bedak sejuk – traditional cosmetic

(bedak sejuk in a bottle for sale. taken from alibaba)

this report in bernama news brings back memories.

bedak sejuk is a malay word – literally translated, it means ‘cold powder’. it is a local traditional face powder once widely used by malaysian women. it is made from high quality broken rice and fragrance derived from pandan leaves.

my mum is a faithful advocate of the bedak sejuk. she had been making bedak sejuk since decades ago. when i was a child, i used to use them. my mum asked me to use it everynight before i go to bed. so it had become sort of a routine for me. however as i grew up, and was bombarded by all those skin-care ads in the media, i dumped bedak sejuk and started to buy cream, lotion, moisturiser, etc. from beauty companies. silly me when i should have stick to traditional method which doesn’t cost me that much, but i decided to give away my hard-earned money to beauty and cosmetic companies instead.

immediately after you applied bedak sejuk, indeed you’ll get a nice cooling feeling, thus the name sejuk (cold). i guess. of course we usually only use bedak sejuk at home, not when we are outdoors, unless you don’t mind being stared at like you are a character in a chinese opera show.
beside the cooling effect, bedak sejuk can also close pores, smooth skin, reduce pimples and oil, and has a whitening effect.

nowadays, once in a very long while, my mum still made bedak sejuk. instead of using a funnel to drip the rice that had been submerged, we use the tip of a tablespoon. it’s hard work all right, but if we drip it like this way, the ‘bedak’ will turn out nicely, round shape. some people who are lazy, simply let the rice dry, then break them into little pieces. i see from the report here, that now they have a special tray with holes for making bedak sejuk. good. should look out for it so that my mum can make the bedak sejuk easily. then maybe i should start using it… and save up on my money going for skin-care, and thus be able to buy the PDA i long for.