A Memory Of Mums

Today's post is a small Mother's Day tribute to a humble bit of vanity but one utterly redolent with nostalgia. And beauty secrets!

White rice face powder is such a deeply ingrained part of many Southeast Asian peoples' memories of their mothers, that many don't even think of it as a thing on its own. It was the Southeast Asian woman's secret to fighting pimples, lightening her facial skin and retaining its delicate translucence. One of the first things a mother did was to smear rice powder on his or her face. 

Yes, that's right. Boys got the full treatment, too!

If your parents weren't rich, Mum probably bought her bedak sejuk (Malay for 'cold face powder) in small packets or plastic tubes like this. It was called bedak sejuk because it felt cold when applied to your skin.

Some people even made their own. It wasn't really that difficult because all you had to do was soak the uncooked rice grains in water overnight, grind it to a fine paste the next morning and then form it into tiny beads by dripping it from a teaspoon.

Rice face powder was also frequently perfumed with jasmine flowers, too, and that's going to be a completely different post next week.

Of course, if you were well off or there was a special occasion coming round, your mum most likely indulged herself a little and got one of these. It  came in a cake and was so finely ground that it could be applied like the more expensive French face powders of the time. And best of all, it didn't become streaky on Mum's face!

But were the virtues of rice powder just another one of those traditional things that had no scientific basis?

Science has found that rice powder contains para aminobenzoic acid, which is not only a very good sunscreen but also raises Vitamin C levels in our bodies. Rice also contains ferulic acid, which is an antioxidant that when doubles its sun protection ability when added to Vitamins C and E. 

So why did boys have to wear rice face powder, too? Well, rice face powder also contains  allantoin, which is a very good anti-inflammatory and soothes sunburns!

So, Mum was right, after all!