In America, late-night infomercials advertise products that claim to perform cosmetic miracles. Whether you want to get rid of cellulite or sculpt your abs, there's something out there for you. In Japan, women are faced with a different barrage of products.
Mara brought a few back to Chicago to show Oprah and her audience. The first is a Japanese contraption that's advertised as a face-slimming belt. "If anyone's concerned that your face may be too puffy or chubby or whatever, this is a belt that you can wrap around your face. It's supposed to make your face thinner," Mara says. "It kind of has sauna properties, supposedly. So it may sweat out some bloat[ing], possibly. It's supposed to heat things up and make you sweat a little bit."
The next product is a face-whitening cream that many women, including Miyuki, use on a regular basis. Mara says this cream claims to lighten a person's complexion. "You see a lot of products that advertise whitening because [Japanese women] want that porcelain, that very, very fair, light skin," Mara says.
