[Dr. Bellview Column 94.] Why Does My Face Still Look Dull Even Though I Have No Spots?

Hello?

Bellevue Clinic, beauty for everyone

Dr. Bellview

Nice to meet you

And hello again today.

Interest in skin whitening has continued unwaveringly throughout history, in both the East and the West. Humanity’s obsession with skin whitening is also a history of “class and survival” that has continued for thousands of years. In both East and West, white skin was a symbol of the upper class, free from manual labor, so people sometimes risked their lives by applying dangerous ingredients to their faces. These are interesting historical examples showing humanity’s desire for whitening.

1. Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra’s “Milk Bath”

For the ancient Egyptians, white skin was a symbol of divinity. Cleopatra enjoyed bathing in sour milk (fermented milk) to keep her skin white and soft. Analyzing it with modern science, the lactic acid produced when milk ferments is a natural AHA ingredient. In other words, it was a scientific whitening method that exfoliated dead skin cells and refined skin texture to brighten the complexion.

2. Ancient Greece and Rome, the life-threatening “Lead Makeup”

Roman women who preferred transparent, pale skin made a fatal choice. They mixed powder made from white lead with honey or oil and applied it to their faces. This made the skin instantly white like porcelain, but lead, a heavy metal, caused poisoning that led to dark necrosis of the skin, paralysis, and in severe cases, death. As the lead applied to become whiter gradually turned the skin darker and blacker, a tragic vicious cycle followed in which even more lead was applied to cover it up.

3. European Renaissance and Elizabeth I’s “Death Mask”

Through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, “paleness” was a required condition for noble bloodlines. Queen Elizabeth I of England applied a thick layer of “Venetian Ceruse,” a mixture of lead and vinegar, to her face to hide smallpox scars and assert authority. At the time, this makeup was so thick it looked like a “mask,” and it is a famous anecdote that this iconic white face actually caused tooth loss and hair loss due to lead poisoning.

4. The Eastern tradition of “clear skin like jade”

In the East, people valued not merely whiteness, but a state that was “clear and transparent like jade.” Our ancestors enjoyed “Bunse-su” face washing. They mixed rice flour or powder made from balsam seed with water to wash their faces or apply it over the skin. They also cared for their skin with ginseng water, knowing that the saponin in ginseng helped make the skin clearer. White makeup using rice flour also continued in Japan; in the early days, makeup containing lead was used, and later rice flour or processed bird droppings (Japanese white-eye droppings) were even used as whitening packs.

Bakgabun / Among the women who used Bakgabun at the time, side effects such as blue necrosis of the skin and mental confusion began to appear, and among the gisaeng who used Bakgabun frequently, there were also many cases of mental disturbance. Eventually, one gisaeng even filed a lawsuit saying that Bakgabun ruined her face, and there was even an incident in which a gisaeng who had become mentally disturbed ate Bakgabun in a suicide attempt. Because of these incidents, rumors spread at lightning speed that Bakgabun was a “powder that eats away flesh,” and in the end, in 1937, when Bakgawa Cosmetics closed down voluntarily and production was halted, it disappeared into the back pages of history. (Namuwiki)

5. Victorian-era women who ate “arsenic”

In 19th-century Europe, people went beyond applying substances and even swallowed poison to whiten their skin. Candy containing arsenic was called a “skin wafer” and was consumed in small amounts. Arsenic temporarily destroyed red blood cells and made the face look pale, but it was ultimately a fatal choice that caused liver damage and cancer.

The history of humanity’s whitening efforts has at times been accompanied by “poison.” The reason people in the past risked their lives applying lead and arsenic was likely because clear, bright skin had such a powerful social impact. But the situation is different now, and it must be different. It should not be a way of forcibly covering color or scraping away the skin, but a safe method that creates “healthy reflection of light,” as I have said many times.

Bellevue Clinic

Have you ever confirmed that your skin is clean and free of even one blemish, yet still worried because you somehow look dull and tired? Many people believe that the answer to whitening lies only in “removing pigmentation,” and devote themselves to toning lasers, but in fact, having no spots and having a face that radiates light are completely different matters.

To make the skin look clear and transparent, it is not enough simply to have no pigmentation; what matters more is how evenly light from outside is reflected on and within the skin.

From a professional perspective, the biggest reason a face without blemishes looks dull is the decline in “skin quality.” When the skin surface becomes even slightly rough or develops uneven texture, incoming light cannot bounce back smoothly and scattering occurs in all directions. Just as a cleanly polished mirror shines brightly while a dusty window looks cloudy, if the skin texture is uneven it cannot hold light, shadows form, and the entire face feels dark.

If the dermis thins with age and its ability to retain moisture declines, the situation becomes even worse. Moisture inside the skin acts as a channel that lets light pass through and reflect back, but when that moisture dries up, the skin loses transparency and turns like “cloudy glass.” In other words, even without pigmentation, the internal density of the skin is too low for light to pass through and remain inside, so the inner glow disappears and only a rough, dull feeling remains. This is the fundamental reason we feel that someone’s complexion is poor or that their complexion looks earthy and sallow.

Lifting and skin whitening before and after

Therefore, true whitening should not stop at the stage of removing spots with a laser, but should move toward three-dimensional skin care that restores texture, moisture, and density. This is exactly why Bellotero Revive and Hilo Wave, the high-end solutions proposed by Bellevue Clinic, are necessary.

Revive densely fills the skin’s fine surface irregularities to create a “moisture reflector” that induces specular reflection of light,

and Hilo Wave improves the environment in the deeper layers of the skin, rebuilding a clear foundation on which light can be projected.

In the end, the small difference that determines a clear complexion is not how powerful a whitening agent you used, but how healthy your skin structure is. Rather than focusing only on removing blemishes and irritating the skin, look into the “texture” and “inside” of how your skin receives and releases light.

Bellevue Clinic will

find the lost “path of light” on your face

and restore the transparent elegance

that even makeup cannot hide.

Thank you!

If you have any questions at any time,

please contact Bellevue Clinic.

We will guide you in detail and kindly.

Thank you.

"Focused on specialized skin diagnosis"

Bellevue Clinic

The Mark-Vu skin diagnosis test allows you to check, all at once, a variety of skin concerns that are difficult to identify with the naked eye, such as skin texture, pigmentation, pores, wrinkles, skin tone, dark circles, radiance, redness, melanin, sebum, and acne bacteria.

At Bellevue, we scientifically analyze your skin based on this and make a final diagnosis of the procedures needed. Through detailed consultation, we will do our best to provide the most effective treatment for each patient.

💎Bellevue Clinic💎

• Uses genuine products in the correct amounts

• Medical staff with years of treatment experience

• Sunday and holiday consultations

• Customized treatment after Mark-Vu skin diagnosis

#GangnamStationDermatology #BellevueClinic #GangnamBotox #GangnamDermatology #BestFillerClinicNearGangnamStation #GoalIsGangnamsBestDermatologyClinic #WeLoveOurCustomers #HappyHospitalEveryDay #ThankYou #BellevueClinic #skinwhitening #whiteningtreatment #howtomakefacewhiter #makeafacewhite #howtobetterskin #pigmentationtreatment #howtoremovefrecklesandblemishes #dullface #howtomakecomplexionbrighter #complexioncare #historyofwhitening #Bakgabun #historyofwhiteningcosmetics

🌸Botox. Filler. Thread lifting. Lifting. Obesity

🌸Scars. Pores. Various pigmentation. Acne. Hair removal

🌸Contour injections. CoreSculpt. Noble Shape. HPL. Violet injections

🌸Diet medication prescription after InBody

🌸Hair loss medication, Viagra prescription

📱Treatment inquiries and reservations

02-533-1200

<Consultation Information & Directions>