Experiencing Equitance – All About The New 6-Part Japanese Skincare Regimen

I have a fascination with international skincare routines and regimens. In recent years there’s been so much buzz and heat around the Asian skincare market. There’s an awareness that the products tend to be highly tested and come from a long tradition of quality skincare practices. There’s also a perception that it’s a process with many parts – as many as 12 in many Eastern skincare regimes. Many of the parts involve steps that your standard Westernized skincare lover just doesn’t ordinarily do and products we don’t tend to use – double cleansing, refreshers and essences and ampoules and facial massaging, for example. It can be a bit daunting to those of us used to a less-is-more approach. Here’s a much less daunting prospect.

For those of us who want to step up our skincare practice while not feeling totally overwhelmed, anyone who’s curious about Asian skincare products but hasn’t yet taken the plunge into the market, anyone who wants brighter, less dull skin but doesn’t want to alter their shade of beautiful in the slightest, let me introduce you to a new range of products you may find yourself loving as much as I do.

Meet Equitance.

This Japanese brand has 5 skincare steps and 6 easy products. Here’s their step by step regimen:

Cleanse with the Brightening Foaming Cleanser
Enhance with the Brightening Toning Lotion (more on this step later)
Brighten with the Brightening Serum and Spot Corrector
Moisturize with the Hydrating Brightening Cream
Protect with the Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 36.

Just in case you’re like me and your interests are particularly piqued by brands with history, let me tell you that Equitance wasn’t born yesterday. This brand is new to the US market, but the skin care line has been 18 years in the making. Equitance is a brand born in Japan decade ago and introduced to US last year by venerable company Sunstar, which was founded in Japan in 1932. They’ve been doing this work and this research for quite some time.
Equitance’s intention is to combine a Japanese sense of simplicity and purity with effective botanicals, all fueled by research and science. The products are formulated to enhance your skin, giving you brightness and radiance from the inside out. There’s a focus on brightening here and I’d like to break that down a little – because that can be a negative buzzword when it comes to beautifully melanated skin. To Equitance, brightening means enhancing radiance. It means revealing the clean, dewy, fresh glow of new skin; not altering the skin’s overall color or tone. Their approach focuses on targeting spots and hyperpigmentation specifically with topical active ingredients. I’ve been using Equitance products for about a month now, and I can tell you a bit more about the products and my absolute favorite standout items, in depth from experience!

Let’s do this:

Brightening Foaming Cleanser – Probably my favorite item from the brand. I totally LOVE the cleanser. It’s thick and rich and really leaves my skin feeling refreshed and clean, not stripped and squeaky. If you love lather, this will be your jam. It’s a decadent, luxe kind of lather that washes away the environmental pollution of the day as well as your layers of cosmetics and moisturizers. It leaves my skin feeling so soft and pure.

Brightening Toning Lotion – If you think of toner as a harsh blast, this isn’t that. This is a mild facial refresher to restore your skin’s moisture balance and it’s actually formulated to maximize absorption, improving the efficacy of their serum and cream. FYI for those of you who normally bypass the toner step.

Brightening Serum + Spot Corrector focuses on blemish prevention, zeroes in on hyperpigmentation, and delivers a continuous blast of Linoleic acid, cherry blossom leaf extract and shell ginger extract to break it all up. The price point is a steep, but the scientific backing is encouraging. According to Equitance’s clinical studies, 92.3% of African American product testers said the appearance of their skin improved and their skin looks brighter, and 84.6% noted an improvement in the appearance of their dark spots with use of the product line.

Hydrating Brightening Cream is so soft and nourishing to my skin. It’s light but decadent and it’ll transition beautifully from season to season. My skin drinks it up, I love it on my forehead and cheeks and I carry it down to neck and décolleté because I want to stay soft and supple everywhere, know what I mean? The cream uses the aforementioned brightening ingredients, but adds shea butter and yogurt extract to support deep moisture and nourishment as part of a moisture veil intended to lock in moisture. It even comes with a little spatula so you don’t contaminate the jar with fingers. If you’re looking to step up your skincare at night, this could be the move.

Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 36 is super, super lightweight and thin in consistency. Like milk. It took me a little getting used to at first, but just know that less is more. Smooth it on to enhance your protection from the harsh UV rays, and it can also be used as a light primer under your makeup, intended to dry quickly and protect your skin from the elements.
In the nature of full disclosure I’d like to admit that the one product I haven’t tried is the Skin Radiance Dietary Supplement, which contains a blend of eggshell membrane, grapeseed extract, Vitamin C and Hesperidin to support skin health and vitality from within.

My two favorites are the cleanser and the cream – love using the cleanser with my little silicone face pad, makes my face feel extra clean afterwards!

The price points on Equitance’s full size products ranges from $30 (for the cleanser and sunscreen) to $125 for the serum, so it falls more into a luxury skincare category. But if you’re brand new to Equitance and you’re curious and want to dip your toe in the water, consider trying the Equitance Skin Care Trial Kit, which is priced at an affordable $37 for sample sizes of all six items.

Visit Equitance-us.com for more information on this new/old Japanese skincare brand, or click here to like them on Facebook.  ALSO, every Friday in September, customers get 40% OFF any purchase on the website. AND there’s a September Exclusive Offer: get a FREE Regimen Box with any purchase of $75 or more.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Sunstar, but the opinions are all mine.