Singkamas as skin whitener? Yes!
We are all slowly but surely realizing that natural products are healthier for us, not to mention, kinder to our budgets. Since the beginning of time, our beautiful Filipino ancestors used nature- derived products for their daily essentials. Today, beauty product manufacturers are going back to using the magic potions of our ancestors but processed with modern technology. My mom’s aunt who lived with us and whom we fondly called Lola Betts (short for Beatrice) only used plants and vegetables for all her beauty concerns. As children, my sisters and I pondered the efficacy of her “natural” products because they all seemed weird to our young eyes. We always saw our mom putting her creams and “department store” products on her smooth, fair skin and that was our orientation as children to beauty products. In contrast, here was our Lola Betts, who had equally flawless skin and thick, silky hair, using only natural products, which she bought in the market and concocted in our kitchen. She used gugo as her shampoo, and would soak her hair in coconut oil or freshly squeezed coconut milk (gata) a few hours before each shampoo. She rubbed sabila (the sap from cactus leaves) on her scalp to prevent or arrest falling hair. I would see her rubbing sliced labanos (radish) or singkamas (until the juice oozed out) on her elbows and knees to keep them fair and smooth. She used egg white as her facial mask, egg yolk as her facial moisturizer, and believe me, when I tell you that her face looked so stretched with just a minimum of wrinkles till way past her 80s! Here’s more: She always had a small bottle of olive oil in her bathroom, as she rubbed it on her calluses and the rough skin of her feet before each bath. She also used it to take off her makeup before washing her face clean.
Looking back at our Lola Betts’ beauty regimen, I am more convinced than ever that we can depend on nature to supply us with our beauty essentials. It is so much healthier for us, too, because they leave no toxic effects as chemicals do. It is really just plain laziness on our part to concoct them from our kitchens as it is easier to go to the stores to buy them. But the good news is, there are a lot of companies going organic now. We find these natural products in our supermarkets and department stores everywhere. For instance, at Watsons, I discovered Instant White, an instant whitening cream with organic ingredients. I opted to try it as it cost only P399. It promises to whiten and smooth the skin in three to four weeks, leaving it with the glow of youth. The expected result upon application is instant because of the film-like coverage of the product on the skin. What attracted me most to this product is its main ingredient: extract of singkamas! This validates my Lola Betts’ use of labanos or singkamas to smooth and whiten her elbows and knees. (Labanos or turnip comes from the same family as singkamas.) Chemists confirm that singkamas or turnip has whitening and moisturizing properties.
The other ingredients of the Instant White cream are: 1) allantoin, present in comfrey and other plants supposedly heals wounds, acts as anti-irritant, soothes, and moisturizes; 2) mulberry leaf extract, an active whitener reduces the production of melanin in the face; 3) phenylethyl resorcinol, a potent antioxidant reduces pigmentation; 4) sodium ascorbyl phosphate, a stable vitamin C effective whitening ingredient and antioxidant; 5) vitamin E a protective agent and antioxidant; 6) lycopene, a very potent carotenoid present in our cells and liver 100 times more effective than vitamin E in quenching the oxygen coupling of free radicals; 7) beeswax protective and highly moisturizing/skin conditioning; it is secreted by female bee workers when constructing the honeycomb.
Our beloved Lola Betts must be smiling from above, saying ”Didn’t I tell you that my concoctions are for real?”
