I do recommend spending several hours in any large drug store in Japan, where wandering the beauty product aisles makes for an absorbing lesson in creative marketing.

I’m often more interested in the snacks, and will happily try something without knowing what it is. (I just discovered I’m not alone in this.) I once picked up what I thought was a container of angel hair pasta till I noticed the pasta had… eyes (teeny fish). Street food on a stick masquerading as strawberries turned out to be tomatoes. Bottom-line: I’d rather be fooled by edibles than by the beauty industry. (But not these edibles.)

After the paywall, a few worthwhile amendments and additions to previous posts.

HNTFUYF is a payola-free, reader-supported zone. I get no cut from sales when I mention a product. My recommendations are offered without obligation, making HNTFUYF one of the very few places where you can get unadulterated beauty advice.

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