In this section, we will introduce beauty products which are currently the trend among Japanese women or may become the next hot item. This week, the spotlight goes to Kuwanoha Bijin [Mulberry Leaf Beauty]. It is also popular in online shopping websites.

It is said that drinking this special tea made of mulberry leaves makes your skin whiter. At first I thought, "That can't be true, it's just tea, isn't it?" Well, there seems to be logical explanations for the effect of this product. Among all, silkworms produce those beautiful white silk because they feed off of mulberry leaves. If they eat any other leaves, they would produce green silk. So, it can be said that a whitening effect could be expected from consuming mulberry which creates that "whiteness". From what I have heard, an esthetician was showing off her flawless beautiful white skin of her arms and legs; "Thanks to the mulberry tea, I don't even need sun block."

If all that is true, then why not try it? So I did, and it was delicious! Another one, please! If you like green tea, I guarantee you would love it. I couldn't tell its beauty effects with just one drink of course, but I bought it just because I really liked its taste. I completely became addicted to it and probably gulped down two to three packs of this tea a day. Then, I first began noticing that "it" was significantly darker, almost black, when I went to the bathroom in the morning. I guess it was all the waste that didn't quite exit out properly before, because at the same time, my weight began going down and my skin also became smooth! I felt the difference especially when cleansing my skin and putting on makeup. To my surprise, that chunk of blubber on my lower belly that I've wanted to get rid of for so long disappeared! Though I began drinking this tea for the sake of good taste and its whitening effect, it gave me much more positive changes, one after another.

So, I have been consuming for about two weeks, and the actual results are pretty stunning. I feel so cheerful in my used-to-be-tight skinny jeans which now fit so perfectly. What's more, I get tons of comments from almost everyone like, "Did you lose weight?" "Isn't your skin smoother than before?" or "Since when were you so white?" Others ask if I did something different to my makeup or tell me that my face looks smaller. Yay!

I learned afterwards this mulberry tea contain so much vitamin and fiber; incomparable to the usual health tea products. Other than mulberry leaves, also contain substances which bring wonderful effects for women such as soy isoflavone, minerals, and lactobacillus that conditions the digestive system. Comparing it with other products, it has 27 times the amount of calcium in milk and 15 times the amount of iron-rich vegetables. The tea which is good both for beauty and health is something I strongly recommend for people who eat off balance.

The standard way of drinking is to dissolve a pack into 500ml of water. You can shake it inside a 500ml plastic bottle for easy measuring, and enjoy! Yet even this spectacular Kuwanoha Bijin has a weakness. It tends not to dissolve completely and sinks down at the bottom over time. You would have to shake the bottle each time you drink, but the process shouldn't be such a pain if you think of it as an upper arm exercise. They say that it is also good with yogurt, so I would like to try it next time.