Singapore Beauty Media Trip to Hong kong | Visiting FANCL Stores in Hong Kong – Celine Chiam | Singapore Lifestyle, Beauty and Travel Blogger

I recall few years ago when I haven’t become a beauty blogger, with my little knowledge about beauty brands, I already know about the brand FANCL. FANCL gave me the impression that it’s very pure, clean and refreshing, somewhere along the line of water, hydration and even transparency (haha I’m just saying whatever that comes to my mind). Before I even start to take care of my skin to eventually try out this beauty brand, FANCL decided to exit the Singapore beauty market! I was quite shocked to hear the news actually. Fast forward to today, you bet I am very thrilled to share with you that FANCL is making a comeback into Singapore on 1 April!!
Of course, no words can express my gratitude and honor to be one of the few to join FANCL in their beauty junket to Hong Kong with other fellow beauty bloggers, and also the one who share the good news with you that FANCL is finally returning to Singapore.

To be very honest, there are many brands that come and go, but FANCL was one of the brands that I can actually remember with my little memory. Bearing in mind that back then I know very little about beauty brands, let alone trying them out.

On my short trip to Hong Kong, I got the chance to visit their stores in Hong Kong, understand the brand philosophy, history and product efficacies thanks to the kind hospitality of FANCL Hong Kong. Follow me as I bring you through the snippets of my Beauty Junket with FANCL to Hong Kong, and more about this preservatives-free and addictives-free beauty brand.

Our flight was realllyyyy early in the morning. We had to reach the airport at 6AM in the morning so we’re were all pretty tired! Thankfully we took SQ over so it’s a very comfortable trip over teehee. 

When reached, FANCL had also kindly arranged transportation for us to reach our hotel for a quick wash up. We stayed in Marco Polo Hotel which I’ll do up a hotel review soon! 

Look what greeted me when I first arrived my hotel room! FANCL gift set to let me try while I’m here in Hong Kong. I tried the products immediately that night since I’m on a mission to find out more about the product. They’re lovely. It feels clean, fresh on the skin and most importantly, so pure! All the texture is either lightweight or non-sticky, I think I’m starting to like this brand a lot. 

The sample kit includes 5 steps of skincare regime, probably the most basic skincare regime under FANCL. It includes: 

– Mild Cleansing Oil

– Facial Washing Powder

– Skin Renewal Pack

– Moisturising Lotion II 

– Moisturising Emulsion II

I will be talking about FANCL products in a second post, reviewing the products that I got from FANCL and have been using since my return from HK Junket, it’s been about 2 weeks and I’m loving the products very much. Details following up soon!

F&H By FANCL (Health supplements store)

Harbour City

Shop 3220, Level 3, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui ( Next to city’super ) 

Tel : 3622 0991 Operating Hours : 11:00am – 10:00pm

Not only does F&H carry health supplement products, it’s also equipped with the body composition analyzer, clinical bone sonometer and automatic blood pressure monitor!

After a quick freshen up, we proceeded to FANCL head office which is only a few minutes away from Marco Polo Hotel. The thoughtful FANCL team has even prepared us refreshment from EPURE restaurant! We were so pampered with treats I must say. Just look at all these exquisite desserts, looks good AND tastes good! 

EPURE Terrace/Cafe 

Daily: 12:00 pm – late Brunch (Weekends & Public Holidays) : 12:00 noon – 3:00 pm

Shop 403, Level 4, Ocean Centre, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Briefing by FANCL Team at FANCL Headquarter

We learnt quite a bit about the history and philosophy of FANCL during the briefing kindly conducted by the FANCL Hong Kong team, Karen and Candy. 

FANCL was created when skin trouble caused by cosmetics was a prominent problem in the 1970s. One of the victims was actually FANCL founder’s wife, which made the founder determined to create solution for his beloved wife, hence the birth of FANCL.

Until now, with the same vision and mission to provide solutions to women’s skin problems, FANCL still upholds it original two important product properties: Preservatives-free and additives-free. The importance of these two qualities are very essential in order to not damage keratin cells, causing the epidermis layer to thin and the skin to weaken. 

You might not know about this, but preservatives can actually accelerate aging process, cause skin sensitivity overtime and eventually affect your skin’s DNA. 

And because seeing is believing, we moved on to the second level of their headquarter office for workshop and hands-on session.

Product knowledge workshop with FANCL




Did you notice that most of the FANCL products come in very small bottle packaging? 

This is to keep the freshness of the FANCL products since there is no preservatives added. If used accordingly, such products will not have excess remaining and should be used up within 60 days. If I am not wrong, most FANCL products’ shelve life is 1 year without unsealing. When opened, the products should be used within 60 days. After all, it’s all about product freshness and preservatives-free! 

If you noticed the silver metal ring below the cap, it’s actually the characteristics of FANCL’s hermetically sealed container. To open the products, we have to unscrew the cap, remove the silver ring and screw the cap in, thereby poking a hole through the seal. This prevents contamination even via air exposure.

FANCL products are also imprinted with the manufacturing dates and expiring dates. Most of the time, manufacturing dates are not revealed because brands would often manufacture their products in a large batch in order to save on the costs. However with such a practice, product can be sold even being manufactured many years ago, sometimes up to 3-4 years ago. In this case, do you still dare to use the products on your skin? Definitely not for me.  In the work shop, we witnessed the efficacious of most products. Like for example, the White Advance which can dissolve the iodine solution much more effective than lemon. We had the belief that lemon helps with whitening, but through this experiment, a drop or two of FANCL White Advance solution is enough to turn the iodine solution to white. Amazing! 

***
We also tested out FANCL’s mild cleansing oil, which is one of the signature product from the FANCL’s product line. The mild cleansing oil’s Nano cleansing formula is made of super refined Nano Cleansing Particles to dissolve and remove makeup residues. For heavier makeup like smudge-proof eyeliner, simply dispense 2 more pumps than the usual 4 pumps of cleansing oil and it will do the job. I tried before, although it may look messy at first, the makeup will be all gone after washing with water. The cleansing oil does not contain harmful mineral oil, and does not leave any oily texture or residue after washing away with water. We did a comparison test to find out that FANCL’s mild cleansing oil removes foundation better than brand X cleansing oil and also makeup wipes.

***

The next test we did was to find out the absorbency of FANCL’s moisturising lotion. 

When dried facial sheet is placed in petri dishes of 4 different brands of lotion, the one in FANCL’s 
moisturising lotion absorbs the fastest. And when opened up, you can see the facial sheet is the most moist. This tells how fast the product can be absorbed by your skin, and clearly FANCL’s  moisturising lotion wins here. 

FANCL’s moisturizing lotion is formulated with nano technology that pinpoints dehydrated cells and moisturises them with nutrients, while delivering skincare essence to the deepest layer of your skin. Containing Raffinose and Rice Ferment Extracts, it also hydrates the skin to prevent dryness and fine lines. 

Did you spot the sheet mask placed in FANCL lotion? It’s the wettest of all four!

***

FANCL supplements complement their products and provide nutrients that are better when consumed rather than applied on the skin. Their best-selling product – TENSE UP – is a collagen drink that contains 2600mg tri-peptide collagen, which helps to repair skin epidermis and bring back your youthful look. 

Definitely happy to be here at the workshop to learn so much about FANCL products! Truly amazed by all the test results as well.

*** Done with the product workshop, guess it’s time to check the health of our skin! At FANCL HQ Office, they have machine devices to do a skin analysis. Sames goes to some of their stores, they also provide such skin analysis for their customers in order to tell them what products are good for them.

The 3D analysis, one of the most commonly used analysis test by FANCL consultants, can tell you the health of your skin in three aspects – Pores, Spots and Wrinkles. 

At the age of 24, I may think that I should worry about issues like spots and wrinkles…. but truth it, there are already such signs of aging in my results! Horrifying as it sounds, it wakes me up to the fact that I should start taking care of my skin and never be complacent about it. 

The result of my ‘spots’ test is that I’m in the lower range of “Slightly Apparent Spots”. There are some spots appearing, so it tells me that I should start using products that can alleviate or prevent spots from forming. 

Moisture test is the test that I fear the most, because I know myself very clearly that my skin is actually very dehydrated. The four points on my face mostly tell that my skin is slightly dehydrated, and they’re not even in the ‘normal’ range, showing a far cry from the ‘ideal’ result. 🙁

My skin. needs. more. moisture. 

And here’s the WORST fear of my test result! BLACK HEADS! The bottom right photo reflects the blackheads situation on my nose. I don’t even need the device to show me how bad the blackheads are on my nose. This is actually a result from oily/combination skin, as excess oil sebum clogs the pores around the nose, forming more black heads/white heads.

The top two photos are analysis of my skin epidermis on my jawline (left) and cheek (right) respectively. Because our cheeks are more exposed to the sun than the part on our jawline, you can tell that the skin no longer have the healthy ‘triangular’ shapes. This shows the damage and breakdown of your skin epidermis due to long-exposure of sun and many externalities. 

With the lovely trainer from FANCL!

***

Another star product from FANCL is their Facial Washing Powder II. 

It comes out as powder, but upon lathering with water and the help of the Facial Washing Puff (green puff ball), it can lather up to thick fluffy facial foam.

Pretty amazed by how fluffy the powder can turn into!

Since my return from this Hong Kong media junket thanks to FANCL Singapore, I’ve been using their products for two weeks. So far, the results are pretty good but not too obvious. At least there is completely no break-outs despite the change of my entire skincare regime. 

It’s funny how I raise this issue to Karen that I’m afraid that there’ll be backfires if I change my entire skincare regime so quickly. She reassure me that FANCL products will not cause backfire and I can do the switch with ease. Turns out, it’s very true! No breakouts, no negative results, reduction in blackheads and my skin seem to be improving. More details on my upcoming FANCL review.

***

Visits to FANCL Stores in Hong Kong

1. First stop: FANCL Concept Store

FANCL Festival Walk 

80 Tat Chee Avenue, 

Shop 30, UG/F Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

The FANCL concept store at the Festive Walk was pretty interesting. It has this area of LCD which gives visitors and FANCL customers the interactive and motion-pictures experience. It’s also only unique to this FANCL concept store. 

What got us the bloggers really excited are their health supplements. 

Both the beautiful ladies from FANCL shared with us the secrets to their slim figure despite being in their 30s. I’m usually not into supplements but after speaking to the trainer from FANCL, her results simply reconfirmed my decision to get this. She lost about 6 pounds within 1 month by consuming this, with only exercise twice a week.

So, I bought both the Calorie Cut and Fat Burner supplements which will help to watch my weight and calorie intake. With the 20% media discount and10% bulk purchase discount, it was about S$250 for 3 months of supply. One to take before meals, and one after meals. I’ll do a review on this if there’s results 😉

Another holy grail product from FANCL is their TENSE UP Collagen drink. I think I’ve mentioned above already. 

Miyake and Sydney on the other hand bought the Hyaluro Premium supplements, great for alleviating dryness and improving skin’s suppleness.

Our FANCL shopping loots, very evidently 😛

***

2. Second stop: FANCL Cityplaza
Address: Cityplaza, Phase 2, 2/F, 285, Hong Kong

At this stop, we focussed more on FANCL makeup products. 

Turned out, we were so convinced with FANCL no-preservatives products (even makeup), such that “less is more”, we decided to fully convert and use FANCL makeup products too. 

Sydney and I both bought the Acne Control Pact (a powder that controls sebum) and their powder foundation. I am using them these days and I love them! The acne control pact really controls my excess sebum secretion and keeps oil at bay.

Looks like everyone is excited about FANCL cosmetics. 

And of course trying out the shade before buying my new found favourite powder foundation. 

***

3. Third stop: FANCL on Wing Ho Street 
(apologies, I can’t find the address)



The third FANCL store that we visited was also the newest FANCL addition to the FANCL family.

Packed with almost all the FANCL products, from skincare to supplements!

With Sydney and Miyake! FANCL products that I’m using for the past two weeks. Will do up the review soon!

With that, I come to the end of this rather lengthy travel + beauty post! 

It’s been really long since I last documented a trip with so much details. I guess the purpose of this post is to share with you as much information as I have discovered during this trip to Hong Kong with FANCL Singapore. I wanted to remind fans of FANCL why they previously love this brand so much, and why they should show support to FANCL Singapore once again as they return back to Singapore. I also wanted to let all those who are new to FANCL (like me!) know why FANCL products are worth a try. 

During my trip, I see all FANCL staff, from back office to store managers, having flawless skin that looks so much younger than their true age. I learnt so much about how and  why FANCL products are preservatives-free, which is why their tagline is “LESS IS MORE”. 

Finally, I would like to thank FANCL Singapore and TOUCHPR for sending me to Hong Kong and learn so much about this brand. I honestly can’t wait for FANCL to open TOMORROW (1 APRIL) at Isetan Scotts! 

Also, enjoy $50 off your first purchase when you flash the iFANCL app at any local FANCL counter. Enjoy!!

Thanks for reading! ❤

Love,
Celine
Instagram: (@chiamhuiy)
Dayre: (@chiamhuiy)