Making up in Myanmar!

Now don't get excited this is not about kissing and making up - although perhaps if you are considered beautiful with splodges of white 'makeup' on your face then kissing is part of the deal!

A typical Myanmar splodge

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the woman of Myanmar are admired for their beauty especially when they put what I would consider splodges on their faces. Beauty is certainly a funny thing.

If you have straight hair you want curly

If you have curly hair you want straight

If you have dark skin you want light

If you have light skin you want dark

And so on and so on

Preparing a take-home salad mix

We in the west spend a fortune on lotions and potions, replumping, lifting and separating, tanning - well I could go on. For over 2000 years in Myanmar this 'paste' has been their natural sunscreen and the women take pride in covering parts of their face - and arms with Thanaka. It is made by grinding the bark, wood or even roots of the Thanaka tree with a small amount of water. As a sunscreen it is interesting that they don't cover their entire face - just their cheeks. (It's my nose that needs to be covered in the sun!) The most stylish seems to be in the shape of a leaf. It apparantly has a cooling effect and helps to remove acne and promotes smoothe skin. I would want to at least smooth it out over my entire face but that doesn't seem to be the way. What one thinks is ugly another thinks is beautiful - and the men admire it I am told!

Smoking a cheroot - I'll take the 15th Thanaka log on the right please!

Girls just gotta have fun - and think how beautiful their skin will be as they age!

If we started grinding the bark of trees and mixing it with water rather than buying expensive sunscreen and lotions and potions it would put the large cosmetics companies out of business.

Do you find the splodges attractive? Do they make the women look 'hot'?