Makeover 911
Get that Dita Von Teese skin and look
By Kinny Salas
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:55:00 08/22/2008
MANILA, Philippines—She was my childhood idea of beauty personified: smooth, porcelain pink-white skin all over, smoothly curved blue-black hair, deep blue eyes, red lipstick and a figure that was slender but voluptuous at the same time.
Watching burlesque goddess Dita Von Teese perform at the 18th anniversary celebration of the Belo Medical Group was a dream come true for me. She was exquisite!
My Dita fixation will last me a while. She has inspired me to go back to working out and watching what I eat. Beauty wise, there are major preparations ahead for those who want her look.
Hair
Take a break from the highlights and revert to your original shade of very dark brown to black. The work involved is keeping dark hair shiny, soft and healthy or it will look like road kill.
Tips: 1. Use a shampoo suitable for your hair type daily—normal, dry or oily—and clean it thoroughly.
Shampoos for those with oily hair are hardest to find.
L’Occitane Lavender Clarifying shampoo and detangling conditioner (P1,650) are great for cleaning oily hair as they keep scalp smelling fresh. The conditioner also disentangles and hydrates without leaving hair limp.
Also try The Body Shop’s Nettle and Suave Clarifying shampoo.
2. Condition hair ends and length, steering clear from the scalp. Once or weekly, use a deep-conditioning treatment. Or at least once a month, go to a salon like L’Oreal Hair spa.
3. Kerastase Noctogenist (P1,650) is a night cream/serum for hair that does not stick to your pillow. It makes your hair silky soft and smooth.
Glowing white skin
Accept your skin’s limitations. Von Teese’s natural hair color is blonde, hence her glowing pink white complexion.
Being Asian, our skin tone is yellow-based so get the pink flush with blush instead.
Do not aim for white skin; aim for smooth even-toned skin which means going back to your newborn skin color which is more important.
1. Go for weekly body scrubs and follow those up by putting on whitening lotion. In the daytime, put on SPF 15 sunblock.
For DIY body scrub, you may try the following: The Natural Source Green Tea, The Body Shop papaya, Lucky Chick sugar scrub in Mandarin white orchid.
2. If not pregnant or conceiving, go for clinic treatments involving creams with bleach like Belo’s body scrub (to be maintained by use of Belo Essentials like the soap and whitening body lotion). Tip: Ask your derma or skin clinic if it offers this treatment and inquire about the package discount.
Whitening
3. Glutathione - the master antioxidant that prevents cancer, detoxifies the body, improves eyesight, memory and sleeping habits. It is known best for its side effect—inhibiting melanin production, resulting in whiter skin.
The fastest way to whiten is taking it via injection directly to the vein by double doses three weeks straight, then once a week for four weeks, totaling 10 doses.
Those who are pregnant should not take Gluta injection. But they may take Glutathione in tablet form.
Oral glutathione is slower and it may take over a year for those with naturally dark skin to show visible lightening of skin (so others double the dose by taking three tablets a day).
At P1,500 upwards per pack of 30 tablets, glutathione tablet is expensive. But it’s still cheaper than IV gluta which costs around P2,000 a dose.
Drinking plain glutathione tablets may not help whiten the skin because its molecules are too large and may dissolve into the digestive track before they can run through the rest of our body. They need something to “carry” them through the rest of the body like Alpha lipoic acid, NAC (N acetyl cysteine) and Vitamin C, which all serve to boost glutathione levels in the body. So look for glutathione tablets containing these.
Places I have tried offering IV Gluta are: Godiva Skin Station (which has amazing but limited promos) and Belo Clinic (which offers a full vial of Vitamin C serum as booster, making the glutathione work faster; but of course, the treatment is more expensive—at P5,500 a session).
For Belo, call 8442939. The Natural Source is located at Bonifacio High Street and Glorietta 4.
Godiva Glowthione is available at Godiva Skin Station. Snow caps are available at Watson’s and Royale (4487953). Lucky Chick Salt Scrub is available at Beauty Bar. Kerastase and L’Oreal hair care products are available at accredited salons.
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