The Green Beauty Guide

Craving porcelain-white, translucent skin? Don’t reach for that tube of hydroquinone cream. It may make you pale, really pale. Deadly pale, in fact.

The mechanism of permanent whitening with hydroquinone is known for centuries. In 500 B.C. in Iran, farmers and civil workers used pure hydroquinone to keep their skin white and soft. Hydroquinone whitens skin by killing skin pigment cells. It is a strong inhibitor of melanin production, meaning that it prevents skin from making the substance giving skin its color.

Hydroquinone has been used since the 1950s in over-the-counter skin lightener products and since the 1960s as a medical product. It is also used in cosmetic products such as hair dyes and nail products. Today, hydroquinone comes in 2% concentration, available over the counter, and up to 4% concentration available by prescription. For truly explosive chemical cocktail it can be combined with tretinoin 0.05% to 0.1%.

An important industrial chemical, hydroquinone can cause a number of adverse reactions in skin ranging from dermatitis to cancer. However, it contains in the following products: NeoStrata Bionic Skin Lightening Cream, Peter Thomas Roth Potent Skin Lightening Lotion Complex, Exuviance Essential Skin Lightener Gel, M.D. Forte Skin Bleaching Gel, Murad Lighten and Brighten Eye Treatment, Reviva Brown Spot Night Cream, B. Kamins Chemist Skin Lightening Treatment, philosophy a pigment of your imagination, Rodan and Fields Reverse Treat, DDF Fade Gel 4, La Roche-Posay BioMedic Conditioning Gel, Vita-K Solution and many more. Tons of other products contain hydroquinone as an impurity.

Cancer

  Hydroquine metabolites in liver are known to cause DNA damage and mutations. For this reason hydroquinone is linked to a number of cancers in humans, including leukemia. Hydroqinone metabolites, p-benzoquinone and glutathione conjugates of hydroquinone “also have the capability to disrupt protective mechanisms, whereby they facilitate further development of cancer. In the bone marrow, long-term effects such as aplastic anemia and acute myeloid leukemias may occur.” (Westerhof W, Kooyers TJ. Hydroquinone and its analogues in dermatology - a potential health risk. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. 2005 Jun;4(2):55-9.)

 “Hydroquinone is mutagenic in vitro and in vivo, having caused genotoxicity or chromosomal aberrations in rodent bone-marrow cells,” (McGregor D. Hydroquinone: an evaluation of the human risks from its carcinogenic and mutagenic properties. Critical Reviews in Toxicology. 2007;37(10):887-914.)

Hydroquinone Ban

In 2006, US Food and Drug Administration proposed a ban on over-the-counter hydroquinone mainly on the basis of “high absorption, reports of exogenous ochronosis in humans, and murine hepatic adenomas, renal adenomas, and leukemia with large doses over extended time periods.” Department of Dermatology of The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York called the ban “unnecessarily extreme.” I think that if such traditional-thinking government body as FDA thinks something is harmful, than it must be really harmful.

Today, hydroquinone has been banned in European Union, Canada, Japan and France. However, products containing hydroquinone are easily available online. Sometimes they may contain other carcinogens such as mercury for even stronger whitening.

Skin Allergy

Contact dermatitis, degeneration of collagen and elastic fibers, and ochronosis are main skin disorders resulting from use of hydroquinone. Ochronosis appears in dark skinned people mostly. This disorder is characterized by progressive sooty darkening of the skin area exposed to hydroquinone.  

Green Alternatives

Mitracarpus scaber extract, Uva ursi (bearberry) extract, Morus bombycis (mulberry), Morus alba (white mulberry), and Broussonetia papyrifera (paper mulberry) have proven skin-lightening effect without side effects of hydroquinone. They work by releasing milder form of hydroquinone, called arbutin (technically known as hydroquinone-beta-D-glucoside), which can inhibit melanin production. Pure forms of arbutin are considered more potent for affecting skin lightening (alpha-arbutin, beta-arbutin, and deoxy-arbutin).

Other natural skin lighteners include licorice extract (specifically glabridin), azelaic acid, and stabilized vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid, ascorbic acid, and magnesium ascorbyl phosphate). Pomegranate extract, ellagic acid, vitamin E, and ferulic acid can inhibit melanin production when consumed as herbal supplements or added to skincare.

For more facts about toxic beauty ingredients, check out The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource into Organic and All-Natural Skincare, Hair Care, Makeup and Fragrances (HCI, October 2008).

Green experts highly recommend this exciting book filled with pioneering scientific research, groundbreaking facts, easy skincare guides, and yummy homemade beauty recipes.

Go to Amazon.com to buy your copy today!