I've been using this "cleanser" (or exfoliator, as i'd like to call it) about 2 times a week for the last month or so.
This is quite rough on your skin if you have a sensitive type like mine. On the other hand, it does exfoliate and cleanse well... I just don't like the film it leaves after I've used it.
Don't really like the packaging either... a paperbag is never handy. So I recommend that you keep it in a plastic container or anything similar to that.
The reason why I wont be repurchasing this again is mainly because of the fact that I've tried other exfoliators that's been much better for my skintype, and a much more practical packaging.

I would buy this product over and over again if I could. I'm so sad that it is discontinued. I use it every other night, and I love the way it feels and makes my skin feel.
I massage it onto dry skin for a while, then put a hot, wet towel over my face and relax while the towel cools off. After that I wipe off all of the remaining exfoliating bits with the towel.
I love this stuff SO much that I'm trying to find a way to make something similar.

After reading reviews on how to use this the right way, I still did not like it. There was no way to get that icky feeling off my face except washing it like 4 times.
The scrubby texture was nice, but not worth the nasty slick feeling.

This solid blackhead treatment/cleanser/exfoliator is just lovely on your face. I've always had blackheads and clogged pores, and this has worked quite nicely, but I think it's discontinued!! The fullness of her cheeks and the weird shape of her forehead help to get more of the product on the sides of my nose, etc, more easily.
It smells super fresh and feels great. The trick is to know what to do after you've cleansed !! The suggestions on here are wonderful. I usually splash my face a few times with warm water and the swipe a washcloth over my face to get the excess off. Your skin will love you for making it super smooth !! I only use this every once and a while, as I prefer Ocean Salt to scrub more regularly.

I have oily skin and huge pores. I've been like that since my early teens. I'm 38 now and still the amount of oil... 'Sweet Japanese Girl' works for me so well, I just had to figure out how to use it properly like some other Lush products. The trick is to scrub my face in the shower with my SJG, maybe 1-2 times weekly. I then wipe off as much as I can with a warm, wet cloth. I ALWAYS feel the residue on my face after and know it's visible. If I left the residue on my face, I'd be quite greasy/shiny so I use a very mild facial cleanser (Lush's Fresh Farmacy works awesome!) to 'even' my skin out. My face is glows. it's clean and as smooth as a baby's bottom. No pimples. Sooooo soft! Just be careful not to use a harsh cleanser after using SWJ, or you'll risk washing it completely off.

Some of you who don't like this product may want to consider using it dry on a freshly cleansed face. I feel that using it dry really helps to exfoliate your skin and get rid of those black heads. After applying all over your face...rinse it off. There should be a layer of the product left over on your face but what I do is I take a clean towel and pour hot water all over it. I then wait a couple of seconds for it to cool, and then I compress the hot towel all over my face until the residue is removed. It feels great and you end up with a 3 minute facial. I usually use sweet japanese girl 2-3x a week and during that time of day when I'm getting ready to drink a cup of tea. That way, I have the hot water ready. Love this product. Leaves my skin feeling squeaky clean and then I apply a moisturizer after.

Didn't like it! it left a very oily residue on my skin which was hard to get rid off (I wipe it off with a cotton pad and tea tree water/toner) I tried it for almost a week, lucky it didn't give me any breakouts but I'd prefer coal face :)

To clear it up, and for honesty's sake, I work for LUSH. I use their stuff because I get a mad discount, and I appreciate that they don't test on animals. I will not say every LUSH product is great, but since I get to try them all, I'll review my favorites.
SJG is one of my favorites. I had some pretty terrible oily, zitty skin before I heard about the oil cleansing method on MUA. I used Pond's cold cream, and that worked great, but I was not comfortable with the mineral oil in it. I have a tough time convincing people that oil cleansing works, even when they initiate convos by asking what I use.
What was going on with my skin was that it is actually sensitive and oily, and I wasn't removing my makeup thoroughly. I was using harsh chemical filled acne cleansers, trying to battle the oil and zits. These cleansers stripped my skin, forcing my skin into oil overdrive. The cleansers also inflamed my skin, making it red and opening pores. And, since my makeup wasn't coming off, and there was oil everywhere, I had bad skin. Making sense so far?
To use SJG, you rub the bar over your face like soap. The butters in it emulsify your makeup and remove it all. The butters also moisturize, which stopped the crazy oil over production (note: I still have oily skin, just not so bad anymore!), and soothed the inflamation. The tea tree oils are anti bacterial, killing any zit germs while being gentle on your skin. Now, the important part - DO NOT JUST LEAVE YOUR CLEANSING HERE! A COTTON BALL IS NOT ENOUGH! Get out a WARM WASHCLOTH to remove the makeup and oils and extra butters on your skin. This also exfoliates and will get rid of your blackheads (salicylic acid is an exfoliator, that is why acne cleansers use it. Wart removers also use it. You don't need it on your skin!). Then splash your face 6 times with warm water, and smile, 'cause I bet you look gorgeous.
Please don't give up on SJG until you have tried washing it off with a washcloth! You may be pleasantly surprised. Baby face works exactly the same way, just without tea tree, so if you have had no luck with tea tree before,try out Baby Face. If you aren't too fussed about mineral oil or animal testing or preservatives (some people are ok with these things, and that's fine), try the cucumber Pond's cold cream for a similar cleanse. Or Olive oil. I hear that works great.

This product is ok, but I’ve found (like others have) that it’s hard to wash it all off. So what I’ve been doing when I use this is rub it into my skin for a minute or so then I apply Ocean Salt scrub, rub that in and wash it all off. The Ocean Salt removes all the cleanser and the mixture of both products creates a nice creamy face scrub.

SJG is great! Leaves my skin soooo soft. However, I left it on my soap holder in my shower, and I think just from water hitting it it almost completely melted! Put it in a container of some kind.

When I first read about this product, I was impressed. Rushed to the LUSH store and bought it. However my excitement soon fizzed as this product landed on skin. It is very nice at exfoliating however, it left a very oily residue on skin which was hard to get rid off by just wiping it off with tissue. I had to wash my face with an alternative cleanser. Recently I was at LUSH store, and one of sales reps dint even like this product.

I really liked the idea of this product, like most of LUSH stuff, but it doesn't work for my skin at all. Also, I don't like how the cocoa butter feels on my skin when I was cleaning.

First of all this product is very oily BUT you are supposed to wipe it off with a cotton pad and tea tree water or any other toner you prefer! i didn't like this product when i found out you do that i now do.. but it does take quite a long time to take all the residue off! but in the end its worth it.. it moisturizes and takes away blackheads.. i use this after fresh farmacy because after using FF all my oils are stripped away (but its works with taking spots away!) but this gives my skin its moisture back :D And it kinda has a neutral smell.. and a bit herby.. not that bad :) anwyay overall its good but just remember to take the residue off otherwise it might clogg your pores! x

I've been putting off reviewing this because I thought that I might be delusional, but after a couple of weeks my (stubborn!) blackheads do seem reduced in size and number. They're definitely still there but are far less noticeable. I just warm it up in my hands and gently rub it straight onto the problem areas - nose, upper lip, and chin. Massage in with fingers and take off with a hot, wet washcloth. Splash with cold water and follow up with toner and moisturizer.

I was disappointed with how small it is - it looks larger in the pictures - but it's not melting particularly quickly. I just keep it in a soap dish but I'd recommend getting a tin for it since bits of fluff seem to keep getting stuck to it.

I used this twice on my nose and chin, and am planning to return it. It feels greasy when you put it on, which is okay because it rinses off with cleanser/toner.
The problem that I had with it, and the reason I am returning it, is that the day after I used it, the top layer of my skin became very dry and started to peel off on my nose.

I liked the idea of this product, but it wreaked havoc on my poor skin. I have combo skin and recently it's been a bit on the oily side, so I tried this in an attempt to reduce the oil production on my face. No luck. It caused several painful pimples and left my face oilier than ever. I think it must have been the aduki beans in it that irritated my skin... they're way too harsh for me. I wouldn't buy it again.

Tried it, Loved it! It melts fairly quickly, but it works fantastically. I washed it off with warm water, then cleaned up with toner afterward.
Re: Mojie's review :" Sweet Japanese Girl is one of those products that flies in the face of logic when you think about what it's intended for and what it's made of. You're essentially smearing a layer of oily balm with little bits of scrubbiness over your face in order to deal with skin that's already oily. A bit of a skincare paradox."
The truth is, oil dissolves oil. Especially in the case of blackheads, you need to penetrate the pores, which is what the scrubby bits set out to do, they nip off that top black plug. The oils then penetrate into the pore, dissolving the gunk inside leaving you with clean pores. Google Oil Cleansing Method, this is how SJG works.
Edit: I have changed my rating on this stuff because it went mouldy when I accidentally splashed water on it. Not worth the hassle. Water is abundant when cleansing, and its damn inconvenient to have to make sure this thing doesnt get water or bacteria on it. Its like a Gremlin- too high maintenance for me.

It's very strange that this is supposed to remove blackheads when you're washing your face with a solid lump of cocoa butter with exfoliating grains in it. It felt really nice and stimulating to use but after a few tries I got fed up having to wash off the thick layer of cocoa butter that was left on my face with something else, so I ended up using this to exfoliate my ass.

i really like this cleanser too. last month LUSH ran out of my favorite aqua marina cleanser and luckily I wanted to try something new from them. i use it as a morning cleanser and it works well to remove blackheads on my nose. I usually just apply it on my face without water and massage it for about 2 minutes. after then, remove it with cloth soaked in warm water. my face feel smoother and it never give trouble such as pimple. fyi, i have combination skin. However, as some people said the grains can be too harsh for people with dry skin, so if you do have dry skin just use it as an exfoliator rather than cleanser.

I really like this cleanser alot, but I could do without the grainy bits for exfoliation. I don't really like this as an exfoliator, like others said, it's kinda rough. So, usually, I just lather some in my hands and put it on my face instead of rubbing the actual bar on my face. I am a fan of this oily type of cleanser in general (I usually use Shu's oil-based cleanser), so this works pretty well for me. I haven't tried the LUSH baby face cleanser but from reviews, I imagine that I'll like that one more than this since it doesn't have the grainy bits in it. I won't be repurchasing this one, but I did enjoy using it for the time I had it.