Skin Whitening

 

Vocabulary

grow	mascara	earn a living
follow	feel for	entrepreneur
ideal	lipsticks	opportunities
range	privileges	warehouse
brand	promise	advantage
trust	revenue	self-produced
harsh	comprise	generate
region	face-lift	roughly (2)
Botox	blemish	treatment
laser	freckles	smooth over
acid	quarter	infection
bleach	irritation	underarm
insist	organic	harmless
as well	swear (2)	ingredient
domain	head (2)	follower (2)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

Transcript

Pachare Bumkunard uses her grandmother’s house in Bangkok as a warehouse. She’s been earning her living for over a year now selling cosmetics on the internet.

She markets lipsticks, mascara — and now, a growing number of skin whitening products.

Patcharee Boonkumnard, Online Entrepreneur: “I feel for Thai people: If you have white skin, you have more privileges…you get more opportunities, for example, when you look for a job, or meet new people.

People with white skin have more advantages.

Thai people believe that, that’s why I can sell a lot.”

A whole range of creams, facial masks and soaps promises what users believe is ideal beauty.

Patcharee Boonkumnard already has her own brand of soap . . . and other products will soon follow.

She uses self-produced videos and photos to advertise her cosmetics on her Instagram page.

And of course, she uses them all herself.

Patcharee Boonkumnard, Online Entrepreneur: “Because I sell whitening products, I feel that if I have white skin, the customers will have trust in my products.

That’s why I want to have white skin.”

Skin whitening products generate billions of Euros in revenues for large international cosmetics companies.

In Asian countries, whitening products now comprise over a quarter of cosmetics sales.

And as the middle classes in the region grow, so does the market for skin whiteners, by roughly seven percent — year for year.

But in addition to the cosmetics industry, others are also doing well out of the business . . .

Bangkok is full of clinics, promising more beautiful skin. They offer Botox treatments, facelifts — and of course — skin whitening.

And depending on wants and wallets, the clinics try to please their customers with creams, facemasks — and even laser treatments.

It’s a high-tech war on freckles and blemishes designed to smooth over the skin. But it doesn’t make it any lighter.

Kriangkrai Aowudoomphan, Estella Clinic Medical Director

The head of this clinic says that product that immediately change the skin color mostly contains harsh acids. They bleach your skin, he says, and can cause irritations, burns or even infections.

Patcharee Boonkumnard insists her soaps are harmless and made with purely organic ingredients.

Her customers swear by them. She already has thirty thousand followers on Instagram.

And she says, this is just the beginning.

Her products are now just being used on faces, but on underarms and feet as well.

And white skin is no longer only the domain of Asian women: an increasing number of Patcharee Boonkumnard’s customers, are men.

Questions

1. Patcharee Boonkumnard has a large trading company. Is this correct or wrong?

2. She only sells skin whitening creams online. True or false?

3. Are Thais colorblind?

4. Are skin lightening products big business? Are sales increasing, decreasing or staying the same?

5. How does Patcharee Boonkumnard market, promote and advertise her products?

6. She doesn’t use the products; only sells them. Yes or no?

7. Do people only use skin lightening cosmetics? What does the doctor say about them?

8. How does Patcharee Boonkumnard respond to warnings about skin whiteners?

9. Only females are interested in skin lighteners. True or false?

 

A. Cosmetics are popular in my town, city and country. Yes or no? How are they sold?

B. Do (a few, some, many) people use skin lighteners, or do people go to the beach and have tans, both or neither?

C. Is your culture similar to Thailand’s regarding complexion? Are people conscious of the lightness and darkness of the skin?

D. Thais and others shouldn’t be concerned about skin color, but accept themselves and others as they are. What do you think?

E. What will happen in the future?