Search

 

 

Informative Articles

Body Art
There are several forms of body art. Body art can be temporary, for example, body painting, or permanent, such as shaping, dyeing, and scarification, tattooing, and piercing. This article will provide some insight into body art. Body art painting...
Celebrating Women
After thousands of years of abuse, educational deprivation and being treated like property, women are finally getting the opportunity to blossom like the beautiful flowers that they are. The entire month of March is dedicated to the strength and...
Health - Avoiding Reactions To Beauty Products
Avoiding Allergic Reactions to Beauty Products How many times have you bought a new cosmetic, fragrance or beauty product and found that it either irritated you or caused you to have an allergic reaction. Most people have had some kind of...
It's About More Than Money: are you charging what you're
*Article Use Guidelines* Use in opt-in publications, or on Web sites, but please include the resource box. If you could send a copy to me at email address: mailto:ab@digital-e.biz , I appreciate it. Many thanks. ** Summary: Price takers and price...
Nuthin' but Blue Skies
"Welcome to Canada," Ken shouted to me over the roar of the rain and thunder. A constant downpour kept the photography workshop indoors. We slipped out during a break in the clouds, but as soon as we set up our tripods, a thunderstorm swept in out...
Skin Care and the Physiology of the Skin
The largest organ of the human body is the skin. It protects our bodies from the environment, maintains body temperature, excretes waste matter, gives sensory information to the brain and regulates body moisture. We think about our skin more than...
Surgery for the stars
While plastic surgery might remain for many of us something of a pipe dream, the thing we'd do if we won the lottery, for those in the entertainment industry, it has slowly but surely become akin to an entry pass into Hollywood. While there are...
Use This Rules To Survive A Loss
The intent of this article was to ease any trauma caused by break ups or permanent separations between two persons. I strongly believe that almost any person must have encountered the feeling of loss when being told by the other person that a best...
 
White Asian Skin Against Tanning


The paler the skin, the higher the class

Pale skin has had an exciting evolution. Greek and Roman women used to do anything possible to whiten their face skin; the whiter their face skin was, the more beautiful they were considered. Sun tanning was out of the question. By using lead paints and chalks women put themselves in great danger because that ancient beauty treatment could cause death by slow poisoning. It was only too late when this was discovered.

The obsesssion with white, "porcelain"- like skin evolved beyond cosmetic reasons, becoming more related to social classes. Skin color became that visible definer separating working classes from the ruling classes. A tanned skin disclosed a life of outdoor labor; those wishing to be accepted in high-life had to conform to this requirement: white, not tanned skin. The paler one's skin, the higher the class. To achieve this, men and women had no limits; any method, safe or not, was used, as being pale was extremely important.

Asia: white skin is considered a symbol of femininity

The tanning obsession and later, the sunless tanning craze took over the world. Still, there are white "spots" on the worldwide tanning roadmap. Asian people are not so excited with golden skin. And this has a lot to do with their millenary culture, somehow reluctant to these trends.

What do Asian females have and others don't? There are few differences to take into account. Teams of scientists and dermatologists who have studied eight Asian cities (Sendai, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Guangzhou, Shanghai and Harbin, China; Calicut and New Delhi, India; and Manila, Philippines (representative of Malay skin) have some interesting findings to reveal:


  1. Hyperpigmentation (dark spots) has an earlier onset than wrinkles and laxity (loss of firmness) on Asian skin (compared to Caucasians).

  2. The Japanese have the lightest skin tone; thus, Japanese women have low melanin and skin redness. The Indians have the darkest skin tone, and therefore high melanin content and skin redness.

  3. Asian skin has a better behavior during cooler months; because of reduced sun exposure, Asian women's skin has better biomechanical


    properties such as elasticity and structures (collagen).

  4. Skin becomes yellowish with age and this is more visible in Chinese and Korean skin than other racial groups.

  5. Japanese skin has the best condition (least deterioration with age), while Indian skin has the worst.


In fact, there are more differences across populations depending on regions, age, geographical location, climate, skincare habits.

White, whiter, the whitest - this may be lethal

In Asian countries, pale skin has had the same significance for centuries: sophistication, innocence, feminity and high social standard. That is why Asian women have always been looking for skin care products to whiten their skin. They used to prepare "skin whiteners", by grinding pearl from seashells into powder and swallowing it. Today's cosmetics are safer and more reasonable. New skin whitening products appear every year, posing less dangers to women's health or life.

Still, these whitening lotions, serums, correctors and essences may involve risks worth taking into account. According to Asian dermatologists, the danger comes from mercury. If safety allowance limits are exceeded, mercury (the best known whitening agent) may cause death. Unfortunately, some products include high doses of mercury, which are damaging to the central nervous system and the kidneys, and especially to the development of the brain in a foetus or a child.

So, pale skin is not the happiest choice for an Asian woman, after all. Neither is dark skin. So, what should they do? Using proper skincare products and sunscreeen (if exposed to real sun or indoor session) is the best choice for life, not only for Asian women but also for anybody who cares about skin and health.

Dana Scripca writes for www.sunlesstanning.ws" target=new>http://www.sunlesstanning.ws where you can find more information about Sunless Tanning.

Please feel free to use this article in your Newsletter or on your website. If you use this article, please include the resource box and send a brief message to let me know where it appeared: mailto:danascri@gmail.com