nomakenolife is a monthly subscription box of Japanese cosmetics and beauty products. Japanese women take their skincare very seriously, and their beauty products are superb quality. They are also very big on products which contain natural ingredients, including collagen, and avoiding harsh chemicals.

Here are the basics:

They have one-, three-, six-, and 12-month subscriptions costing from $29.99 (£22.46) for one month (longer subscriptions are cheaper). Shipping is free.

There’s booklet inside with the full list of contents, plus descriptions.

There’s also extra info about Japanese beauty culture and and the featured item.

This Beautiful Pearl Soap is the staff pick this month. It contains pearl essence and collagen, and is very gentle on the skin, perfect for using every day.

You get 18 different shades of eyeshadow and highlighter with this Eyeshadow and Highlight Palette. The colours (which haven’t come up well in the picture, sorry!) are lovely earth and neutral tones, with one pop of turquoise.

This Maiko-San Facepuff Wash is a very gentle way to wash your face. It’s great for sensitive skin and contains silk fibres to avoid harsh rubbing on the face.

Elegant Nail Stickers are like nail wraps. You stick them on your nails and then trim them to fit with the file included. It’s a great way to get fancy nails without complicated polish. These have a lovely jewelled design, and are great for summer. 

Finally, we have Vibeke’s UV Protection Gel. This is a very generous tube of 30SPF sun cream, and is sensitive enough to use on your face. It’s also free of fragrance, colour, alcohol, paraben, and silicone. 

The only thing I’m not so keen on is the nail stickers, but that’s because I keep my nails very short and don’t really paint them at all. But for anyone who loves to have fancy nails, these would be terrific.

The eyeshadow palette is impressive. There are lovely colours, just the kind I wear, and the pigmentation is pretty good. 

The soap is great for morning facewashing in the shower and is very gentle, especially as my skin can be a little sensitive to washing with soap. The face wash puff is perfect for using with the soap!

For me, the standout item this month is the sun cream. It’s a big tube, and I love that it’s so gentle on the skin while having a great  level of protection. It’s also very well timed for summer!

Now to value. As these are all Japanese brands it’s often very difficult to find prices on these, so I’m not going to do an individual breakdown. I will say that I’ve never had a box that wasn’t good value for money.