Worldwide, the demand for skin-lightening products is surging, with the Asia-Pacific market making up more than half. An estimated $7.5 bill...
So, why are so many people buying fairness or skin lightening creams? The simple answer would be that people are not happy with the colour of their skin. In our society, a fair complexion is considered an essential attribute, especially for a girl, to be perceived as beautiful. This leads to an insecurity complex for those who don't fit into this definition of beauty standard. Companies making fairness creams exploit this deep-seated insecurity and have created a multi-billion dollar industry. These companies have successfully manipulated people by showing advertisements about getting success by becoming fair-skinned. These advertisements show dark-skinned people as depressed or unsuccessful in any aspect of life and instantly succeed after becoming fairer.
But these companies not only hammer the self-confidence of the person but also hides or does not tells the dangers of using fairness creams regularly or in sunlight (as sunlight can cause your skin to burn due to the chemicals contained in these creams) or if you stop using these creams, it is possible for the skin to become even darker.
The excessive use of fairness cream is sure to cause permanent damage to your skin. Like thinning of the skin, discolouration of face, capillaries become prominently visible, severe acne, hypersensitivity to the sun, rebound paradoxical pigmentation, facial hair growth, skin allergy, skin cancer, skin itching and dry skin. This can be so severe that it leads to hospitalization.
Fairness creams commonly contain harmful bleaching agents such as hydroquinone and metals like mercury, lead, nickel, chromium. Some creams may have high-levels of steroids also. These are cancerous chemicals that can cause allergy initially and then slowly begins degrading your skin. Hydroquinone content leads to skin darkening known as Ochronosis. This chemical has been banned in Japan, Australia and Europe. With the constant use of these products, your skin tends to become light, thin and more sensitive. It is also known to be a potential carcinogen.
Fairness creams contain steroids that give faster and better results that can lead to permanent scars, pimples, allergies and permanent blackening of the skin. This also makes the skin thinner and thereby increases the amount of facial hair.
Skin whitening products are also laced with mercury, a highly poisonous substance and remain a serious threat to public health, especially to women. According to the World Health Organization, the main adverse effect of the inorganic mercury contained in skin lightening soaps and creams is kidney damage. Mercury in skin lightening products may also cause skin rashes, skin discolouration and scarring, as well as a reduction in the skin's resistance to bacterial and fungal infections.
The exotic fragrance and preservatives found in fairness creams also do enough to cause damage to your skin. It may cause irritation and discomfort to the skin.
Most importantly, fairness cream reduces your skin tolerance, making it lose its self-repair capabilities.
And the worst part out of all is that in our country many counterfeit goods and businesses have a similar name to leading international brands to fool people to buy a duplicate or counterfeit product which can be most probably harmful to skin and for overall health. The prevalence of such counterfeit items is largely due to the absence of effective legislation protecting intellectual property.
The EcoWaste Coalition has bought and found 15 products containing excessive mercury contaminant which can even be lethal to the body:
Parley Herbal Beauty Cream with Avocado (with 30,000 ppm of mercury); Goree Beauty Cream (22,800 ppm)' Goree Day & Night Whitening Cream (20,000 ppm); Yudantang 6-Day Specific Eliminating Freckle Whitening Cream (19,200 ppm); Golden Pearl Beauty Cream (11,600 ppm); Erna Whitening Cream (8,957 ppm); Feique Lemon Whitening Freckle-Removing Cream (6,122 ppm); S'Zitang golden box (2,539 ppm); S'Zitang 10-Day Eliminating Freckle Day & Night Set; (2,470 ppm), S'Zitang 7-Day Specific Eliminating Freckle AB Set (1,995 ppm); Jiaoli Miraculous Cream (1,888 ppm); Jiaoli 7-Day Specific Eliminating Freckle AB Set, (1,452 ppm); Collagen Plus VitE Day & Night Cream (1,139 ppm); and JJJ Magic Spots Removing Cream (710 ppm).
Most of these above products are so easily available and sold in our market. And customers unknowingly buy those harmful products to get a fairer skin tone.
If we think about skin whitening in an animalistic manner. Can a leopard change its spots? Skin whitening is just a notion that the advertising industry has put up to make people look and feel beautiful. We need to understand that our skin colour defines us and that, the entire idea of getting fairer is a racist move by the advertising industry. So we should always respect our skin colour and avoid getting caught with fairness advertisements for these brands that just want to sell their products. As every shade is beautiful.
Reference:
1. https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/press-release/skin-lightening-products-market
2. https://www.medlife.com/blog/fairness-creams-risk-skin-whitening-propaganda/amp/
3. Joshua Oladele Owolabi, Oluseyi Sunday Fabiyi, [Effects of Skin Lightening Cream Agents – Hydroquinone and Kojic Acid, on the Skin of Adult Female Experimental Rats], and Miriammillicent Chinenyenwa Ekwerike
4. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cosmetic-procedures/skin-lightening/
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