Fastest bleaching creams most toxic

Certain creams have side-effects due to their anti-inflammatory results. [Courtesy]

Men are said to prefer ‘yellow-yellow’ women and some have taken this so seriously they go on a bleaching spree to change what Mama gave them.

Others still are influenced by the caked appearances of celebrities into bleaching their skin using all manner of beauty products whose sales increase around the holiday season.

“Mutilating your body to look nice and attract men is done by slay queens keen on multi-dating missions,” says Rose Tamara Ochieng’, a psychologist and counsellor.

Worse still, most women ignorantly use skin medications as cosmetics, yet certain ointments and lotions are used for treating only certain skin conditions, says Dr Melanie Miyanji, a consultant dermatologist and venereologist at Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi.

Such conditions include dry skins, fungal infections, oily skins, skin rashes, allergic reactions, skin colourations and cracking and predisposition of cancers.

Certain creams have side-effects due to their anti-inflammatory results and Dr Miyanji says there are serious consequences for misuse of skin products beyond medical prescriptions no matter how brief the usage is. 

Dr Jude Onunga of Buruburu Medical Clinic and Diagnostic Services says misuse of cosmetics can cause thinning of skin, which consequently breaks easily and does not heal well, besides introducing stretch marks.

Misuse of cosmetics can also flare up or cause exacerbation of other skin infections. [Courtesy]

It also damages the upper layer of the skin and form rashes on it.

Misuse of cosmetics can also flare up or cause exacerbation of other skin infections like bacterial growth and spread of skin infections like bacterial, viral and fungal.

They can also be absorbed into the bloodstream with even worse consequences such as systemic problems like thinning, bruisability of the skin, striae formation (tearing of the dermis), delay or difficulty in wound healing and vulnerability to infections due to decreased immunity.

The systemic ones can cause peptic ulcers, develop diabetes and necrosis of head of femur from reduction of blood supply, which can affect the rest of the body. 

Misuse of cosmetics can also mask skin dis­eases like damaged skin, developing rashes (perioral dermatitis), rosaceous (flushed skin), ochronosis (speckled pigmentation) and bacterial/fungal infections, which can become permanent.

These  conditions can impede or delay diagno­sis and appropriate treatment.  

Dr Miyanji, who is the chairperson of Kenya Society for Cosmetology and Allergology, warns that “the more magical, the more immediate the effects and the more satis­fying the product/cream may appear, the more potent it is and this should alert us to its toxicity.”

He advises women to seek a doctor’s consent before using the cosmetics.

In the end, most women suffer medical conditions like kidney and liver diseases, skin cancers and allergies due to use of low quality and unregulated skin care products without seeking a doctor’s consent.