The blanc book

It’s interesting to note that most major cosmetic houses will have products that cover all bases of the polarized extreme. When it comes to re-defying concepts of beauty, society constantly fluctuates between the natural and the enhanced, the slender and the voluptuous, the light and the dark. Sometimes it’s driven by fads and fashion, by advancements in technology, but sometimes it’s culturally deep-seated.

The latter reason is that which is still predominant in many, class-conflicted nations. White, the skin of the conqueror, the imperialist, the oppressor – came to be equated with beauty, purity, royalty, and divinity, almost. "White" not just as a skin tone, but as a symbol. This is a universal phenomenon, and not only in Europe and their colonies – Japanese and Chinese women too have long since been powdering themselves to a perfect blankness. Even in Arab and African nations, the lighter dark-skinned child will be favored over his or her siblings and peers, and dangerous methods of skin bleaching have been undertaken in the name of Michael Jackson.

And then you have the tanorexics, a more modern phenomenon. Fair-skinned people now want the healthy glow of an idle summer spent on the surf (not the burnt crust of a lifetime spent toiling in the fields). Natural UV rays, when discovered to be dangerous and inconvenient, were eschewed for controlled tanning salon sessions and self-tanning lotions and bronzers. Celine recommended these alternatives, after seeing me hide behind a plant at the beach and hearing my complaint of being unable to tan well (my skin is naturally light, not the pasty white that turns lobster red, but more like a calamansi sorbet that, an hour under the sun, is sadly smoked to a cigarette-ashen gray and not the toasty copper I hoped to be).

In Japan, a small sub-culture of Tokyo teens went against the old kabuki cake face and opted to bed-tan themselves to an unhealthy crisp. They wanted to be black. These bleached blond darkies were called ganguro and lurked around the Shibuya district, but apparently they’ve faded away.

But until I feel the need to have myself spray-tanned, I’m re-learning to embrace my natural pallor.

Then Chanel Blanc Lumiere Light Reflecting Whitening Powder Foundation comes my way. It is part of the latest of the lightening range from Chanel. Now, they’re packaged a whole lot classier than those lotions you see on TV that blatantly hawk the backwards ideal of the "mestizang puti", but I wonder, is there really much of a difference?

Glancing at its skincare line’s literature, Precision Blanc Purete’s tagline, "The quintessence of whiteness" sent a little frisson of fascist reaction among my harmonious community of whiteheads and blackheads. However, if you want to get technical, the real quintessence of whiteness is that it is not the absence of color, but rather the presence of all frequencies of visible light. They should stop treating skin like a basket of dirty laundry.

Chanel harks back to a time when "luminously white, porcelain-like skin" was in vogue and not a sign of anemia. It is no wonder that the pearlescent Nicole Kidman is their latest image model. Granted, they also qualify their products by saying they are for women who want correction of dark spots of all sizes, the prevention of the appearance of new spots, and an even, luminous porcelain-like skin quality. Chanel has always been reputed for its high-end quality products, and the Chanel Epidermal and Sensory Research and Investigations Centre (I imagine supermodel doctors in heels and matching silk-trimmed lab coats sniffing variations on the Number 5) unleashes their two new products to add to the daily whitening regimen of an already tedious six: Intensive Whitening Essence and the Gentle Cleansing Milk for Face and Eyes. The key ingredient here is the pigmentation-regulating licorice extract, with a powerful anti-tyrosinase action, which reduces the synthesis of melanin.

Pale skin at its best does look luminous and sandblasted to the smoothness of Michaelangelo’s David’s buttocks, but it also makes for a more visible canvas of imperfections like blotches and pimple scars that tanned or dark skin can hide. If you’re already pale and have the usual pale Asian skin issues like age spots, hyperpigmentation, etc., and want to improve your complexion, then these Chanel Blanc Purete skincare products you should probably use. Also, if you want to maintain your skin tone throughout our summer, where you will undoubtedly fry with no lack of trying, the Chanel Whitening Powder Foundation is especially helpful as it also has a protective SPF of 25 (as do the other Blanc Lumiere products). It evens out the skin, provides light coverage with a soft matte finish, and comes in a gradient of six beiges. For the natural morenas who hope to Photoshop their skin tone several octaves higher, whitening products (bleach, pills, what have you) are discouraged as they will most likely turn your skin to an unappetizing shade of milky gray, the logical reverse of my own tanning dilemma. To the melanomaniacs of either extreme – I suggest you examine your insides first, and may the pores be with you.

Chanel Blanc Lumiere Light is available at Chanel counters at Rustan’s Department Store.