Mentholatum Rohto Hada Labo Shirojyun Super Hyaluronic Acid / Whitening lotion (toner) (2012) review

Hope everyone's having a wonderful new year! I've been so busy at work so last two weeks of holiday was really just catching up on sleep (and weeding out a lot of my skincare products and makeup). My new year's resolution should be to finish as much skincare as possible (and stop buying 'as many' new things lol)

Following my last review, here's a quick post on the Hada Labo Shirojyun lotion toner. Basically this is the 'whitening' counterpart to the Gokujyun line (which is targeted specifically for hydration only). This one still boasts superior hydration property together with added whitening benefits (active ingredients are Arbutin and vitamin C).

Again this retails for about 13-20USD depending on where you purchased it from, but it is considered a drugstore line in terms of market positioning.

I forgot to take close up shots after swatching on arms, but basically it's a cloudish semi clear toner. It's runny but not as runny as water. Dries non sticky.  Has no distinctive scent. 

Comes in a flip top cap. It works fine and never had spillage problems.

Now verdict- personally I was hoping for a whitening toner that complements my other skincare , but I really didn't feel much of a difference. In terms of hydration properties, I believe it is inferior to the Shiseido Hada Senka line's toner (reviewed here ).

It's also a mild toner in terms of cleansing properties. Sometimes I dab a little bit of toner to try to remove smudged mascara, but this barely makes anything budge. 

While using this I didn't really notice any worsening in skin irritation (e.g. when I get occassional zits) nor overall improvement. At  least it's non irritating.

Overall I think it's a decent toner, it could just be I already made my mind up about the Shiseido Hada Senka toner and this was no competition (I've used a few department store toners which I thought were even worse), whitening properties are weak, I still think the best toners are probably the moisturising ones and for whitening types of skincare product, it's best to rely on other things like serums and treatment products.

Rating is 3.5/5.