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skin lightening products

 
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Broccoli



Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Location: Right foot in Limbo, left foot sliding somewhere darker.

PostPosted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 12:05 pm    Post subject: skin lightening products Reply with quote

It came up in conversation with my friend one day that some Korean women use bleaching gel/lotion/soap to lighten their complextion. My friend (who is of Bengali heritage and has a medium brown skin tone) was extremely interested in learning more about this. She has been searching for such products for years with no success.

The problem, she claims, is that she doesn't know what to plunk into internet search engines to direct her to a company from which she can order the products by mail. I told her I'd ask you folks about it (and she has reminded me of my promise twice already), and if you could help us out I would greatly appreciate it.

p.s., This request might have made me uncomfortable if it had come from anyone else. However, my friend and I have discussed the politics of skin colour in great depth. Rest assured that her aesthetic preference is not motivated by either racism or elitism, self-directed or otherwise. Yes, aesthetic preferences are often deeply rooted in socio-cultural values, but she is very progressive, anti-colonial, and politically active. She has thought about this a lot and has made a rational and reflective decision to lighten her skin.
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chi-chi



Joined: 15 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 9:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mods you may delete

Last edited by chi-chi on Sat Jul 30, 2005 8:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Trinny



Joined: 01 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 9:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Skin lightening lotion is a joke. I myself had been a victim to the bogus products for years, and I still have darker skin complextion than the average Korean women even to the extent that they cannot believe I am Korean.
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Blue Flower



Joined: 23 Feb 2003
Location: The realisation that I only have to endure two more weeks in this filthy, perverted, nasty place!

PostPosted: Sun Aug 31, 2003 2:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tell her not to use them. I am no scientist or medical expert, but isn't skin colour/tone determined by the amount of melanin in your skin? The more you have, the darker you are. You skin is composed of many layers, and is actually quite thick, therefore it would be difficult, if not impossible to actually lighten your skin by any noticeable steps. She will not go from a brunette, to a platinum blonde, to use that analogy.

Also, I can't imagine that the ingredients used to "Whiten" - think "bleach" your skin, would be very good for it.

The only way I would recomend to lighten your skin, is to always wear a very high protection factor sunblock, keep out of the sun, and always wear a hat. Or else she could maybe do a Micheal Jackson, and have her skin somehow surgically lightened.
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JackSarang



Joined: 28 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Sun Aug 31, 2003 5:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just look at the cosmetics counters in any big shopping center in Korea. All the big names -- Lancome, MAC, Clairol all sell these products. They all say on them in English that they are for "whitening" and contain all that expensive crap that women like to dump on their face -- Vitamins, Retinol, Aloe etc.

I can't attest to how well they work, but Korean women who are serious about getting their skin lightened, don't use these products, they go to plastic surgeons or high-priced aestheticians and get chemical or laser peels.
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Broccoli



Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Location: Right foot in Limbo, left foot sliding somewhere darker.

PostPosted: Sun Aug 31, 2003 7:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the great advice folks. My friend and I are both in Canada, so browsing a Korean makeup counter is not so much an option at the moment. That's why my friend wants to get this stuff over the internet. I'll advise her to plunk in "whitening" and the names of some makeup companies like Mac. I assume that there must be some affiliation between their international branches, even if they are marketed separately.

She'll probably still want to give it a try, even though it's probably a sham. We were thinking that the stuff might work like a fake tanning product, and just stain or bleach the upper layer of skin until it is shed. It is, in fact, the Michael Jackson case that feuled her search because it was evidence that such whitening is possible. I didn't realize that this was the result of 'peels,' and I am surprised that such a procedure has a whitening effect at all; doesn't a peel just take off the top layer or two of skin, and wouldn't the lower layers be the same colour that you were born with, as Blue Flower suggests? (Ouch!)

I'll pass on all this information to her. I'm guessing she'll want to give the whitening lotion a try, just in case it has some small effect, and then will opt for the peel when she can afford it. By the way, she does avoid tanning altogether: hats, sunblock, the whole 9 yards.

Thanks again.
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