White out

Who isn’t in love with Lupita Nyong’o right now? Yes, I teared up when she dropped “Your dreams are valid” on all of us Third World wishful thinkers, but it was her speech at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon, where she spoke about her self-hatred and how she used to pray every night that she’d wake up lighter only to be disappointed; that really hit me right in the #feels. Who hasn’t felt even the smallest smidge of self-loathing before? Who hasn’t hated a specific physical feature and wished it would change? In the Philippines, it’s our complexion.

The whitening phenomenon has baffled me all my life. I never liked how so much of the advertising for whitening products tied them in so deeply with the near-universal female concern of finding true love — yes, the reason you don’t have a boyfriend right now isn’t because your standards are too high, or that you haven’t had the opportunity to meet decent people because you never get out of the house or anything; it’s actually because you’re not white enough. Because fairness is really the first thing one must look for in a potential life partner. (Have you considered the possibility that what you need to work on isn’t your skin tone, but your personality? Just throwing that out there.)

I loathed even more the notion that white skin is equal to wealth. The only thing my pasty complexion tells me is that I don’t earn enough to take a trip to the beach. The people I know who live the all-I-do-is-work-out-in-Stella-McCartney-for-Adidas-then-have-lunch-with-my-amigas lives of leisure of which I dream all seem to be sporting a slight golden glow year round. These days, a tan isn’t an indicator that you do commoner work outdoors. What is this, 1521? A tan signifies that you can actually afford to go on a proper vacation and treat yourself to a good time.

As with everything that’s trying to sell itself, whitening has played to both our insecurities and our aspirations. And I was never, ever buying.

That is, until I spotted one of my halfie friends (a dead ringer for Olivia Wilde) stocking up on whitening products. “What do you need whitening for? You’re practically the whitest person I know!” I exclaimed. And then she explained that her obsession with whitening wasn’t about whitening itself, but about prevention being ultimately easier than cure. The products weren’t to make her whiter; they were to keep her complexion even and spot-free. We are all dealt sun damage on a daily basis. It’s why I’ve been wearing a minimum of SPF 30 obsessively even when my only plans for the day are to roll right back into bed. Because I don’t want to grow up to look like Donatella Versace.

Why don’t they market whitening products like that? I wondered to myself, as I pulled a brightening serum I would otherwise never have purchased off the shelf. Who knows? Maybe an even skin tone isn’t a big enough draw; they have to sell you a boyfriend. Whatever, I’ll choose clarity any day of the week.

It’s trite, and every artista who’s ever been asked for beauty tips has said it, but that doesn’t make it less true: Good skin is the best foundation, whatever the shade. If you’ve ever had to deal with uneven tone, or leftover hyperpigmentation from a bad bout with acne, and you don’t want to do an in-clinic peel, then these are the next best things you’ve got to a best friend.

Exfoliate

Boosting your skin’s turnover time will get you that much closer to clarity, but for those with skin too sensitive for abrasive scrubs, using something gentle weekly, like Cure Natural Aqua Gel. Massage a pump or two into dry skin and watch in both horror and fascination as your dead skin cells clump together in tiny little balls that you can then rinse right off your face.

Available at Beauty Bar.

Mask

Another once- or twice-weekly thing you can do is to cop a trick from Hollywood and spoil your skin with a mud mask. GlamGlow Youthmud Tinglexfoliate Treatment is packed with brightening antioxidants, detoxifying volcanic minerals, and French sea clay to stimulate collagen synthesis. Leave it on for 10 minutes. (No promises you’ll look like Natalie Portman after, though.)

Available at SM Beauty.

Cleanse

If you really hate getting zits, for the love of God, cleanse.

Tone

If you’re oily-skinned and/or feel the need to use a toner, pick one with brighteners like vitamin C, like ZA Cosmetics True White Prismizer.

Treat

Brightening and spot-correcting serums are the beauty biz’s gift to everyone who’s ever had to deal with the dark marks left behind by the Voldemort of skin issues: acne. Some Asian-tested favorites: Clinique Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector and Clarins White Plus HP Intensive Whitening Smoothing Serum, both gentle enough to use daily, both great for making skin look extra radiant.

Fake it

Great skin glows, so if you’re looking to look luminous, replicate the radiant effect by blending a dab of MAC Strobe Cream along the tops of your cheeks. Annyeong, girl!

Treat some more

At the end of a long working week, or on Sundays after a Friday to Saturday two-hit combo rager, I like to bring my skin back from the dead with a treatment-saturated face mask. Shiseido White Lucent Power Brightening Mask hydrates, refreshes, and puts the light right back into exhausted skin.