A skin lotion experience

[sawadee]

I dont know if any of you know Maggie Q, the super model in HK, she is mixed race with Vietnam, French and Chinese. She is very very pretty and very popular in Asia.

 

I remembered one of her commercial I saw in Shanghai, it is about certain brand of skin product, the product will make your skin freckleless, and enhance the light skin color. Her skin is so gorgeous in that commercial and I admire that.

 

I saw Maggie Q again, on the US version of ELLE, her picture was still gorgeous the same way, except she had a freckle make-up style, that is to say, she put a lot of freckles on her beautiful face.

 

Is this some kind of culture shock that I have to experienced?

 

The reason lies behind is quite simple: western like freckles a lot, it is cute on the face, asian like a freckless face cause it is elegant. The commercial, as well as the magzine, the models, have to deal with target marget in their business.

 

Chinese girls like light skin color, western girls like a sun-tanned instead. In 2001, I wanted to follow the international trend while I was in Phuket island: I used a SPF4 sun oil whilch would darken your skin instantly in the sunlight. I was exposed to the tropical sunlight, cruising the Indian Ocean for 30 mins, I ended up in the wheelchair in a Phcket hospital, got severely sun-burned.

 

I have to admit that I look better in pale skin color, and some western girls look better in tan skin color. The Phuket cruise could well be my last attempt to tan my skin, except this April, when I wrongly bought some skin lotion which has a tan effect on the skin. It took my a while to figure that out, and it was too late, my skin already has that summer glow. It is so nice that I can buy some skin treament products back in Shanghai, and have my skin back to the nomal pale color graduately.

 

In Shanghai, we see the shelf full of lotion that will whiten the skin, and here we see all kinds of products for a tan skin. This give me a lesson to learn: be careful while shopping the skin lotion here, make sure it does not have a tan effect; Likewise, those who want a tan skin better be careful shopping in Shanghai, they might easily end up buying a whitening product intstead.

[tonado]

Tanning might look good when you are young. Once you reach 30's, you will look 10 years older. I used sun block with Mexoryl SX.

 

http://www.shoppingblog.com/cgi-bin/sblog.pl?sblog=614052

[whutthapho]

My understanding is that in some countries, "liking light skin" originated because people usually got darker tans by working in the farm/field or while performing other manual, outdoor labor. A darker tan was equated with being of a lower, working class. Upper class people and higher paid office workers, typically had "lighter skin" because they didn't spend as much time working outdoors.

 

In the U.S., as the economy advanced and people pursued more vacation/leisure time, this concept reversed. Now working class folks are stuck indoors doing office work and do not have as much time for a tan. In the U.S. tanned skin gives the impression of a leisurely lifestyle spent vacationing, at the beach, golfing, boating, etc.

[Dennis143]

That's a very good tip. I will pass that on to my wife and her Chinese friends. Sometimes we'll go in a group to Costco and I am always being asked by the ladies which product is for shampoo, conditioner, skin lotion... I never thought about making sure it doesn't have a tanning lotion in it.

 

For many years and throughout the 19th century, western women also equated white, angelic skin as beautiful. White skin showed that you were of the upper, non-working class. In the 1920s, French fashion icon, Coco Chanel inadvertently got a tan while cruising from Paris to Cannes. The fashion statement became all the rage. Women came out of the house to enjoy outdoor life, with hiking, picnics, lawn tennis and other "acceptable" yet still "feminine" activities. Soon, fashionable women everywhere threw away years of tradition to be tanned.

http://www.coolnurse.com/tanning.htm

 

Americans and most western societies now equate tanned bodies with youthful, athletic bodies. But, for me, being around Chinese ladies I can now proudly display my lily-white legs.

[SmilingAsia]

But, for me, being around Chinese ladies I can now proudly display my lily-white legs.

花生焖猪脚. They'll cook them like pig feet, with peanut kernels. Edited July 7, 2007 by SmilingAsia (see edit history)