Skin Whiteners… Beware!

Since I was a child, I have always wanted to have a fair skin. Although mine is fair, I wanted more. After all, humans are known to be less-content mammals. We always aim for perfection and no matter how hard it is, we strive to do our best to at least, be almost perfect.

Admittedly, I used to be a vain person spending half (even more) of my hard earned money on perfumes, make-ups and cosmetics, clothes, shoes and bags. I was a shopaholic cum compulsive buyer of different brands like Lancôme, Shiseido, Dermalogica and more. I was also a loyal patron of whitening products such as Likas Papaya (and this is just purely hoax because the result was still the same).  A dermatologist once advised that our skin would not whiten as much as we want them to especially when it has reached its full potential. She even said that these products should be called skin lightening soap/cream/etc. These products could only lighten our skin but not totally whiten. Otherwise, they are classified as bleaching products.

There are a lot of whitening products in different forms. Today, they now come in pills such as glutathione. Although I am very eager to have a fair skin, I am not that devoted to plunge into the advertising/marketing strats of these companies and test these products on my skin. I have a very sensitive skin that it gets damaged easily with products containing harsh chemicals. My experience with Likas Papaya is not so good because my skin gets flaky whenever I would use it for a long period of time (more than three days at least).

Just a month ago, my husband came home from Philippine STAR’s Supreme Anniversary party with a bag of goodies. One of which was placenta soap with a brand that I already forgot. I didn’t use it right away. I was never a fan of placenta soap. Several weeks had passed, when my husband noticed that we didn’t have soap anymore. I may have forgotten to include it in our list of items when we went to the grocery a couple of days back. So we were left with no option but to use the placenta soap. The first time I used it, I thought it was a dye. Its orange color was staining the floor tiles as if I had my skin dyed with orange. After bathing, my skin got tight. I felt a stinging sensation on some parts of my body: chest, stomach, and feet. Unwary of the precautionary signs, I continued using the said placenta soap. Two days later, a lesion formed in my right foot.

I knew there was something wrong with the placenta soap. Or it could be my sensitive skin too. On the other hand, if half of the population of Filipinos has sensitive skin, then they should not be using this soap at all. Well, that would be too exaggerating because I bet not even a quarter of the population would really use such. It’s good to know that I am not really devoted in having a much fairer skin. I’m happy with my color actually. It could’ve been fairer though but if the price I have to pay would be too much to bear, I can’t imagine having another lesion on my skin just because of that superficial desire. My cousin once asked me this question, “If you were to have lots of money, which part of your body would you want to be improved?” I was quick to reply with, “Nothing. I wouldn’t want science to touch any part of my body.”

Would you answer the same? If not, which part of your body would you want to be improved? Have you tried skin whiteners? Were they really effective?