Women must be wary of darker side of skin whitening products
Women must be wary of darker side of skin whitening products
By Maria Endah Hulupi
JAKARTA (JP): Lydia was a successful executive at a local
advertising firm. With a beautiful face, slim body, smooth skin
and a fulfilling career, she was almost a perfect girl.
But that was not enough. Her dark-colored skin annoyed her no
end. Two years ago, a friend advised her to undergo skin-
whitening treatment at a beauty parlor in Central Jakarta. Lydia
decided to take the plunge.
She spent more than Rp 600,000 for three months of beauty
sessions which included several God-knows-what facial liquid
drops and a facial scrubbing process, using what the beautician
said was an exfoliating device.
Upon completing the treatment, she noticed that there was no
noticeable improvement to her skin. Instead of making her skin
tone lighter, she felt a very painful irritation on her face,
especially on her cheeks and chin. She tried to assure herself
that it was part of the process but her colleagues thought
differently.
When Lydia asked her beautician about her problem, the
beautician blamed her for allowing her face to be exposed to the
sun (which was true but only in the morning and at lunch time).
The beautician offered her another treatment session. She was
doubtful and decided to go to a dermatologist, instead.
Like Lydia, Indonesian women, most of whom have brown skin,
are now being bombarded by a concept of beauty that says having
white and smooth skin is beautiful.
Cosmetic companies exploit this concept of beauty in their ad
campaigns to promote their whitening products.
Local beauty parlors also profit hugely by offering skin-
whitening treatments to their clients desperately eager to whiten
their dark-colored skin.
Dermatologist Lily Soepardiman revealed that producing and
selling whitening products is currently a lucrative business. In
Asia alone some US$1.7 billion is spent annually on such
products.
However, she advised people to be very cautious of the various
whitening treatments offered by beauty parlors as some of them
formulate their own products using ingredients that may not have
been registered with the Food and Drug Control Agency.
"There is no guarantee that the ingredients they use are safe
and the effectiveness of services like whitening injections is
still questionable," she said.
She said high doses of vitamin C and placenta have been used
as melanin-inhibiting factors by various beauty parlors. Vitamin
C is proven to help reduce melanin production and to produce
fairer skin by inhibiting the pigment oxidation process.
Meanwhile, placenta, a popular element in skin lightening
ingredients, is believed to help hamper the formation of melanin.
Beauticians think that placenta can be used safely based on the
assumption that what is good for the living creature at the early
stage must be nutritious and healthy for the skin.
Lily also warned that the lack of control poses another
concern, especially as regards the use of harmful elements such
as mercury and bismuth, which give the skin an immediate whiter
look but in the long term create health problems due to the
accumulation of minerals that may affect renal and neural
functions.
Other physical indications of the use of unsuitable cosmetics
may include irritations, itchy facial skin and, in some cases,
the treatment may even lead to the darkening of the skin.
"These kind of home industry-based services are currently
beyond the control of the Food and Drugs Control Agency, because
they concoct their own products and use them for their own
services," she said.
However, with more and more people having fallen victim, a
monitoring process is now being put in place and will be started
by making dermatologists record skin problems related to harmful
ingredients, what kind of active ingredients were used in the
products concerned and their effects on the patient.
Lily explained that whitening products are mainly used for
darker spots on the skin and that they will certainly not make
your skin whiter than your own natural tone.
"The skin tone will become lighter but you can't get whiter
than your own natural tone, which can be seen in unexposed areas
such as the chest," she said.
She identified certain active elements that have been
clinically proven to make skin look lighter, such as
hydroquinone, kojic acid, tretinoin, azeleic acid, arbutin,
licorice, niacinamide, alpha-hydroxy acid and beta-hydroxy acid.
All of these are ingredients widely used in the skin-lightening
products available on the market.
Whitening products mainly work by inhibiting the formation of
the melanin pigment, degrading the melanin and removing the older
and darker skin to unveil lighter toned and younger looking skin
underneath it.
"Just like an onion's skin. When its external layer is peeled
away, the younger and lighter skin beneath is revealed," she
added.
There are other cosmetic products that will make skin look
whiter, such as facial powders containing zinc oxide and titanium
dioxide. These elements reflect the sun's rays and make facial
skin look brighter.
Lily emphasized that the whitening process is a long and
continuous process. "Usually the results can only be seen after
six months of treatment."
However, she warned that direct exposure to the sun without
skin protection would ruin the whole program.
That's why, she said, an effective skin-whitening process
should be combined with sun block lotion or the use of products
that have a sun-protection factor.
The reason is the sun's Ultra Violet A rays will promote
immediate skin tanning, while Ultra Violet B rays will cause
delayed tanning that will only become apparent after the
exposure.
"Sun block will shield the skin and hamper the penetration of
harmful solar rays," she said.
Sun block lotions work in two way, physically and chemically.
The first kind protects the skin by reflecting the sun's harmful
rays, while the second absorbs the rays and hampers their
penetration into the skin.