Indi-go-go – Tatcha Indigo Soothing Silk Hand Cream

The nice folks at Tatcha sent me a care package out of the blue (har har.) The number of packages, big and small, at work are making my banking bosses side-eye. Whatevs. T’is the season for brown packages, bauss. But thank you Tatcha for the nice surprise below. I will commence reviewing that ultra luxurious hand cream: the Tatcha Indigo Soothing Silk Hand Cream. They even included a sweet hand-written note.
One of the many things I love about Japanese products is that everything is wrapped like a present. When I was in Tokyo, every little thing I bought was lovingly wrapped in furokishi or the traditional tape-less style and presented to me like it was a birthday present. A simple beautiful gesture that took the sting out of dropping serious $$$$. Unpacking the Tatcha Indigo Soothing Hand Cream was the same. The box is reminiscent of dark wood, stamped in gold with the elegant recognizable Tatcha symbol.

I never knew until a few years ago that Japan is a culture that invests a lot in indigo. Through serendipity, I made friends with a girl who hand-dyes handkerchiefs in Japanese indigo for a small boutique in LA. The indigo plant is cultivated through an arduous process, and natural indigo dyes are very prized. Japan considers the artisans involved in traditional indigo production national treasures and gives a small subsidy to the indigo producers association.

So of course, Tatcha being the refined Japanese brand, being the refined Japanese-inspired brand (thanks for the info, 2cats! Find out more about the brand here) incorporates silk and indigo into this beautiful hand cream:

As you can see, the ingredients are mostly what you’d expect from any handcream. But it does contain traditional indigo extract and silk, among other things that give it the soft beautiful scent and extraordinarily silken texture. 

Opening the packaging is a soothing experience in itself. The hand cream sits in a shadow box style display printed with swirls of leafy blue, teal, and purple:

Inside is also a pamphlet explaining the context of Geisha beauty rituals, whose hands were the only other exposed body parts when entertaining. The pamphlet also explained calming properties of the ingredients chosen, and charitable ties to an organization dedicated to education for girls in developing countries.
I squirted just a tiny bit of the beautiful blue balm on my hand. A little bit spreads easily and evenly  all over. It doesn’t have much of a color when you use it. The scent is very much like the rest of the Tatcha line: a powdery, delicately herbal scent that’s like tea and just a hint of mint.

So after luxuriating and smelling my lovely hands, reality sets in that I wash my hands about 30 times a day to avoid germs in the winter. That means 30 applications of this hand cream after washing hands. That means MUY EXPENSIVE at $38 for 2fl oz of this indigo.  It shall sit on my Cosmocube until I put it on at night and wear gloves to sleep.

Pros: gorgeous packaging, truly luxurious item with pretty natural indigo dye and silk mixed in, it’s like a 15-second spa for your hands

Cons: not as deep of a moisturizer as hand/body butters for the winter time, very expensive