The famous japanese camellia oil: Oshima Tsubaki Oil

Today I will review for you a very famous Japanese product that was kindly provided for me from Japanstore.

If you are interested in Japanese skin or hair care products you probably already heard the word Tsubaki which is camellia in Japanese. Rich in caring fatty acids and antioxidants, the cold pressed oil from camellia flowers is used in skin and haircare since ancient times.

Oshima Tsubaki Oil it's nothing more, nothing less than a 100% pure camellia oil.

The oil is in simply designed and quite heavy glass bottle with 60ml capacity. Luckily for me (I'm so clumsy =.=) the bottle has special dropper that protects oil from spilling out - even if we turn the bottle upside down it will only release one drop of oil at time.

The bottle is packed in cardboard box, wrapped in foil and sealed with special sticker:

There was leaflet with some free samples attached to the box:

Inside the box there was another leaflet:

The oil itself it clear (slightly yellow) liquid without any scent. Ratzilla says that only the freshest camellia oil will have slight floral scent to it, although that level of freshness is possible only if we would buy it straight from the manufacturer, so usually camellia oil would be just scentless. If it has unpleasant smell, it it would mean it's out and should not be used.

My hair enjoys hair oils, especially since I started to dye, so I tried the product on my hair first. The camellia oil is supposedly light and easily absorbing - and I must say that it indeed is, BUT we you need to be really careful with the amount you apply. Unfortunate I used way too much during my first application and my hair was weighted down and looking greasy. Now I use only 2-3 drops and only on my endings. The effect? My hair is softer and less frizzy, although I don't think it worked as well for my hair as almond oil, so I wasn't that much impressed. But something about this product got me thinking - after applying camellia oil to my hair, my hands weren't greasy, usually I have to wash my hands after applying hair oil, but with this one all I have to do is rub my palms together and the greasiness is gone. Discovering that I decided to take a risk and apply Tsubaki oil to my face.

I have oily skin so I was avoiding any face oils for a long time. Eventually I dared to try cleansing oils and I fell in love with them, because they take make up off so easily, without need to rub and they don't dry my skin out. After falling for cleansing oil one night I decided to give moisturising oil a go as well and applied The Body Shop Beautifying Oil on my face instead of moisturiser - it was one of my worst nights EVER, my face was so greasy and sticky, yuck. Ever since that night even though I have a few universal oil I use them on my hair only. The camellia oil was the first oil from a while that I dared to put on my face and I must say, that the results exceeded my expectations.

Firstly - the camellia oil is absorbing into skin very well. Not straight away, it may take 5-10 minutes, but it does get absorbed eventually (in opposite to my Body Shop Oil that would just sit on my face all nigh long...). It does leave a slight film on skin, but it's not sticky, so I can sleep without worrying that the pillow would stick to my face. Secondly - my skin was looking and feeling great the next day! Soft, moisturised, fresh, pores tighten. Thanks to high Omega-9 content the camellia oil has ability to penetrate deep into skin layers, so my skin was moisturised inside and out. Thanks to the great balance between moisture and oil my skin didn't have to produce it's own sebum and less sebum = tighter pores.

However using camellia oil on my face had one disadvantage: this couple of minutes between application and absorption. You know this feeling when you are trying to suck up a very thick drink through a slim straw? How annoying it could be? The oil creates a similar, slightly frustrating feeling when skin dried out after cleansing needs some moisture NOW and the oil takes it's time to get absorbed. For a moment after application I got an uneasy feeling of skin dry and greasy at the same time. Fortunately, there is an easy solution to this problem: all you have to do is apply the oil to slightly damp skin, which helps the oil to absorb quicker. I like to experiment so I went a step further and applied my oil on the face straight after Hada Labo lotion. My skin seems to really enjoy this duo and I use it every other night.

Another thing that made me really appreciate the camellia oil, is it's skin softening ability. I could feel my face being a bit softer, although I exfoliate it regularly, so the oil didn't have a chance to show it's full potential there. As an experiment I applied camellia oil on the rough skin on my elbows and just after three applications (every night after shower) the magic has happened - rough skin became moisturised, much softer and smoother. Viva la camellia!

Price: from £10 on e-Bay.

Pros:
+ a little goes a long way
+ in opposite to some oils I've tried before camellia absorbs quite well into skin, it leaves slight residue on skin, but it's not very oily nor sticky
+ moisturises skin
+ softens and smooths rough skin

Cons:
- you need to be careful with the amount used, as more than just a few drops can easily weight down hair and make it look greasy
- no smell - some people may consider it as a pro, but I would prefer it to have some nice floral scent ;)

Summing up, I'm very pleased with this product and I will continue using it with pleasure. It's definitely worth trying.

Freebies!
As I mentioned before, there were some freebies attached to the product's box. 

It's a a twin sachet of hair cream, which can be used as leave-in hair mask or for styling. The one with green description is called Sara-Sara and it's a lightweight cream, suitable for thin and limp hair (won't weigh them down). The one with red description is a Moist version designated for frizzy and rough hair. In both products camellia oil is the key ingredient, second on the ingredients list, after the water. You can find full list of ingredients here. I only tried the Sara-Sara one so far and it made my hair really nice and smooth, tamed down fizzines after the hair dryer.