With all the creepy bleaching creams and questionable brightening (a.k.a. whitening) serums out there these days, I knew it was only a matter of time before they came up with a treatment that can actually lighten someone's skin tone. I'm sad to report that they did and it's called "reverse" or "white tanning." Think tanning salon but one that makes you lighter instead of darker. Now why in the world would someone want to reverse their natural tan? And is this thing even safe?
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I don't know why anyone would want to try reverse tanning but apparently there's a lot of women out there obsessed with white, porcelain complexions and many of these women live in South Korea.
So how does this treatment work exactly? Unlike American tanning booths which use UV lights to increase melanin production for darker skin, white tanning uses infrared light which supposedly penetrates into the skin boosting collagen and elastin production. How does that whiten skin you ask? Well it doesn't. Though the treatment targets women who want a lighter, brighter complexion, the only thing it really does is improve and even skin tone. At least that's what all the beauty bloggers and celebrities who took a trip to Ibiza Tanning Studio in Korea are saying.
Now that makes a little more sense considering the technology was originally discovered by NASA. That's right, apparently it was created to help treat wounds in space and somehow made its way to Korean beauty spas. So the same way it's supposed to heal wounds it can even your complexion and minimize dark spots or any other pigmentation issues. That doesn't sound too bad does it?
As a Latina who struggles with occasional dark spots I wouldn't mind giving a treatment like this a shot. That is, if it ONLY evens skin tone not lightens it. One thing for sure, if the creators of this "white tanning" ever plan on bringing this thing to the States they might want to consider changing the name. Dark spots and manchas resonate a lot more over here than "whitening!"
Image via Corbis Images
