With summer upon
us the time has come for the ladies of Shanghai to don their skimpier garments
and expose a little flesh. As in
Vietnam, some choose to cover every inch of their body’s with some form of
fabric to fend off the ever present sun and prevent any form of tanning or
indeed vitamin E. Others choose to bare
a little too much at times and hide under the shade of their colour coordinated
umbrellas – this summer’s must-have fashion accessory. If you are unfortunate enough to be caught
out in the midday heat for any period of time, thereby tanning slightly you can
always reverse the effects, but applying gallons of skin whitening products to
every conceivable nook and crevice.
Even in winter
months beauty shops, department stores, pharmacies and the like have shelf upon
shelf of lotions and potions often with names such as ‘bright white’ ‘sparkling
white’ ‘white radiance’ and ‘ghost of Christmas past’ – OK, so I made the last
one up, but you get the idea. In fact,
it’s annoyingly difficult to find moisturisers or foundation without these skin
whitening chemicals in them. When
friends visiting the city ask if there is anything I would like them to bring,
I have now resorted to requesting for moisturiser… oh, and stroopwafels in the case of
my Dutchie.
Regardless of whether or not they actually have the desired effect, I’m not about to start rubbing them in to my skin – who knows what’s in them, and I certainly have no desire to be any paler than I already am, if they do produce the effects shown on the pictures. It’s a shame that the moisturiser-merchants don’t consider the hundreds of thousands of expats living in this city, we just want silky smooth skin, not a passing resemblance to Casper the friendly ghost.
A xx
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