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Afghan Snow Cream, 1941

'Kyonki main Kali Hu!'

Smita Patil in Badle Ki Aag (1982)

Flawless
Snowlike Complexion
Ther's nothing so radiant, so soft, so pure as a complexion made lovely with AFGHAN SNOW.
This famous beauty product protects the skin against sun, wind and dust.

Asia's most famous Beauty Aid.

From FilmIndia magazine, 1941
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If you look at the newspapers, you see advertisements for some cream called Afghan Snow or Fair and Lovely. And all these while women in Bollywood films! Ninety percent of the women in India are black. But, according to Bollywood, if yoou're not white, you're not beautiful. The risisng international popularity of Bollywood films worries me. Most of them reinforce some terrible, some very disempowering values.

poor people, the Dalits and the Adivasis, are mostly black. There's an apartheid system at work here, for anyone who cares to notice.
- The checkbook and the cruise missile: conversations with Arundhati Roy By David Barsamian, Arundhati Roy.

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First produced in 1919, Afghan Snow was one of the biggest cream brand in India right till the late 70s. I don't recall seeing any ad for the cream recently in Newspapers but I do remember seeing ads for it (or some similar snow) on PTV about a decade back.

Their site offer an interesting story about how the brand got its name. On one of his visits to India, King Zahir of Afghanistan was presented with a hamper of E.S.Patanwala products, among the contents was a nameless jar of pearly white beauty cream. King is supposed to have exclaimed that the pearly whiteness of the cream reminds him of 'Afghan Snow'. And the nameless cream got a name.

The cream is claimed to be India's first beauty cream and the first beauty cream to be awarded the ISI mark by the Bureau of India standards (BIS).

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Comments

  1. MayaSep 16, 2010, 1:24:00 PM

    interesting, thou never heard abt it

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vinayak RazdanSep 22, 2010, 11:44:00 AM

    Got this via email:
    Afghan snow was quite an expensive cream in the 70s and one of their competitor was a thing called 'Kiran Snow'.

    Also got a request:
    there was a thing called 'Angel Face' powder pack from Pond's.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownFeb 9, 2013, 6:36:00 PM

    can you tell me, now also this company produce this cream, or not, if this company produce this cream now, what is the name of a company, and if the company is not produce cream now tell me the reason of crisis

    ReplyDelete
  4. Vinayak RazdanFeb 9, 2013, 7:04:00 PM

    @ Ajmal (from Afghanistan)
    It is still produced in India by E.S.Patanwala (http://www.afghansnowindia.com/about.asp).

    ReplyDelete
  5. bombay girlMar 11, 2014, 11:59:00 AM

    Afghan snow products are really very good especially the new range of petals.

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownJul 9, 2016, 10:35:00 PM

    what price afghan snow

    ReplyDelete

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