When we were in Seattle last February, my friend Ghim, who is known among our circle of friends as a great cook, educated us on the use of the papain enzyme from papayas on meat tenderizers. The enzyme tenderizes the meat the same way as the enzymes in the digestive system.
What I've found is that almost all of the bath soaps advertised on TV contains the same papain enzyme.
You see, the Philippines was a colony of Spain for 300 years, then it became a commonwealth of the United States before it gained its independence in 1946. Having been under fair-skinned rulers for so long, Filipinos continue to see being fair-skinned as better. We still use the Spanish term mestizo or mestiza for fair-skinned Filipinos, who are likely of mixed race.
The bath soaps are advertised as "whitening." In fact, whitening is only a side-effect; the soap actually simply exfoliates. The enzyme probably acts on the surface skin cells the same way it acts as a meat tenderizer.
So, I bought one called BioLink. It contains the papain enzyme from green (unripe) papaya, which it claims is 50% to 100% more effective than the enzyme from ripe papaya.
Well, let me tell you that I haven't felt cleaner since I got here. The smog, the dirt, the sweat that sticks on your skin are washed away. I still see grime on my cotton pad when I use an astringent, but we'll see if it goes away in a few days. I also have a very visible tan line on my arms and on my neck (not so much on my legs), so I'll also check if that line disappears.
The soap's labelling says it's "dermatologist tested," but who knows what the long-term effects are. After all, it's an enzyme that digests meat. Hmm, sounds like a bad horror movie -- "Eaten Alive by Killer Bath Soaps!"
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