Just a secret: Asian Secrets Whitening Body Scrub and Bengkoang Soap

Oh, look what I've tried using for the last few months, the Solenn Heusaff endorsed Asian Secrets. I did not buy it to achieve the beauty and glowing skin of the French Filipino celebrity. It's something new from the usual Papaya-laden whitening products that we have available in supermarkets and drugstores for the past years. More on the curiosity of what a Lulur is -- a type of Indonesian beauty ritual that Indonesian brides go through in order to score a smooth, radiant and white skin before their wedding day. If it is really effective during those days, that is something we have to find out.

So far, these are the variants that I have tried:

The first one that I really used was the soap. I have not taken a picture of it but the packaging looks more like the orange box above. Again, the term Bengkoang tickled my vocabulary hungry brain. In English it is known as Yam Bean extract which is a popular whitening ingredient in Indonesia. Most probably synonymous to the so called whitening magic of our native kalamansi and papaya.

There are two soap variants which I have already used. One with moisturizing olive oil (green box) which protects the skin from dryness and the other kind is with Betel nut (orange box). Betel nut? What I know about betel nut is something that old people pop in their mouth as you would a chewing gum or bubble gum. The chewing gum gives you fresh breath while the betel nut will leave you depressed because of the reddish tint that will eventually stays in your teeth.  Ironically, I love using the betel nut variant of the soap. It prides itself with antiseptic and deodorizing properties. You have this cool menthol feeling in your skin after rinsing with water.

For the body scrubs, I favor the one in green tub  with Green Tea and Vitamin E. And the scent is so good which I can't really say with the purple tub that boasts of  Licorice and Mulberry Leaf Extract. I use it lavishly every bath in order to replace it sooner.

My curiosity with this product is already worn out having tried all the variants. I may or may not buy it again but definitely I won't use the body scrubs anymore. The little beads in the scrub is so little you hardly notice they're there. I actually add sugar each time I use it to feel that I am indeed exfoliating some dead skin. For the soap, I probably would go back to it from time to time especially the refreshing Bengkoang Betel Nut.

As for its whitening effect? I wonder how many tubs do I need to consume or how long will I use it in order for me to be as fair as Kris Aquino! I can't see it in Solenn because as far as I remember, the beauteous model-slash-singer-slash actress and all those slashes is a bit on the morena side.