Mirror xOx Mirror: [Review] Hitachi: Hada Crie CM-N810

Hitachi Hada Crie! That's right! I finally bought one! I've been experimenting with it for almost a month now and I figure it's time for a review. Find out what I think after the jump!

Overall Rating: Love It

With the increased cash flow from my new job, I was definitely inclined to splurge on the Hitachi Hada Crie (HHC) when I found out the price dropped from almost $350USD to between $150 to $170USD!

I first learned about HHC from a bubzbeauty vid on Youtube sometime last year. Her review made the HHC sound amazing. I didn't realize how right she was until I bought it myself and tested it out.

What it is:
The HHC is an ion facial cleansing device that basically brings dirt trapped in your pores to the surface. Here's the basic rundown of the 4 functions from Hitachi.

The set comes with a charger that works in Canada, the US and Japan, a stand holder, two rings used to hold the cotton pad to the HHC and of course the HHC. The ebay seller I bought from actually threw in an extra pack of the rings so I've got 4 now.

There is a max limit of 5 minutes for each functions and there's a pre-set timer that auto-shuts off the HHC when your time's up.

Price: I bought mine off ebay for $160USD and shipping was free!

Review:
Ok so here's your one and only warning before I start the actual review....pics are kinda gross. I have huge pores so I think they just store more dirt or something lol

My experiment:
I have basically been using the HHC everyday since it arrived and after the results of my first use, I thought to myself...hm...I should see how long it takes before my skin gets cleaner. I've been experimenting with the two toners that I'm currently using and I'm planning on making this an ongoing experiment and testing out how the HHC fares with all the different toners I use.

My experiment revolves around using my toners with two of the four modes. Cleansing Mode can only be used with toners that are liquidy. The HHC manual specifically states that it can't be used with gel textured toners so BEWARE. It doesn't say in the manual what exactly the consequences are if you use a gel toner with the HHC in cleansing mode but I'm not going to take the risk to find out.

Moisture Mode is the other function I used for my experiment. This mode works with gel toners or moisturizing products like emulsions and essences.

So basically I used the HHC for the full 5 minutes and saved the cotton pads that I used to see how long it took to have relatively cleaner skin/ cleaner used cotton pads.

To give you a run down of my skin and my routine before I used the HHC:

I have combination skin (spring/summer: oily t-zone, normal everywhere else; fall/winter: oily t-zone, dry forehead that's not part of the t-zone and dry cheeks, normal everywhere else)
I think I have medium sized pores. I define medium pores as from a metre away you can't see my pores but come closer you can see them.
I made sure not to wear any foundation or any face make up while I was doing this experiment so if you think the stuff in the pictures could be leftover foundation...yah no it's not.
I washed my face in the shower with Amore Pacific Cleansing Oil before I used the HHC.

Experiment #1 - Cleansing Mode, Ju Ju Cosmetic's Aquamoist Vitamin C Toner

The Aquamoist is a whitening and skin tone evening toner. It's something like $13CAD when buy it in HK. Unfortunately, if you don't have anyone there to ship it to you, on sasa.com it's $17USD. I'd been using this toner for a while and never saw on my cotton pad the amount of dirt I did when I used it with the HHC. On the left is the Aquamoist toner and on the right is what the cotton pad normally looks like if I use it without the HHC.

Starting from the top left as day 1, it took 10 days for the HHC to clear out the majority of the dirt in my pores. I'm not going to lie, the first time I used the HHC and looked at the cotton pad I was pretty disgusted. Who knew there was this much dirt trapped in my pores. The cottons pads below are based on using the Aquamoist toner solely in cleansing mode for the full duration of the 5 minutes pre-set timing.

Experiment #2 - Moisture Mode, Amore Pacific Balancing Fluid

The Balancing Fluid is a gel toner that helps balance the pH of your skin while getting dirt out of your pores and moisturizing the skin. It cost me about $60USD when I bought it from the Amore Pacific spa in NYC. Sephora carries some products from the Amore Pacific line but they have yet to start stocking the Balancing Fluid. If you live in the US, you can purchase from the Amore Pacific US site, Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom. As for Canada, I'd say your best bet is to get it at Nordstrom since they ship here now (Update: I talked to an Amore Pacific sales rep at a Sephora in Montreal. Apparently, they do sell the Balancing Fluid, but only in some Holt Renfrews. She didn't know the price off hand though). I'm working on a full review of this toner so stay tuned! Anyways back to my experiment. Below on the Left is the Amore Pacific Balancing Fluid and on the right is what the cotton pad looks like normally without the HHC.

Same drill as above, top left corner is day 1. As you can see from the picture, the cotton pads are getting progressively cleaner. I was using Moisture Mode after already using Cleansing Mode so the fact that this toner was still picking up a lot of dirt is pretty impeccable and a clear indication that my skin and pores are disgusting lol.

What I like:

I can honestly say that I really do think the HHC works. It does however work in varying degrees which I discovered when I got my brothers, mother, god sister and friend to try it out. They all have way smaller pores than me so their results, after they used the HHC the first time weren't as drastic as mine. Their cotton pads were similar to the result I had near the 9th or 10th days (using the same toners). Sigh the curse of big pores.


Average cotton pad now

I found that after using the Cleansing Mode on my face, it was much easier to extract my black heads. I barely had to prod the blackhead with the extractor and it would just come out on my nose. I have a BRTC pore cleansing kit that does a similar thing but that takes almost 1h30mins to complete and using the HHC is just way more convenient.

Another thing I've noticed is that the Moisture Mode is really helping my skin absorb the product better. I've been using the Amore Pacific Balancing Fluid since I hauled it in NYC in August but I always had to use a moisturizer after using the balancing fluid even though it's supposed to be a moisturizing toner. When I started using it with the HHC, my skin felt so nice and soft after that I didn't even bother using a moisturizer. I actually tried not using a moisturizer lately and my skin is perfectly moisturized with just using the balancing fluid. Since it's fall and it's getting cold again I'm going to start using the moisturizer to protect my skin and see if there's much of a difference.

Average cotton pad now

As for the battery life, I've been using the HHC for 3 weeks now, every day using both the cleansing mode and moisturizing mode and the battery is still going. Pretty handy if I want to bring this travelling.

What I don't like:
The only thing I can think of that I'm not that huge a fan of is the instruction manual. It's not very clear about what kind of products you should be using with the HHC. The manual says to use lotion (not very specific right?!) especially since when I think lotion I think body lotion/cream. Good thing I googled it and found out Hitachi meant toners, essences and emulsions.

Overall:
I think the HHC is worth the investment. The amount of grossness that came out of my face and the fact that there is a noticeable difference in the absorption rate for my products pretty much justifies the purchase in my mind lol.

Questions? Comments? Let me know what you think!

Toner Picture Gallery

(WIP as I experiment more)

Mode #1 - Cleanse