The trouble with hydroquinone in skin bleaching products is you have to leave it on. This is just like any other skin lightening cream.
But The U.S. Cosmetics Ingredient Review Panel ruled hydroquinone is not safe when left on the skin. Toxic substances from the chemical get into the body through the skin. Once inside, it can attack and damage nerves. Hydroquinone was put on lab rats and they formed skin cancer. It goes terribly awry on dark skin. If you are not Caucasian, even the makers of hydroquinone skin bleaching products tell you not to use it.
A study compared hydroquinone with kojic acid, a natural skin bleach.
- Doctors in Vancouver report both the chemical and the natural acid worked well.
- Neither was better than the other.
But kojic acid is safe.
- It’s a natural juice squeezed from leaves or distilled from rice. Asians have taken it for years as a general health supplement.
- Not only do you have to leave it on, but for overall skin tone you have to use it over a large area of skin. There is nothing in kojic acid that’s unsafe if absorbed through the skin.
It inhibits melanin production. Melanin darkens skin. As the body sheds old skin, the new cells are progressively lighter.
There are so many hydroquinone skin bleaching products sold over the internet. The only reason it is allowed in the United States is that dermatologists want to be able to use it on acne scars. They simply do not advise do-it-yourself hydroquinone skin bleaching.
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