Former model Irene Major is a wealthy woman who knows all about looking after her skin. The wife of Canadian oil tycoon Sam Malin, she has tried everything from super-expensive Creme de la Mer moisturisers to the services of the most exclusive Harley Street dermatologists.
But Irene, who’s originally from Cameroon, West Africa, has a shocking admission; she also regularly uses skin-lightening creams to alter the colour of her complexion. ‘When my skin is lighter, I just feel prettier,’ she admits with startling candour. ‘It’s a taboo subject, and people get judgmental about it, but that’s how I feel.’
Last month, High Street health store Holland & Barrett came under fire for selling a legal skin-whitening product called Dr Organic Royal Jelly Skin Body Whitening Cream, which retails for £9.99.
The sale of the product provoked outrage, with some accusing the chain of encouraging racist ideals. Yet Irene, who’s 34 and lives with her husband and four children in a Kent mansion, claims that in some communities the pressure on women to use such products is overwhelming.
‘A skin-lightening regime has been part of my life practically since birth,’ she claims. ‘There are many different types of African skin — from dark charcoal to a lighter version — and you grow up knowing that the lighter ladies are the prettier ones. It’s just a fact.’
Her younger sister, Elsa, 27, agrees, explaining how disturbing hierarchies of skin colour are still influencing African girls. ‘Being lighter shows you belong to a different place on the social ladder. All the rich, successful black African men marry either a white or a very light-skinned girl because they too grew up thinking that the lighter is the most pretty. It doesn’t matter how dark a man is, of course — the pressure is all on women.’
Skin lightening is a multi-billion-pound global industry. Pharmacy shelves groan under the dozens of perfectly legal skin lightening products, from high-end Elizabeth Arden and Clinique to household brands such as Garnier and Vaseline.
Holland & Barrett, meanwhile, insist their cream is specifically for use on skin blemishes such as ‘age spots, liver spots, freckles, sun damaged skin and scars’, and contains a brown algae called Ascophyllum nodosum, which has ‘proven skin whitening attributes’, according to a spokesman.
But it’s not just the ethics of skin lightening that concern campaigners. Beyond these legal products, there’s a booming market in illegal creams, soaps and pills, many containing highly damaging ingredients such as mercury, bleach and acid.
The worst of these, a chemical called hydroquinone, is officially banned in the EU, but can still be prescribed by dermatologists for cosmetic reasons — and isn’t hard to find in the UK.
Essentially a bleaching agent, hydroquinone is the biological equivalent of paint stripper. In removing the top layer of skin, which initially results in a ‘brighter’ looking face, it also removes the body’s natural defence against infection and the sun, increasing the risk of skin cancer.
If it enters the bloodstream, it can cause fatal liver and kidney damage. Skincare expert Sujata Jolly, who founded her clinic Clinogen Laboratories in Windsor 30 years ago, has treated many women desperate to reverse the chemical’s effects.
‘Some women develop hide-like skin around their eyes when they had hoped that hydroquinone preparations would treat their dark circles. Others get a kind of spotted, caviar-like effect on their skin.’ The British Skin Foundation lists a terrifying catalogue of potential side-effects resulting from the use of illegal skin creams, including foetal abnormalities in pregnant women who use preparations containing mercury and thinning of the skin due to high-dose steroid creams.
Angela Agor, 41, a black television presenter from North London, bought many different products in her increasingly desperate attempt to lighten a patch of dark skin.
‘I had this blistering under my eye, which left me with what looked like a permanent black eye,’ she says.
‘Obviously I was very self-conscious about it. People kept asking me what was wrong. So when I found this cream in an East London market, I bought it, though I had no idea what was in it. In the end I tried all sorts of creams, some legal and some not. The thing is, they absolutely did make a difference to the darker patches around my eyes, so there was no incentive to stop.’
Angela stresses that she uses creams to tackle discolouration rather than to change the colour of her skin overall, yet, like Irene, she defends the right of black women to use lightening products to even out skin tone. ‘We bleach our hair, after all,’ she says. ‘I simply don’t understand the fuss about this Holland & Barrett cream.’
Abdul Alim, born in Manchester of Bangladeshi origin, launched his own fully above-board range of skin lightening creams ten years ago, and claims that women want paler skin to emulate film and pop stars.
‘The Bollywood film industry is one of the reasons that people continue to think that fairer is more beautiful,’ he says. But this focus on skin colour goes well beyond fashion. ‘In Asian communities,’ he continues, ‘when a photograph of a potential bride is passed around, the first thing noticed is their skin colour.’
‘People say: “She’s quite dark,” before any education credentials are looked at, for example.’
