[Cosmetic Ingredient Specialist Certification Level 1] I passed! | A working mom in her late 30s' journey to certification

I passed the Cosmetic Ingredient Specialist Certification Level 1!🧴✨

Hello, this is Hikari.

This is sudden, but I, the other day...

I passed the Cosmetic Ingredient Specialist Certification Level 1!🎉

Actually, this is one of the certifications I had been secretly studying for this year.

I'm so happy I passed safely, so I've decided to leave a record of it here.

And starting with this article, I plan to write over several posts about:

・What kind of certification is the Cosmetic Ingredient Specialist Certification?
・The difference between Level 2 and Level 1
・What kind of studying did I actually do?
・How did I make time to study while working and raising children?

I plan to write about what I felt and how I studied as someone who actually took the exam.

“I'm curious about the Cosmetic Ingredient Specialist Certification, but what's it like?”

“I'm studying for the first time in a while, but I don't know how to study...”

I hope this will be helpful for those people.🤍

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How I found out about the Cosmetic Ingredient Specialist Certification

I found out about the Cosmetic Ingredient Specialist Certification during my maternity and childcare leave.

Since I finally had some time, I thought I might study something, so I looked into various things, including certifications related to my work and even things completely unrelated to my work.

That's when I found the Cosmetic Ingredient Specialist Certification.

“I didn't know there was a certification related to cosmetic work like this!”

I remember being quite interested.

However, at that point, it was just a “I'd like to take it someday” kind of feeling.

The trigger for actually considering taking the exam was an incident at work.

One time, an employee asked me,

“My skin gets itchy when I use this cosmetic product, why is that?”

I was asked that.

When I looked at the ingredient list, even though I could understand some things like active ingredients, there were many other ingredients where I honestly didn't know, “What is this included for?”💦

Of course, you can't determine “this is the cause” just from the ingredient list.

But I felt that even though I work with cosmetics, I don't really understand the ingredients.

From there, I started wanting to study cosmetic ingredients again.

If I could learn to read ingredients, it would not only be useful as knowledge for work, but also when I choose cosmetics for myself.

And instead of just thinking “I'll study,”I wanted to make studying a must by setting a goal of passing the certification.

With that feeling, I decided to take the exam.

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From Level 2 to Level 1, and the challenge as a working mom in her late 30s

I originally majored in chemistry in college, so I have a science background.

“How much of the chemistry knowledge I studied back then do I still remember?”

I was also excited about that.

That said, quite a few years have passed since I graduated from college.

…Do I actually remember it?😂

Including that feeling, I was a little excited.

First, I challenged Level 2🔥

And this was harder than I thought!💦

When I finished studying for Level 2, I started thinking I didn't want to lose the knowledge I had worked so hard to learn.

In that case, I'll continue studying a little more.

Thinking that, I decided to challenge Level 1.

Level 1 felt even harder, and I didn't have much confidence even after the exam.

So when I saw the results...

“Huh? Really? No way!”

That was my feeling😂

Since I felt both Level 2 and Level 1 were difficult, I really couldn't believe it.

And above all, I was happy that I was able to study new things and get a certification even in my late 30s.

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How did I study while working and raising children?

There is something I think to myself about this Level 1 exam,“I did a good job.”That is,

I dedicated a lot of my free time to studying to make time for it.
It's quite difficult to make a block of time when you have children, isn't it?
After the children go to sleep, there is usually time when I watch videos of my favorite idols or read magazines.

For me, of course, that is also precious time.

But before the exam, I used that “time to relax” for studying.

I also used my work breaks.

Of course, there were days when I thought, “I'm tired today, so I don't want to study...”😂

Even so, by building it up little by little, I was able to pass Level 1 safely.

And now that I've passed, I don't want to end it with just getting the certification,

I want to share information about cosmetic ingredients.I quite like studying itself, so I want to continue to greedily increase my beauty knowledge.＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿



What I want to write about in this series

This article was first “the reason I took the Cosmetic Ingredient Specialist Certification and a rough story until I passed.”From the next time onwards,

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Actually, how did you study?”I will write more concretely about that part.・Materials I actually used

・How to read the textbook

・How to memorize ingredients
・How to use the problem collection
・How to make study time while working and raising children
・What I did right before the exam
I plan to summarize as realistically as possible the methods I actually tried and thought “


This was good!” and tips for studying when you don't have time.For those who want to take the Cosmetic Ingredient Specialist CertificationFor those who are thinking of starting to study after a long time

For those who can't easily find a block of time due to work or childcare

I would be happy if this could be even a little helpful to those people.

I also want to keep it as a record for myself, so I will write it in several parts from now on.

I would be happy if you could read the next one too if you'd like.✨