Memoirs of a Geisha Beauty Products
You knew it was coming.
The upscale beauty product line Fresh has released a new line of cosmetics that tie in with the movie Memoirs of a Geisha.
I snapped this photo of the Fresh boutique window on Bleeker Street in New York.
Products include “Flower Petal Mask, Shimmer Powder with Crushed Pearls and a Beauty Palette featuring Premier Rose Satin Luster.”
I know that we often like to giggle at the Engrish T-shirts for sale in Japan. But I think quite a few Japanese would giggle at the "Memoirs of a Geisha" beauty kit.
That said, I did see "geiko lipstick" for sale in tourist shops in Kyoto this summer. It was essentially red paint inside a shell, and came with a little brush. It wasn't exactly authentic, but approximated the traditional stuff that real geiko use.
It might have been nice if the Fresh product packaging had mirrored the authentic packaging. But oh well. Movies are about selling a fantasy, not necessarily documenting reality.
This is excellent for my feminine side! >_> But truthfully I suppose a girl would enjoy this if such species exist
October 4th, 2005 at 12:39 pmI think it’ll be interesting to see if any other beauty/fashion trends follow from this movie. The “obi” thing has been coming and going for years here, and the cumberbund, which is sort of like a thinner obi, is supposedly in this year. We’ll see if anything else follows.
October 4th, 2005 at 12:42 pmFresh… how could youuuuu…
October 4th, 2005 at 12:55 pmI wonder if Fresh got a licensing deal from the movie’s producers or if they ripped if off without a copyright payment. This sounds weird. Who did they pay for the rights to use the name of the title? The novelist or the Hollywood producers? I smell something fishy here, and I aint talking about sashimi either.
October 4th, 2005 at 2:45 pmaha! so it IS a movie tie-in. Let the tie-in season begin! Oi!
neW YORK, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ —
Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg, co-founders, Fresh, Inc., proudly announce an exciting partnership with Columbia Pictures / DreamWorks Pictures / Spyglass Entertainment’s feature film adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha debuting in theaters December 9, 2005.
October 4th, 2005 at 3:25 pmSorry folks, going oriental is old. This winter its all about going Cracka ass Cracka!!!
October 6th, 2005 at 4:28 am
Yay. Some more orientalizing! Wow, hasn’t “going geisha” been done ten billion times? You’d think after ten-billion-and-second time, they’d think of a way to at least update an already dated beauty and fashion trend. Yay to beauty promoting a movie that homogenizes Asians in typecasting!!! Whooo! Last I checked, Ziyi Zhang and Michelle Yeoh were not Japanese.
October 6th, 2005 at 4:49 pmwhat is the name of the japanese company that you saw the red lipstick in kyoto?
October 7th, 2005 at 2:29 pmAs near as I can tell, the maiko-shell lipstick is made by a company called “Ryukodo,” which is based in Kyoto and sells novelty products. A Google search on this company turned up that it is known for making “golden turds,” for whatever that is worth. I do not remember the exact store where I found the lipstick. However, I think that if you look at the shops in Kyoto station, you will probably find it, as the stores there carry most things you can find in the city itself.
October 8th, 2005 at 12:09 amAlice: Yes, Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh are not Japanese, anymore than Russell Crowe is Roman or Rene Zellweiger is British. Hollywood has always used Japanese and Korean actors to portray Chinese characters. Chinese movie stars are now getting a chance to play other ethnicities.
October 8th, 2005 at 2:35 pm[...] “>
10/18/2005
Japana Republic
The Memoirs of a Geisha movie product tie in juggernaut continues. The latest to get on the bandwagon is Banana Republic. I have [...]
October 18th, 2005 at 3:26 amyeah well however dated the “going geisha” trend might be its still gonna appear everywhere whch i think is good.. and as for obi’s being in or out theyve been in for a while all those shirts u see with a wide band starting nder the chest and a kimono type V-neck.. i think its about time the japanese culture take america by storm for once..and ive been looking for geisha makeup products so a big thumbs up to Fresh..
December 8th, 2005 at 12:21 amI happened to stumble across these comments because I just watched the movie and remember seeing the geisha products in bath and body works. I just wanted to say, so what they made a couple of beauty products from the movie? The products might be really cool, so why don’t all you negative people get lives and find something important to bitch about.
March 31st, 2006 at 4:52 pmi think its wonderful that someone has been brave enough to expand the american “culture”.who cares if these girls are chinese, us americans would have never known the difference if Japan had’nt have brought it to our attention honestly, can we really tell? and i mean that in the most respect.
April 7th, 2006 at 9:58 am[...] today’s installment of mysterious Japanese beauty secrets that might or might not work, you will perhaps be somewhat surprised to learn that Oscar winning [...]
March 19th, 2008 at 7:25 pmMarie, I just ran across a rather odd Geisha Beauty Product and I couldn’t wait to share it with you
http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/45598/
*you should do a post with some piccies*
remora
May 16th, 2008 at 6:53 am