Cure Aqua Gel Review: The Best Japanese Peel Gel for Soft, Smooth Skin | Glamour

I’m really not the kind of person who says things like, “This [random beauty product] changed my life!” For most of my adulthood, I’ve followed a skin care and makeup routine that can politely be described as boring as hell: Gentle cleanser followed by moisturizer, a dab of CC cream with a little blush or highlighter, and then I throw on some mascara and call it a day.

Still, I’ve always been a little bit jealous of people with elaborate beauty regimens. You know, someone who has a really gorgeous bathroom counter filled with beautiful, minimalistic bottles. The kind of person who regularly matches their lipstick to their outfit, and their facial cleanser to their current skin care conundrum. Someone who knows what clarifying toner is and does. Seriously, though, what is toner? [Ed note: Read this!]

So believe me when I tell you Cure Natural Aqua Gel changed my life. Over the years I tried a lot of rough exfoliators in the hope that they would clean my pores, which always felt like there were blackheads ready to wreck my complexion and ruin my mood at a moment’s notice—especially on my T-zone. My thinking, I guess, was that if I used an abrasive formula, it would slough the crap out of my skin like a dang steel wool sponge. In reality, these exfoliators did little to fix the problem and made me break out. Not great.

But two years ago, when I saw Cure Natural Aqua Gel on a roundup of the best Japanese beauty products available Stateside—and discovered that it’s one of the most popular treatments in Japan, with a bottle sold every 12 seconds—I figured it would be worth a shot. It didn’t hurt that a 250ml bottle was under $26 on Amazon, so it wasn’t some massive investment if it didn’t work.

Turns out, it’s the best pore cleanser I’ve ever used. It worked so well that I’ve since become the person at a party who talks at length about their skin care routine and insists that you buy a bottle of this stuff, like, yesterday. And I don’t care!

This product becomes even more magical when you first open the package and realize that it has the exact consistency, look, and even vaguely the smell of hand sanitizer. Don’t be alarmed. The most important thing is that you follow the directions: If you just try to use it like any ol’ cleanser, you won’t get results. And in case you don’t read Japanese (which you’d need if you were going to go off just what was on the bottle), here’s how to use it:

1. With wet or dry skin, put three or four pumps of the gel on your fingertips and apply it to a small area of your face. I have an issue with the pores on my nose, so I usually start there. (Note that some people will tell you to use it only on your dry skin, but I use this bad boy on just-cleaned, drip-dried skin in the shower and still see killer results.)