【Staff Interview】A Simple Routine for Skin That Feels Oily and Dry

Kano first discovered Earthcare while looking for an internship.

From the very beginning, she felt that the interview was quite different from those at other companies.

“I thought an interview would mostly be about looking at my résumé and asking about things like why I applied or what I had done before. But at Earthcare, they kept asking deeper questions like, ‘How did you feel at that time?’ or ‘Why did you decide to do that?’”

The interview lasted for more than an hour.

Rather than simply focusing on what was written on her résumé, the interviewer wanted to understand how she thought and why she made certain decisions.

That left a strong impression on her.

“I remember thinking, ‘They’re really trying to understand whether this company and I are a good fit.’”

That impression did not change after she started working as an intern.

In meetings and during the process of creating advertisements, there was one question she heard again and again:

“Before coming here, I often made decisions based on things like, ‘That sounds fun,’ or ‘That seems good.’ But here, you’re always expected to think about the reason behind your decision.”

At first, she found it challenging.

“I honestly felt like I was using my brain more than I did at university! (laughs) When I first started, I would sometimes go home after a full day of work and fall asleep straight away.”

But over time, she started to enjoy being in an environment that encouraged her to think in a completely new way.

Originally, Kano had not planned to start working immediately after graduating from university.

She had been considering going to graduate school.

But as she thought more seriously about her future, one question started to come to mind:

Around that time, she had the opportunity to speak directly with Earthcare’s president about her future.

“I talked to him about what I was thinking of doing after university, and I was surprised by how seriously he thought about it with me. I don’t think there are many companies where you get the chance to talk so openly with the president.”

Talking with someone who had very different life and work experiences from her own introduced her to perspectives she had never considered before.

She often found herself thinking, “I never knew there was another way to look at it.”

Eventually, her thinking began to change.

Today, she is still working at Earthcare as an intern, and she is scheduled to join the company as a full-time employee next year.

Even after joining Earthcare, Kano did not immediately start using the company’s skincare products.

She wanted to try them, but she hesitated to ask whether she could use the employee purchase programme so soon after joining.

“I hadn’t really achieved anything yet, so I felt a little awkward asking, ‘Can I buy the products at the employee price?’ (laughs)”

About a month later, she finally asked one of the other staff members.

That was when she bought Aquatect Gel for herself for the first time.

She started with the 100g size.

Her thinking was simple:

“I thought I’d just start with the smaller one and see how it goes.”

And that was the beginning of a gradual change in her skincare routine.

Before using Aquatect Gel, Kano thought she might have oily skin.

But things did not quite add up.

She was also concerned about the appearance of pores on her cheeks and blackheads around her nose.

“My skin felt oily, but at the same time it also felt dry. I honestly didn’t know what kind of skin I had.”

After coming across the term “combination skin” online, she started wondering whether that might describe her skin.

Her skincare routine at the time was very different from the one she follows today.

Because she was especially concerned about her pores, she often chose serums that claimed to help make pores look less noticeable.

But even after trying a variety of products, she did not feel that she was seeing a major difference.

Later, when she looked back at photos of herself from that time, she realised that her skin may have been drier than she had thought.

“At the time, I thought my skin was oily. But when I look at old photos now, it actually looks quite dry. My foundation would sometimes start looking patchy or flaky after I had been wearing it for a while.”

Acne was something Kano had been concerned about since junior high school.

She visited a dermatologist for medication and also tried various over-the-counter products.

Sometimes her skin would settle down for a while, and then she would become concerned again and start using medication once more.

By the time she reached university, it had become less of a concern than it had been during her junior high and high school years.

She sometimes noticed them on her forehead, cheeks and chin, and she was also conscious of the marks they could leave behind.

When Kano first started using Aquatect Gel, she did not immediately notice a dramatic change in her skin.

The first benefit she noticed was actually much simpler.

Before that, her skincare routine involved several steps:

And sometimes even more.

Once she started using Aquatect Gel, her routine became much simpler.

Her sink area had previously been filled with bottles of toner, emulsion and serum.

After she stopped using them, she tried to finish some by applying them to her hands, while a few products ended up being thrown away before she could finish them.

Her skincare products had once taken up almost an entire shelf.

Now, Aquatect Gel is often all she needs there.

“I suddenly had so much more space. And not having to think, ‘What should I put on today, and in what order?’ made a surprisingly big difference!”

A few months after she started using Aquatect Gel, Kano went back to her family home.

There, one comment from her family stayed with her.

Because she saw her own face every day, she had not noticed a significant change herself.

But hearing it from family members who had not seen her for a while made her think:

“Maybe something really has changed.”

Later, friends who had known her for a long time began making similar comments.

For Kano, those comments meant a lot.

“People had hardly ever complimented my skin before, so I was really happy when they started saying things like that.”

She also says that, before she knew it, acne was no longer something she was as conscious of as before.

For her, it was not a matter of noticing one sudden change.

Instead, it was only after continuing her daily skincare routine and looking back that she began to notice differences.

Today, Kano uses Aquatect Gel in a way that fits naturally into her daily routine.

Her main application times are:

Rather than waiting until her skin starts to feel dry, she prefers to moisturise regularly.

“I don’t really wait until my skin feels dry and then think, ‘I need to moisturise.’ I try to take care of my skin throughout the day so that it keeps feeling consistent.”

In the morning and at night, Kano applies a relatively generous amount of Aquatect Gel.

During the day, she uses about half of the amount she would normally apply in the morning or evening.

When she is wearing makeup, she does not apply a large amount all at once.

Instead, she uses a small amount on each area separately, such as her:

“It’s easier for me to control the amount when I apply a little at a time instead of putting it everywhere at once.”

She also adjusts where and how much she applies depending on the condition of her skin, and avoids areas such as around the eyes if she feels her makeup may be more likely to shift there.

Aquatect Gel is not something Kano uses only on her face.

She also applies it to her neck and hands.

During winter in particular, she used to notice dryness on her hands and around her nails.

She also dislikes the dry feeling she sometimes gets after using hand sanitiser while she is out, so she applies Aquatect Gel at times like those too.

When she is out and about, she usually carries the 100g size.

But when she has run out of the smaller tube, she has even been known to put the 250g size straight into her bag.

“It’s heavy! (laughs) But I can use it at home too, so I just think, ‘Oh well,’ and carry it around.”

It is a small detail, but one that feels very true to Kano’s down-to-earth personality.

Finally, we asked Kano if she had a message for people who are currently using Aquatect Gel or wondering whether they should continue using it.

Kano has spent time experimenting with different ways of caring for her own skin and finding a routine that works for her.

And because she is also an Aquatect Gel user herself, she tries to imagine how customers might feel whenever she creates an advertisement.

We hope Kano’s personal experience gives you a few useful ideas for your own skincare routine♪