One of the first beauty tips my mother shared with me was that I should wash my face with rice water, the milky liquid left behind after rinsing grains before cooking. She swore by its brightening and softening effects and, all these years later, I do too. Rice has long been revered in skin care, a tradition reflected in the luxury hotel group Aman’s Essential Skin range. The six-product collection incorporates ancient purple rice bran extract, celebrated for its antioxidant properties and collagen-boosting abilities, alongside indigo extract, a botanical once favored by samurai for its healing benefits. My go-to is the Illuminating Eye Cream, infused with rice ferment and peptides, which brightens and revitalizes the under-eye area. Damdam Tokyo, which was founded by Giselle Go and Philippe Terrien in 2019, showcases rice along with other Japanese ingredients such as shiso and konnyaku, a Japanese root crop used for detoxification. The company’s Silk Rice Cleansing Oil, which removes makeup and dirt, features Japanese komenuka, a glutinous rice with anti-inflammatory properties. The Tokyo-based beauty brand Tatcha’s Dewy Skin Cream, newly available in refillable jars, pairs Japanese purple rice with botanical extracts that attract moisture to plump and hydrate. The Korean beauty brand House of Dohwa’s signature ingredient is domestically harvested rice from the city of Icheon. The Seoul-based company makes a Rice Bran Sheet Mask that also contains Houttuynia cordata (a flowering plant) and Korean mugwort extract, both of which soothe the skin. Other K-Beauty products, which I’ve discovered on Soko Glam, an online retailer specialising in Korean skin care, are the I’m From Rice Toner, which helps eliminate dead skin, and COSRX’s Ultimate Nourishing Rice Overnight Spa Mask that’s meant to be used as the last step of your routine.
