Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya have all banned skin bleaching products with high amounts of hydroquinone and mercury, with the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa urging people to "reject all colonial notions of beauty". In spite of the risks, authorities are struggling to control the bleaching innovations, which include a compound called glutathione, taken as injections or pills. "They cause cancer, affect the nervous system, deform unborn babies." "These chemicals damage respiratory, kidney and reproductive systems," an official from the Nigerian drug control agency warned. Ingredients may include hydroquinone, steroids, mercury and lead-the same element that, at high doses, poisoned Elizabethan courtiers who powdered their faces ivory white. Others are likely to buy creams, often bootleg concoctions mixed in the back streets, that may be dangerous and are blatantly sold in defiance of official bans or constraints. The rich tend to opt for pricier registered products which are available in standard doses. "More clients want insight on the lightening market," said Rubab Abdoolla, a beauty analyst at market researchers Euromonitor International. In Nigeria alone, 77 per cent of women-by extrapolation, more than 60 million people-are using lightening products on a "regular basis", the World Health Organization (WHO) said in 2011.Įxperts say the African market is rapidly expanding as companies seek to cash in on the continent's booming youth population. Where statistics about Africa's skin-bleaching industry exist, they are often old or unreliable.īut evidence from the range of products, suppliers and services points to a continent-wide market that may number tens of millions of people and possibly more. The horror is that we do not know what these things do in high concentrations over time in the body." "The older generation used creams-the new generation uses pills and injectables. Skin lightening is popular in many parts of the world, including South Asia and the Middle East.īut medical experts say that in Africa-a continent where regulations are often lax or scorned-the widening phenomenon is laden with health risks.Ĭultural watchdogs, for their part, see it as the toxic legacy of colonialism.Īfrica is experiencing a "massive trend of increased use (of skin bleaching), particularly in teenagers and young adults," said Lester Davids, a physiology professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. For a lot of people, it's the path to getting a good job, having a relationship." "It's a mindset that has eaten into society. Shocked, the young doctor now takes a different view on skin bleaching, also called lightening or whitening.įor many Nigerians, it is a "standard procedure," a gateway to beauty and success, she said. The baby's mother explained that she had mixed a steroid cream with shea butter and slathered his skin with it in order to make it whiter.
"He had very large boils all over his body," the soft-spoken 27-year-old Nigerian told AFP. But it wasn't long before she saw it with her own eyes.Īt a health centre in Lagos, a mother brought in a two-month-old infant who was crying in pain. Please join me and welcome the re-return of “My Skin Addiction The Beauty Blog.She dismissed it as an urban myth. This time around I will be reviewing my monthly subscription from the amazing “DermStore”, I will post DIY videos, videos to follow along to if at home or with friends, and some personal treatment videos with real results. I hope you enjoy my REVAMPED blog, and new YOUTUBE channel. I do not believe in putting out content just for the sake of views and what not, I am putting out content to help others gain access to an amazing resource, to aid in questioning and a place where you can come to learn something new, and not feel judged for what you didn’t know.
I have always believed in myself but if i’m not happy with something then trust and believe, it will be redone. It takes time, brainstorming, motivation, and desire to be able to put out great content in hopes that others view my content and take something from what I post. In the beginning, I began to feel like I was throwing and forcing myself into a project that I honestly wasn’t happy with.
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