New sake mask made in NZ
Popular in Japan, the beauty treatment is make from fermented rice and is packed with goodness, writes
Janan Jay.
Aface mask made from sediment left over from a sake brewer in Queenstown has been made available for the first time.
The beauty product is predominantly made from an ingredient called ‘‘sake kasu’’. This is the sediment, or lees, left over from the process of making sake, a Japanese wine famously made from rice.
‘‘Sake kasu has loads of nice minerals,’’ explains 39-year-old Miki Tameishi, a qualified massage therapist and owner of Wellington’s Hana Akari, who mixes the mudpack herself.
‘‘Kojic acid is what reduces the melanin production, it can lighten skin and is good for freckles and ageing spots.
‘‘It’s good for dry skin as well because it contains amino acids, so it’s like a natural moisturiser. It’s also great for anti-aging, because it contains a lot of vitamin B.’’
Vitamin B helps regenerate the skin, which happens less as we get older, Tameishi explains. All of these nutrients are absorbed through the skin and carried through the bloodstream.
The beauty treatment is also made from white clay and yuzu, an Asian citrus fruit. It has three times more vitamin C than a lemon, which is also considered to have anti-ageing properties.
Until now, skincare addicts weren’t able to buy the stuff, as it was only available as part of a facial treatment that Tameishi performs at Tory Urban Retreat in Wellington. However, after multiple clients kept begging her to sell them samples to take home, she decided to open an online shop.
‘‘I gave away hundreds last year, everyone tells me how good it is,’’ she says. ‘‘They’ll just put on one hand and then show me it’s really white. The one hand they didn’t apply it to, isn’t that light or moist.’’
There are no preservatives and nothing has been extracted or genetically modified. Tameishi believes that a mask made from all natural, raw materials is more effective than conventional pots of mass-produced creams that also contain sake kasu.
‘‘It’s just fermented rice... It’s full of good bacteria, similar to natto (fermented soy beans) or kombucha.
‘‘It’s not ‘fake’, but [big companies] are just taking the chemicals, the same as medicine, normally medicine is from plants but they just take the chemical to make the medicine.’’
Tameishi knows first hand the benefits of sake kasu, and has been using it for the past 20 years. While working in a sake shop in her native Japan at the age of 18, a colleague suggested she use some to cure a pimple. Fresh and direct from the breweries, she applied some. After it worked, she started researching all she could about it.
Many women in Japan make their own masks, explains Tameishi. As fermented foods are good for the gut, sake kasu is also used for cooking and readily available in supermarkets there. However, when she moved to New Zealand in 2011, she wasn’t able to find any for years until the Zenkuro Sake brewery in Queenstown agreed to supply her some of theirs.
Zenkuro Sake also understand the hidden goodness in their lees, and sell their own soap, blended with coconut oil. Head brewer and director, David Joll says that they’re constantly making new batches as the demand means ‘‘they all seem to disappear’’. They are also launching a sediment face mask at the Queenstown Japanese festival next March.
Kojic acid is what reduces the melanin production, it can lighten skin and is good for freckles and ageing spots. Miki Tameishi, owner of Wellington-based Hana Akari