After the whitening “chlorine” soap proved to be rather dangerous last month, a dubious new whitening trend has emerged among young Thais — rubbing salmon sperm in the shower to keep their skin white.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Wednesday it would investigate the popular “salmon sperm” soap after the product was being widely sold on the internet.
The soap, which advertises itself as a skin-bleaching product and claims to be FDA-approved, has been sold on Facebook and Instagram for around THB50 a bar. Merchants swear salmon sperm beats the socks off collagen, glutathione and vitamin C for its skin-whitening properties.
The box, which has a picture of a happy-looking salmon on the front, lists “sodium DNA” among the ingredients — which we assume refers to the salmon semen.
Prapon Angtrakul, deputy secretary of FDA, said that the organization will investigate if the product is legally registered and if it has declared salmon sperm as the ingredient.
So the burning question is: does salmon sperm really whiten your skin? Well, Prapol said not enough research has been done into the use of salmon sperm in cosmetics, according to Matichon.
Interestingly, salmon sperm can also be used to recycle electronic waste after it was found to be able to extract and reprocess rare earth elements, according to a report on International Business Times.
We don’t know about you, but we wouldn’t rub that on our skin.
Related:
Whitening Craze: Chlorine soap hits the market
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