"In the media as a whole, there's something about shock factor that becomes problematic. But if you walk right outside the Food and Drugs Board, you can find the products and you can see a billboard advertising skin bleaching. Queen Elizabeth I was known to take arsenic complexion wafers, which were essentially little bits of poison to give her that ghostly look. We're seeing it explored more in Southeast Asia. There are no options for white people to darken their skin besides tanning. My discomfort with so-called 'diverse' or predominately white publications is that folks tend to criminalize and castigate people who bleach their skin. That said, all skin types and tones can get skin cancer, irrespective of melanin or bleaching and therefore everyone should get skin checks as part of annual health visits. "Our skin is dark for a reason, especially if you live in Africa. If we're going to talk about skin bleaching, we also have to talk about chemical hair relaxing, plastic surgery, and all of these things are on the spectrum when we're engaging how white supremacy impacts our body. Maya was an assistant editor at Byrdie for a year and a half. Your dermatologist can help you find the right treatment for your concerns. So what's the point? By using Byrdie, you accept our. A hydroquinone cream is sometimes referred to as a bleaching cream because of its ability to lighten skin tone but there is no bleach in any of these products. This can be problematic for me as someone who's been researching this for many years since it was the topic of my dissertation. "Skin bleaching is just as prevalent in America as it is everywhere else. We get more coverage and there's more visibility in the Americas because people are trying to play it off differently, but you have loads of communities, particularly in New York City, and immigrant communities, who bring the practice with them. (206) 722-1908. Stephanie Yeboah started using bleaching creams when she was 14. I grew up in New Orleans. You use a Black body as the 'before,' insert product, and they become white. In West Africa, we're seeing pathologies that aren't ours, like skin cancer. "I look up to my mother because she's the only person in my family who did not bleach her skin," she says. The information on RealSelf is intended for educational purposes only. Skin-bleaching creams also may contain steroids, which can cause acne, skin infections, skin thinning, and poor wound healing. Physicians & Surgeons, Dermatology Skin Care. The lightening or brightening effects of these products are usually are not permanent and disappear gradually after you discontinue use. When you use a chemical and ask your body to stop making the melanin, there are health implications. 99 ($15.00/Ounce) Usage and side effects vary depending on the treatment, but creams are usually applied to the dark spots once or twice a day. A cream with 6, … European women were literally painting their faces with lead paint. Hydroquinone creams are topical skin lightening products that are commonly used for melasma, freckles, age spots, and scars. Dr. Morgan Rabach is a board-certified dermatologist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. The VI peel targets pigmentation issues with a powerhouse cocktail of a phenol peel, TCA peel, Retin-A, salicylic acid, and vitamin C. A series of glycolic-acid peels can work to fade discoloration, dark spots, and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Recently, it has been publicized as a way to lighten skin. One such ingredient is … But at the time, white women were performing this level of whiteness with products. Emma Cardinelli Skin This bleaching cream can be used on the neck, face, chest, and legs. According to the users, continuous use of the capsules renders the skin tone not only lighter but also smooth and strong. But if you research the history of soap in particular, there's a long history of commodity racism, which is using Black bodies as a way to demonstrate the potency of a product. This is soft bleach cream which will not harm your skin even after you use it on daily basis. What's important to me and my position is to make sure that we're not participating in the history of projecting all of this negativity and barbarism to these spaces out in the "third world" as if America is so much more developed. Like, if you want to talk about skin bleaching, let's talk about Black people who choose to live in all-white neighborhoods or send their kids to predominately white schools because we have internalized the idea that is better for our children—that's white supremacy. We focus more on skin bleaching more than anything else. My mom is a woman who respects and loves herself and did not surrender to any beauty standards.". "We're reporting and interested in it now, but it's impossible for me to have a conversation devoid of history and critical analysis of white supremacy. For some reason we're much more surprised by skin bleaching than all the other things we all do on a day-to-day basis. We don't have billboards here because the FDA has some level of enforcement of what can be advertised. Do we really want to affect change? "When we start looking at skin bleaching across the world, particularly in the African diaspora, we see skin bleaching exploding around the time of independence, which is a bit ironic, right? Skin bleaching isn't only happening in African communities. People tend to focus on Africa and the Caribbean, but it's so huge in India. Glutathione is an enzyme produced by the liver that has been used to treat male infertility and various vitamin deficiencies and to boost an immune system that’s been compromised by chemotherapy. Additionally, the highest strength that is commercially available with a prescription is a hydroquinone 4% cream. If you go to a beauty supply store right now, there are entire aisles dedicated to skin-bleaching products that I can find in Ghana and in Brooklyn. But that was about the colonial powers and colonial countries using commodity racism—they were using whiteness as a way to sell products. 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