Cambodian women discover beauty use for condom lubricant

By Jamie Skey • August 28, 2008 - 12:42

PSI is a US-based non-profit health organisation

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A lubricant has become a popular acne cure among Cambodian women.

Number One Plus is a water-based lubricant produced by health organisation Population Services International (PSI).

It is distributed, along with condoms, among gay men and sex workers in the capital Phnom Penh as part of an AIDS prevention programme.

It is also an excellent cure for spots, 29-year-old vendor Tep Kemyoeurn told AFP.

"After I used it for three days, all of my acne dried up and went away," she said.

"Many people believe in it," she added.

Another woman told Khmer-language Kampuchea Thmey newspaper that she had used many kinds of medicine to treat acne but none had worked.

"After that my friends, who work at garment factories in Phnom Penh, advised me to apply the lubricant from Number One Plus condoms on my face every night," she told the paper.

"And just within three to four nights, the acne on my face gradually and then totally disappeared," she added.

A vendor near a factory in the coastal city of Sihanoukville told the newspaper that she sold packets of Number One Plus lubricant for 500 riels (6 pence) to women every day.

PSI is a US-based non-profit health organisation that works with low-income and vulnerable populations in more than 60 developing countries.

Its programme in Cambodia focuses on HIV/AIDS, malaria, reproductive health and child survival. It is partly funded by the British government through the Department for International Development.

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