Shady business: The illegal sale of skin-whitening creams

we're going undercover here we go boot it up press record we're rolling shining a light on a multi-billion dollar global industry that suggests a better U is just a few shades away lighten up range of skin care products evens the skin tone it depends if your skin to reveal one tone better skin in one blush skin lightening products that promise to lighten or whiten your skin are marketed around the world even some big brands are doing it the skin Suganya sedum cream Nivea extra white body serum the innovative serum that whitens repairs and protects skin lighter and smoother feeling in one week ads like this are all over YouTube for long lasting fair and even skin and while these companies may not market their products directly to Canadians skin lightening is popular here at home too we're hitting stores across Canada become what become white and seconds we want to know why skin lightening products are so popular so we're setting up shop at a Toronto mall to find out I have a older sister to right she's extremely extremely fair like she's white white and they would always compare me with her saying oh she's more beautiful because she is white it needs an attitude Lana's can give them huge attitude do any of these skin lightening products look familiar to you this one does in India it's a hit one of my mom's favorite lot of Africans use it like the woman like they use it for their faith or body you used all these yeah when I was younger this is my man one topically a gel this will actually bleed you it can bleach your skin how safe are these products whiter skin in 14 days we buy more than 100 products we choose about a dozen popular ones for testing sending them off to a lab in the UK to find out what's in them are they harmful and should retailers have them on store shelves [Music] living in a brown household South Asian community specifically when we're growing up we see this all the time on TV social media Sabrina Manku was just 10 years old when she started lightening her skin daily I would look at myself because I used to have fairly dark skin and I was like okay like maybe if I start using this which I did I'd become lighter it just happens like when you see other people doing it you know I saw my mom doing it and I used to question my skin because I'm like oh hey I'm darker than you Sabrina used a variety of skin lightening products with visible results she says she turned three to four shades lighter within a few years people would be like hey you got lighter you know your skin much more brighter now you're like skin you notice the change oh yeah this was one of my first as a model and pageant contestant she fit right in everyone seems to be the same shade Oh same shade Wow could anyone notify Sabrina believed her lighter skin helped her succeed a message she says she picked up partly from international marketing I still remember there used to be a girl and she'd see like a darker complexion it's like hey like I wish I was lighter and then she gets introduced to fair and lovely she starts using it and then you know she started seeing instant result fair and lovely is not marketed in Canada but we find it for sale here easily I literally kind of my chest my skin looks like okay like now I got this tone by playing this I'm the fairness neither you're richer the company that makes fair and lovely Unilever which also owns stuff we could show you a vision of beauty or no woman or girl or excluded yep the health and beauty brand built on shattering Beauty stereotypes everywhere doves world is one where all skin is beautiful I still defend everything but Unilever markets a different kind of message overseas it's a very big contradiction back at the mall we show people doves recent campaign double standards we're all still as beautiful but if this is what they say then why do they have this product good question there's just contradicting their own statement right do you think we're foolish they they think we're not smart enough to figure this out for us and I don't like leave with that it's not okay Unilever is not alone there are other big brands marketing these types of products check out this Nivea Canada it's a new way to feel good in your skin but in parts of Africa I need a product that I can really trust to restore my skin's natural fairness Livia Naturals fairness Body Lotion with an innovative formula containing unique berry extracts to visibly luncheon and care for your skin a black woman uses living she arrives light skin which is natural and she finds love and family what's important is the word natural so dark skin can't be natural cannot be natural for decades professor amina Muir has been sounding the alarm on shadeism that's discrimination based on darker skin tone it plays especially into the ways in which color grades and different shades were awarded with different privileges or lack of it she says whiteness is marketed like a product and it all started in the 19th century with soap cleanliness order discipline they were all part of whiteness a results are back from a lab in the UK they've tested four levels of potentially harmful ingredients like mercury we know an ingredient that may be linked to cancer and to steroids armed with our test results we meet someone who has seen the damage these ingredients can cause dermatologist dr. Lisa Kelly so the worst things I've seen would be infection infection causing scarring I've seen reactions to the product which looks like a bad form of eczema I've seen blisters I've seen a sunburn like reaction and some people react so severely that they get inflamed lymph nodes as well and they require admission to hospital time to reveal some of our test results to dr. gallant starting with maxi light a lightening and purifying body lotion now our test results found that there is as much as 2.5% hydroquinone and club a dose all appropriate which isn't listed so that is a big problem for two reasons one is a hydroquinone if you're using this over a large surface area and you've a risk of okra gnosis okra gnosis is a blue or grey discoloration that looks like this it can happen after long-term use of hydroquinone so these poor patients come in wanting to lighten their skin and they end up blue or gray and often they're putting it over a large surface area so it's very difficult to treat but the second thing is a steroid in it it's it's much too strong to put an over-the-counter product this one we actually bought in a beauty store okay that is not okay because that will be a problem for many patients so that has to be pull there's a steroid in that and it's not even listed oh wow I collect more woman African woman need to know about this because they use this every day that's because you have to mention what's in the product to be honest right that's not a we share our test results with maxi light they don't respond how about this one miss white a product we easily find in many stores you want to read what it says here whiter skin in 14 days even before I look at what's in it it's not okay our test results found as much as 4% hydroquinone in this bottle and it's not even listed if it's hydroquinone it should say hydroquinone so people can understand what it is especially if it's 4% because that should not be available over-the-counter hydroquinone is regulated in Canada and any skin lightening products over 2% require a prescription the company behind miss white says any products they sell in Canada are totally hydroquinone free they say this product is counterfeit plus they add all of their products are meant to even out skin tone not to whiten and say that they promote a black is beautiful message is your marketplace we're visiting stores across Canada buying skin lightening products we come when they get pissed off and get light in oh we even customers way in it my friend and we're testing for ingredients that could put your health at risk mercury hydroquinone and two pokey prescription-only steroids in some of the shops we visit even the sales clerks warn us about some of the products is it safe with bleaching creams period not so because you still have to protect your skin when you're out I can't have to explore back to our test results and a product we bought online gory beauty cream one sample had 16,000 times the amount of mercury allowed by Health Canada and a steroid - this is very dangerous okay so mercury has some you know carcinogenic effects and as well the steroid you know it's too strong for use that's dangerous be careful that's that's too much Gouri says their product isn't approved for sale in Canada and insists they don't use any mercury they suspect this product may be a knockoff now for a product that's used in many countries around the world Kara white our test finds 4% hydroquinone only 2% is on the label this product needs to be pulled it's not okay to have this available for patients we share our test results with Kara wait they tell us they don't ship to Canada and this is a counterfeit and we find hydroquinone and a steroid and samples of labeija nays but no mention of either on the labels the company tells us they're counterfeit these products also contain hydroquinone the manufacturers say they're for the US market and shouldn't be sold in Canada and they add they're intended to even skin tone not to lighten or whiten turns out many of the products we buy are unapproved we bought dozens of products they were very easy to find very easy to buy do you think that that should be these products can cause serious harm to patients injury you can end up with patients in hospital and these products should not be sold it's a stark contrast to the UK where you can't buy any skin lightening products with hydroquinone over-the-counter it's illegal and the team have found a semi hidden storage area there's no ceiling to it you have to get in there on your hands and knees and within it there's lots of steroid based products and hydroquinone based products authorities there are cracking down conducting raids making arrests even jail time all to keep skin lightening products off the shelves the potent ingredient is banned in other countries - Japan Australia South Africa what do you say to these companies selling these products should be bad bad I'm shocked that healthy Canada will allow this to come in and allow innocent people to be using this is your marketplace skin lightening products banned in the UK and parts of Africa on store shelves in Canada for two months we've been asking Health Canada for an on-camera interview they say no one is available instead just two days before this broadcast they issue a new advisory warning Canadians that it's illegal to sell unauthorised skin whitening creams illegal why were they so easy for us to buy time to contact the stores ourselves there's an investigation that we've done you must know some of the skin lightening products you sell are unauthorized and could be dangerous some stores are surprised Oh promised we've made our calls and now we're going to talk with one of the biggest chains face to face Clara Kim is the vice president of chlorate beauty supply so this is where we used to have our skin lightening products and we've removed it until further notice Kim says they cleared their shelves at all eight of their clarice stores because of our investigation after you guys called us yes we did some research we decided to pretty much recall anything that we sold if the customer wants to bring it back we will give them a full refund why did you decide to sell skin lightening products our product selection is based on our consumer demands when you think about all the issues when it comes to skin lightening products and the market out there does it make you reconsider altogether entering into it buying these products at all now that we are aware of its potential harm it would be something that we would consider to remove completely now that I do know I do feel totally responsible for it and you want to take action yes yeah after our interview chlorate tells us they'll no longer sell any skin lightening or whitening products and it's not just glory we spot check some of the other stores they m2 their shelves - back with our lab tests how did fair and lovely one of the most recognized skin Leitner's in the world fair in our test turns out the samples we sent to the lab don't contain any of the potentially harmful ingredients on our list but for professor mere the danger of skin lightening products isn't just about the ingredients what if they can come up with skin lighting that's like completely safe in quotation yeah what then is that what we want just like homogenized world will everybody looks white remember fair and lovely is made by Unilever the same company that makes dove which promotes a message of self-esteem in North America we asked Unilever to come on camera they decline and send us this statement even toned and lighter skin is a common desire among many people especially across Asia Africa and Latin America the origin of fair and lovely is designed to meet this need in a safe way what do you think anybody messages like help yeah that's Unilever also tells us they ensure their marketing doesn't make any association between skin tone and a person's worth I think what we were been told is because of all these products right there is a way you can get lighter there is a way you can feel better about yourself if this didn't exist I don't think I'm gonna felt that way when I was growing up the one tone fair skin in one more and remember these commercials from the other big brands even though we didn't test any of their products Garnier tells us these products are not available on the Canadian market Nivea says their products address the diverse skin care needs of their consumers worldwide and Colgate Palmolive tells us this ad aired in the Philippines where they say there's a demand for like this back in the shops we hear some sales clerks pushing back against shadeism vt9 he believes acceptance is the first step that's not too much direction our she's made two documentaries raising awareness on a taboo topic I wanted to find a way to explore this conversation that was happening between me and my friends but privately that wasn't also happening at home in a public sphere that made people say feel safe enough to talk about it and that includes this moment with her young [Music] i watch that and i get goosebumps was it heartbreaking though to see your niece talk to you like that yeah the first time I was just really in shock more than anything it was something that we grew up with that there was always commentary around your skintone and it just made me realize that it wasn't going away and so we had to do something about it and Sabrina she now embraces the skin she's in I'm guilty of doing it and I really don't want it to become a habit someone else picks up because to me I feel like I should have been accepting of who I was from the very start and that's something that's very important I think we should start embracing the fact that every shade is beautiful and continue on with that Amen sister seriously we want to hear from you what do you think about the message behind these skin lightening products share your comments send us an email marketplace at CBC CA

Channel: CBC News

Views: 1,275,937

Keywords: skin whitening, skin lightening, skin bleaching, beauty, creams, lotion, consumer, skin colour, skin tone, hydroquinone, Maxi Light, Miss White, The Mitchell Group, Caro White, Goree, Dove, Unilever, Fair & Lovely, Health Canada, Montreal, Halifax, Vancouver, Toronto, Canada, CBC, CBC News, CBC Marketplace

Id: SgO-4SzJVHE

Length: 20min 2sec (1202 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 08 2020