I’m not the only person who loves bright skin. Hailing from India, where they use coconut milk to religiously whiten their face, I learned from kindergarten that having flawless white skin was the most beautiful thing you could have apart from possessing polished, uninterrupted nails.

So when I came to the United States and saw everyone frying their faces out on Jones Beach to get brown, I thought they were off their rocker. I wrote dozens of letters to my mom (not too e-mail savvy back then):

Do you know what these people are doing?
I can’t believe you put me through that coconut milk regimen each day…

So, in the spirit of writing about all things white, I stumbled upon my latest love, skyn Iceland’s Arctic Brightening Serum.

Well, the R&D team must have weathered some pretty cold days coming up with the list of these ingredients (or else they sent a reindeer and some caribou to sniff them out). Arctic root, Siberian ginseng, and maral root build up the skin’s resistance to stress. The real brightening superstar is kombucha (the Chinese gulp down this stuff like water), while a gentle retinol derivative stimulates collagen production.

I was skeptical when I applied it (you apply it pre moisturizer) but my skin instantly brightened in one use, as though I had swallowed a light bulb. The Arctic Brightening Serum is probably the quickest and best fix I know (apart from a face lift) to lie about the fact you were up all night doing sake shots and dancing at the Copacabana.

Now I use it as religiously as I use soap. It’s a perfect tool to get rid of age spots and any uneven texture caused by a “ladies who party” lifestyle.

One little bottle doing the work of an entire surgical army? That’s why your skin needs this skyn.

Arctic Brightening Serum retails for $65 at Sephora, QVC, Saks.com, The Studio at Fred Segal, beauty.com, C.O. Bigelow in NYC, Henri Bendel, Selfridges in the UK, Holt Renfrew in Canada and at skynICELAND.com