The Japanese are famously fastidious about their skincare regimen, and this includes applying products that sound more like hotly-pursued cargo from a superhero movie. Like, er, face serums containing human stem cells and sheet masks made with snake venom.

And you can find all these at Make Hero, a new “affordable luxury” Japanese skincare and cosmetics store at the basement of J​​​​​​​ewel Changi Airport. The store’s hip pink facade screams “expensive”, but the prices span a range, with some relatively wallet-friendly picks. You can buy a retinol sheet mask for $10, or splurge $800 on a stem cell-infused serum.

8days.sg visits the store and checks out what’s worth buying.

The multilabel beauty store is jointly opened by Japanese perfume-maker and distributor Make Up Inc, and medical-grade skincare brand Hirosophy. Both companies stock their merch here. Other than skincare, the shop also offers a range of Hirosophy haircare products. The store is divided into dedicated skincare, haircare and perfume sections for customers to test the samples available. Yep, it’s kinda like a hip Japanese Sephora. New products are introduced every three months.

Stem cells are all the rage in anti-aging skincare ’cos as we age, our bodies gradually produce fewer stem cells that are required to repair and renew our skin. This serum claims to ‘top up’ your stem cell count with its proprietary blend of lab-created 15% human neural stem cells (which blocks the formation of melanin so your skin appears fairer) and 15% human adipose tissue stem cells (which regenerates new skin).

The serum comes in five tiny vials, and are meant to last you a month. We haven’t tried this fancy serum, but at $800 a pop, this is a pricey way to turn back time. Hey, beauty is pain (for your pocket) right?

Fancy some snake venom in your skincare? Before you slither away from this, take note: the ‘snake venom’ that skincare companies market for their products is actually a synthetic blend of peptides that apparently minimise your muscles’ contractions (like what real venom does to you), and this supposedly reduces wrinkles caused by muscle movement.

This pretty pink jar contains 60 tiny mask sheets infused with Syn-Ake, a moisturising agent that’s meant to mimic the beneficial effects of snake venom. You can paste the thin sheets around your forehead, eyes and mouth or any part of your face that requires intensive moisturising. The mask sheets are also infused with cherry blossom extract, which is said to have anti-inflammatory properties.

This hair and body mist from Make Up Inc’s range of body and fabric mists is apparently popular with Japanese women, as it’s commonly believed that Japanese men are attracted to the mist’s girly floral scent. It comes in a travel-size bottle that you can stow in your handbag. Good for freshening up after an intense Haidilao session, we think, though the scent fades off after a short while.

Got a girlfriend who adores the colour pink and is super into cats? Consider getting her this affordable fruity-floral EDT spray, contained within a Disney princess-worthy bottle with a vintage-y pump spray. It also comes in an adorable pink box adorned with fluffy white kittens, per the brand’s cat-themed branding.