Skin Care: Top 5 Myth on Skin Whitening

Asian women are OBSESSED with skin whitening. Being a Chinese myself, I am secretly obsessed with it as well. Haha. I have many European colleagues, and they simply don't get the whole obsession with getting fairer ;p

There is this popular chines saying : “一白遮三丑”, literally translated "One white covers up three ugliness", which means, if you are 10% fair, it covers up your other 30% ugliness. Or something like that. ( don't take my translation literally, as recently I have been told by a certain person that my chinese sucks. *shrug*)

CNN has a good article on why this obsession with skin whitening. My take on this is that, in ancient time, the Chinese Dynasty was the biggest empire in Asia Pacific region, and their cultural influence goes deep and far in countries like Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia etc. And along with many other cultural influence, beauty perspective is one of them. Being fair has been and still is perceived as being a noble.

Why am I suddenly jumping on to this topic actually? Well, I am handling a few projects at work recently and they all have to do with Skin Whitening one way or another. Skin whitening is offered as a benefit in skin care, cosmetics, beauty drinks etc.

Here's a photo on what I do at work (haha, are you jealous now?):

Anyway, back to the topic of skin whitening. I think younger consumers are more informed nowadays thanks to the internet. But still, there could be one of those myths that you hear passed down from generation, and you are never sure whether they are true or not. 

So check out the list below:

1. Using skin whitening products can damage your skin.
2. Regular use of whitening product will make your skin sensitive to light.
3. Natural ,homemade skin whiteners are safer than commercially-produced skin care.
4. If a skin whitening regime works for my friend, it will work for me.
5. As soon as my skin turns the exact shade I want, I can stop following my skin whitening regime.

So..how many of those do you subscribe to, and what do you really know about them. Check out this article here for the real deal. 

Tell me more myths that you hear about in the comment box below! :D