To social critics on this continent, skin lighteners are merely another negative legacy of white colonialism.

Hydroquinone is a skin lightener that is available by prescription or in a less potent strength over the counter.

Reverend Wadson thought at that moment she needed no skin lighteners.

Most advertisements in Ebony, as late as the 1960's, sold skin lighteners and hair straighteners.

People use skin lighteners for two main reasons:

Here are things you should know before you start using a skin lightener.

Some people apply skin lightener to their entire body to change their complexion.

Because the active ingredient in some skin lighteners is mercury, the practice has led to mercury poisoning.

Pregnant women who use a skin lightener with mercury can pass the mercury to their unborn child.

Other skin lighteners use drugs such as steroids and retinoic acid, which comes from vitamin A, as active ingredients.