Avoid Cheap Skin Lightening Creams

Recently in Thailand, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cautioned teenagers and young people about inferior skin lightening products, which are enjoying brisk sales because they are cheap and anyone can buy them online or from any beauty counters.

According to Praphon Angtrakool, the FDA's deputy secretary-general, a rising amount of poor quality cosmetics claiming to whiten skins has made their way into the market, some sold by weight or in small jars with no labels or FDA certification.

"The whitening cosmetics are now widely advertised on the Internet and buyers, usually teens and students, are attracted to the goods due to their much cheaper prices," he said.

An allergic case was filed in Phetchburi province. This alerted Praphon.  A group of teenagers suffered serious body rashes, especially on the legs after using  certain lotions. The investigators discovered that these youngsters had bought the whitening creams from local markets, beauty salons and groceries. Some were given by their friends and relatives.

After applying creams about three times a day for six months to two years, the allergies surfaced. He said provincial authorities were looking into the case if the products used banned ingredients like mercury.

Any vendor who add forbidden substances into skin care products can face imprisonment of less than one year or a fine of not exceeding Bt60,000.

In the meantime, Jaruwan Limsajjasakul, director of the fifth medical science centre in Samut Songkram, said officials had gathered 11 samples of the suspected bleaching creams in Phetchburi and encountered a high level of Clobetasol propionate, a banned substance, in all samples. The ingredient is used in medical treatments of serious skin diseases.

When consumers use creams that contain Clobetasol propionate it for a extended duration, their skin becomes thinner and they are likely to experience allergies like those affecting young people in Phetchburi, according to the director.

Now you know that cheap skin bleaching products are not safe to use. If you want to make your dark spots less noticeable, try natural skin lightening creams like Meladerm. Click here to learn how its ingredients can fade hyperpigmentation successfully.