I’ve often heard people say “Hindi naman siya maganda (or guwapo), MAPUTI lang”
But I have yet to hear anyone say— “Hindi naman siya maganda (or guwapo), MAITIM LANG?”
Blame it on those hundreds of years of being under the Spanish rule followed by the Americans and then the Japanese who are all naturally fairer.
That is why we equate white with wealth, power because the rich people are always in the shade, or working in air conditioned while those who have darker skin are the ones who work under the sun or in the fields as “ERs” farmers, carpenters, laborers well you get the idea.
I apologize if I seem a bit harsh and offended you my dear moreno/morena reader, but lets not fool ourselves. The truth is we simply adore White people.
Even the Chinese have this saying that “One whiteness can cover three ugliness”– and this is coming from a race that already has almost white snow complexion.
So whether we admit it or not, we’ve always wanted to be whiter, fairer or at least kahit man lang pantay ang kulay–at hindi ka si Bianca Gonzalez or Richard Gomez para mag deny.
I think I was highschool when Block and White lotion first came out and Pinoys got crazy. I also bought several bottles and waited 28 days to see the results–and that was just the beginning. Because next came the papaya soap, those milk salts and event that whitening powder.
I think the most extreme thing I did was put on that whitening powder (its called ETTAs I think) and I walked around for almost an hour looking like an espasol in the hopes of being whiter and making my crush notice me.
My crush eventually did but it was because of the red spots all over my body.
But as I found out while doing this article, there are even more extreme and crazier things people do to get whiter things!
Here are the four craziest whitening methods:
1: No dark food! “You look like what you eat.” says another Chinese saying. So if you want to have white skin you should avoid darker foods, which includes as soy sauce, adobong pusit, dinuguan, etc and instead gorge yourself with almonds, beans, and vitamin C rich fruit!
2: White skin creams. I know, a lot of people use creams. There was even a time I put Chin Chun Su and Ly-Na Beauty Cream every night on my face. What is frightening is that there are whitening creams that are very toxic; with some of them contain levels of mercury up to 131,000 times higher the amount permitted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. I guess this includes those creams with too much hydroquinone that it makes your skin peel off like you are melting.
3: Eating pearls: In the ancient times it was widely believed that crushing pearls and swallowing their powder would make skin lighter and smoother. This was said to be done as a remedy for emperors and aristocracy. That is if it doesn’t kill you first.
#4 Human breast milk soap: Still best for babies? You read that right, apparently there is a trend for the white-skinned obsessed who use Breast Milk Soap or Muruzao (母乳皂), according to this site. Milk bath yes, but breast milk?
Thankfully you don’t have to do any of this crazy stuff. If you really want to get whiter skin, all you have to do is Go to any watsons store and be part of the Big White Blowout!
“The Big White Blowout is for the Filipinos who want to get the best and most complete skin whitening experience all in one stop,” says Group Category Manager for Skin Care Kim Reyes. “Watsons carries the widest range of products that address our consumers whitening concerns and needs from topical applications to ingestive products,” she added.
Reyes said they decided to do it in January because most people want to look good and feel good at the start o the year and also to help them get that that flawless look in time for the summer season.
This year, Watsons made the Big White Blowout a nationwide campaign and added more products to make it even better.
“We are going for a more holistic approach this year, so we included more whitening/ lightening products. Now there are more than a hundred brands and SKUs that are part of the promo,” said Watsons Group Marketing Manager Karen Fabres.
Besides the additional items, the duration of the campaign is also longer running from January 5 until Feb 22, 2017 with a different display item featured regularly.
Among the participating brands are Cetaphil, Celeteque, Belo, CosmoSkin, L’Oreal, Olay, Ponds, SkinWhite, Dove, Kojiesan, Nivea and many leading brands.
Take your pick from shelves upon shelves of whitening soaps, facial creams, body lotions, and deodorants. And if you want to experience the next level of whitening, Watsons also houses a great selection of whitening beauty supplements you can drink such as Cosmo Skin.
At the media launch held January 10, 2017, at Watsons Podium, Cosmo Skin Beauty ambassador Ruffa Gutierrez, even gave tips on how she takes care of her youthful and radiant looking skin. She shared several “skintellectual solutions” beginning with dry and dull skin. The former beauty queen suggested vitamin C which promotes natural collagen production that helps retain the skin’s natural moisture. For those who are above 30 and are concerned about sagging skin, she says the secret is ALA or alpha-lipoic acid, a universal antioxidant and one of the best beauty ingestives for skin tightening. And for those with uneven skin tone or brown spots, the best solution is glutathione, dubbed as the master of anti-oxidants glutathione has numerous health benefits not to mention that it helps reverse production of dark melanin to give you whiter fairer skin.
Other celebrities spotted during the launch were actress Lauren Young, Almira Teng and Valerie Tan who also hosted the event.
Check out our video below:
The road to a fairer whiter and better you begins at the Watsons Big White Blowout Sale. Head over to any Watsons store nationwide for great deals, crazy offers and as much as 50% discount on the best whitening products. As an added treat for SM Advantage or BDO Rewards members, every PHP 500 purchase of whitening products included in The Big White Blowout Sale earns you an e-raffle entry and the chance to win a brand-new iPhone 7!
