16 September 2005

Beauty Products from the DEAD

Yes, you read that right. From the dead. In the vernacular, galing sa mga patay na tao. Specifically, these beauty products allegedly came from the skins of killed (shot!) Chinese convicts.

Shades of Dr Hannibal Lecter and 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb, huh?

Initially, I heard this report from NBC's Kristine Johnson of Early Today as I was eating my breakfast yesterday. She smirked as she read the report, and was unable to control giving out a whimper and a strong "Eeeewwww!!"

And "Eeeewwww!!" it certainly is.

I did some Internet research last night and found that it was the respected British newspaper The Guardian which initiated the investigative report:

A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.

Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about".

[Guardian Unlimited, Sept 13 2005]


The company apparently seems nonchalant about the whole practice.

"Why the fuss? This has been going on for years."

If you've been harvesting the skin of dead people for years, the work becomes routine and boring. Is that it? Nothing shocks these people anymore. Well, I am shocked!

From what I heard from Kristine Johnson's report, the beauty products were being distributed not only in the UK, but in the US and the rest of the world.

Be careful of what you put in your skin, ladies. It may turn out to be somebody else's dead skin.

11 reactions:

rolly said...

Buti na lang hindi ako vain. hehe

Mec said...

hahaha ako din, nde vain :D

Toni said...

Thank goodness I'm not into make-up. I am shocked too. And... EEEWWWWWW talaga!

duke said...

oh my gosh! what people really think of just to be enterprising!

Rygel said...

but it's not really a big deal, is it? at least they don't shoot those people BECAUSE for the cosmetics. Isn't the idea like organ donation? - i don't think that's yucky. What else would a DEAD convict be good for? a specimen in the medical schools?

Rygel said...

hehehe well... i guess i wouldn't use it either if ever i knew... but that's information no one needs to know, i think. Well they said soap is made from fat of pigs... i think Muslims just don't think about it, if they did.......

Dr. Emer said...

It's good most of you are not into cosmetics, esp you, Tito Rolly. :)

Rygel: Good point, but I think that comes from years of being routinely grossed out with what we often see. Not everyone has a tough stomach. The idea here is not like organ donation. Here, ethical concerns are not well-addressed. Plastic surgeons in the UK are concerned about putting regulations and control over cosmetic treatments like collagen. I also heard there's a high rate of infections when using these products.

Anonymous said...

yuuuck! i don't use much cosmetics but i invest on a lot of moisturizers. don't tell me pati moisturizers. gosh!

Anonymous said...

I remember reading a report many years ago alleging that many cosmetic brands used the placenta of foetuses to extract an ingredient vital for the eventual beauty product. And a nurse who was a friend of mine told me that the placenta are kept in a refrigerated container in a hospital and they were collected on a regular basis by someone, presumably from a cosmetics manufacturing company. The cosmetics company did not deny the report and I suppose it had to be true.

So now that I read this report about skinning the corpses for material to manufacture cosmetics, it makes me believe the story even more readily!

So, ladies, it's all up to you... :)

Dr. Emer said...

I don't know about moisturizers, Mari. I highly doubt it.

I've been hearing that story for years, too, Bayi. We hope they tighten regulations about cosmetic products.

E. S. de Montemayor said...

ahhh... that's very appetizing =) heheheh.... what it may buhok na kasama? or baka pati lipstick galing sa dead bodyparts. :)