Gone are the days when they said: “black is beautiful”. Nowadays, men and women alike, strive to get that fair skin, which is considered to be attractive. The skin tone of a person is dependent on a pigment called melanin in the skin. More the quantity of melanin, darker the skin tone. Skin Specialist in Chandigarh Doctor Harmandeep K. Sidhu treats skin cases using safe and trusted methods.
When dark skin color becomes a matter of lower self-esteem, people resort to various means of getting fair. The process of using different medications and creams to lighten the skin tone is called skin whitening.
There are various ways to achieve a lighter skin tone. Safe ones are natural applications that take care of the problem and yet do not harm the skin. However, there are other cosmetic products that offer to solve the skin whitening problem. The cosmetic products have one or more active ingredients and the more common ingredient is hydroquinone. This is approved by the FDA.
Most natural ingredient products come in the form of creams or lotions. The most common natural skin whiteners are lemon and egg white. They are used in combination with other ingredients and used as a face mask. The natural bleaching property in these ingredients helps in cutting the dark tone of melanin, and thus lightens your skin.
The cosmetic products are used as a face mask and work in the same manner as natural products. Many natural creams and lotions have different berries like bearberry, mulberry, etc as these contain arbutin, natural hydroquinone that has a property of inhibiting melanin production.
Besides Vitamin C (lemon), hydroquinone and arbutin, there are other products that responsible for skin whitening. These are Kojic acid that is obtained as a by-product from the fermentation process of malting rice for making Sake (Japanese rice wine) and Azelaic acid that is a component of rye, wheat, and barley. All these are used for topical applications and have the ability to control melanin production. Many cosmetic skin whiteners use mercury, a banned substance in the formulation.
The use of natural ingredients may have a slow but steady effect on the whitening process. They are harmless too. But when one opts for cosmetic products, it is essential to check the label to ensure that it does not contain any banned ingredients. Any product containing mercury is carcinogenic and can have an adverse effect on the skin, like skin pigmentation and patchy skin. Some products may not contain formulation suitable for your skin type and thus the use of such products may result in allergies.