The Current - What to know about the dark side of skin-lightening?

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

Following decades of colourism shaped by colonialism, racism, and media, lighter skin was often seen as more desirable, even within Black communities. Now, that idea is experiencing “The Great Shift” on social media. We talk about the cultural turn where darker skin tones are being embraced, and the long-term health risks of skin-lightening creams and drugs.

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Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. Darker skin naturally contains more melanin, and with that comes a certain level of protection from the sun. But when that melanin is stripped away, that also goes for the protection. Around the world, skin lightning products are still widely used, sometimes to treat acne or hyperpigmentation, but often to make skin appear lighter. And behind that choice are deeply rooted ideas about beauty,

shaped by colonialism, racism, and media. Now researchers in parts of Africa are seeing a worrying rise in long-term skin damage and skin cancer cases linked to the use of lightning creams and steroids. Dr. Nosa Dolova is the head of dermatology at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. She's been studying the long-term effects of skin bleaching in her own clinic. Hello, Dr. Dolova. Morning, morning, morning, Sean. Thank you for having me on your program.

Help us understand why skin lightning products. are so popular across Africa? Yeah, well, maybe not just across Africa. It's a global phenomenon in Africa, in Asia, and America as well. So sometimes the focus is on Africa, but it's everywhere. So there's a lovely quote from one of the professors from Seattle, Professor Lynn Thomas, who's a historian, who's done a PhD in a lot of work on this, and she says, you know, the use of skin lighteners and experiences of skin color

have been shaped by slavery, colonialism, segregation, as well as by consumer capitalism, visual media, and notions of beauty and protest politics, notions of beauty that tend to be Eurocentric. So besides that aspect, which is multifactorial, there's also what you've just mentioned, that, you know, patients with black skin or skin of color tend to have, you know, a natural SPF of about 15 melanin protection. However, this comes with complications when they have. inflammation on the skin, or just any other disorder of pigmentation, like you mentioned,

ethnic, eczema, inflammation, and conditions like melasma and nicotine planas are very common in people with black skin. So this means that there will be a justifiable need to treat these disorders of pigmentation. However, then there's an element, a percentage of people that actually change their skin color because really if you define skin bleaching, it's a process of using cosmetics, whether it's soaps or creams or lotions or tablets or ivy drugs to change one normal natural-born skin color. In your research, have you found it more popular in certain African countries and others? Yeah, yes, yes. You know, actually, if one looks at the data that's published out there. Across Africa, it ranges between 25 and 80%. I think in South Africa is about

25%. But if you look at countries like Nigeria, it ranges between 40 and 84% of women use skin, preaching creams, as well as in West Africa, like Senegal and Mali. And again, it's not just females. Even males do use skin preaching creams, although their prevalence is higher amongst females. How do they work? Well, skin gritchin creams, the ones that are normally used, there's a whole lot of them, some of them are safe, some of them are not safe, but the ones that we are referring to are the ones that tend to be more dangerous if they're used in high concentrations and for longer periods without sun protection as well. So there's hydroquinone which inhibits tyrosinase. Tyrosinase is the enzyme that converts, that actually makes sure that you get, it works on tyrosin to form melanin. It's the whole process.

And then there's mercury also that's been used. And lately, corticosteroids, which are supposed to be anti-inflammatory, but being anti-inflammatory, that is reducing inflammation, they also cause skin lightning of the skin. So consumers then use that side effect to lighten their skin. You talked about this just now, but I want to go a little deeper, because you've been tracking the effects of skin lightning products for years. Can you walk us through the medical issues that you're seeing now?

Yeah, so there's a whole range of medical problems that we see, the side effects of skin bleaching, depending again which product are you using. But the most commonly used products will be the hydroquinone, which is a phenolic compound, mercury, as well as the new kid on the block now is corticosteroids. So if one use corticosteroids, which tend to be easily accessible and cheaper and cost-effective, one may get the skin may be red, you can get thinning of the skin. In fact, lately what has been reported now because you can also get fungal infections. And these fungal infections tend not to respond to the usual standard treatment that we use for fungal infections.

So there's antifungal resistance. If it's absorbed, now I'm talking more about the corticosteroids. If they're absorbed systemically because they've been used over a broad area of the skin and for a long period, one can even get systemic complications, for example, diabetes, cushion syndrome, hypertension, and adrenal problems. How does this lead in particular to skin cancer? You know, most of these cases actually come from West Africa, and it's a paper that we're writing together with Professor Fatima Lee, who is from Synegan,

and they've seen a lot of these cases. I think there's about 55 cases that they've seen, and it looks like these seven, have been, you know, cumulative over the last 20 years. And it's a combination of factors, the ultraviolet rays from the sun. Remember now we've removed the melanin that is supposed to be protecting the skin. And we know in Africa is very hot. So if you remove the melanin, now you're exposing the skin to the damage from ultraviolet rays, which is why the population that is lighter tend to get skin cancers because they don't have

as high concentration of melanin. So when you do that now, you are now moving the spectrum to. more lighter skin. And then, of course, the combination of toxicity from the hydroquinone and maturi, which we know that can cause other skin conditions. So I guess it's a combination of synergistic factors from the skin, ultraviolet rays, the toxicity of the compounds that are used for a long period without proper monitoring and proper protection from the sun. Some of the creams, they include banned or prescription-only ingredients that you've mentioned and others like potent steroids. How are people still accessing them?

They access them through a number of avenues. Firstly, some of these corticosteroid creams are sold from markets or street vendors or from beauty salons. And they are actually coming through our borders. I'm just talking about South Africa through poorly controlled regulation and polar. borders and they get to the market and the study that we did some time ago to find out where these products come from some of them were from south africa some were from india some are from europe and they come through the borders and then they are sold by street vendors and the spice shops that's where we our data show that that's where they come from secondly

they can also get them from unscrupulous pharmacists or or doctors, because from our inquiry that we made in South Africa, we found that some patients actually go to the pharmacy and just ask for a corticosteroid cream. Now, a corticosteroid product is a schedule for drug, which means that it needs a prescription. But that's why I say unscrupulous pharmacists or doctors, then they just give patients these products without a prescription. The third way is that you find that a patient has got a genuine skin condition, for example,

eczema or psoriasis or any skin condition that needs steroids and then they continue to use these creams without proper vigilance and proper monitoring so that is how these they access the cortical steroid cream but mainly it's from the street vendors from the markets and through entry of these products through our porous products and talking about South Africa What are you learning about why people continue to use these products, even when the risks are so serious? Yeah, I think that's a good question. You know, there's a number of drivers for use of these products. Of course, if again I quote a paper that we published there, the research that we did in South Africa, we looked, we surveyed about 600 women, African and Indian women.

And 30% of them use the skin bleaching creams because they wanted to bleach their. skin, making it lighter. But then 70% of them used the creams because they had pigmentation from ethnic or other products. And also what we found was that about 90% of them were totally oblivious to the side effects of these creams. So that means then a lot of education needs to happen. But having said that there is a group of people who know actually about the skin risk, skin bleaching risk, but continue to use these products and mainly influence. by maybe Eurocentric beauty standards, you know, saying that fair skin, beautiful skin, fair skin is much more attractive.

And there's also pervasive and euphemisms in terms of labelling of these products, you know, calling them even skin toning, fair and lovely and natural cerams, dark spot corrector, all those things are persuasive in terms of the patients who buy them. Then there's also, as we mentioned, an issue of colorism, a socioeconomic advantage, cosmetic industry, then the marketing and media that needs to be regulated as well. There's peer pressure, there's beauty trends. There's also issues of body disinfection and self-esteem. There's a few papers that have published a link between use of skin,

bleaching creams and psychological aspects, people who have low self-esteem. And then there's addiction as well, you know, because if you use these products for a long time, as we say initially you look pretty and attractive and lighter because some of them are and inflammatory, particularly the corticosterose. But then six months or two years down the line, everything gets worse and becomes, and then the person goes back to the product because now they see they're getting darker.

Dr. Golova, is it reversible? If someone stops using skin lightning products today, what would happen? Well, it depends, again, at the stage, how long the person has been using the cream, what cream they have been using, as I listed the different types, and what concentrations they were using it for, where were they using it?

Was it on the face? Was it on the body? Was it on sensitive areas? So all those factors will determine what actually happens when you stop. But most of the time, when you stop the creams early enough, you can actually reverse the damage. So the patient, the person just goes back to his or her normal color. But then because the issue maybe is psychosocial or whatever, they may feel that if they are darker now, they're not getting the compliments. However, if they've been using it for a long time, you know, for years, then some of the damage cannot be reversed.

For example, we have a number of patients also. I think I saw a patient yesterday, actually, who had the stretch marks, permanent stretch marks all over the body. Because she was using this skin lightning cream with corticosteroids for about five years. And she was worried about this try. And unfortunately, she started breaking down and crying when I told her that, unfortunately, there's not much you can do because of the collagen, and the skin has been thinned and broken down. There's not much we can do. Dr. Dolova, thanks for talking to us.

Okay, thanks. Dr. Nosa Dolova is the head of dermatology at the University of Kwazulu Natal in Durban, South Africa. Okay, so there are millions of podcasts, and maybe you're cool to stick with the ones you already know you like. But if you're just a little paranoid about missing out on the best new stuff, we can help. Every other Thursday, the Sounds Good newsletter will bring you one must-hear show from CBC podcasts.

And because we're true audio nerds, we'll also tell you about shows that we love that we didn't make. Go to cbc.ca.ca. slash sounds good to subscribe. Here in North America, the conversation around skin tone is shifting. In fact, it's being called the Great Shift on social media. It's a cultural turn where darker skin tones are being embraced. following decades of colorism where lighter skin was often seen as more desirable, even within black communities. Dalton Higgins is an author and cultural critic who's been following this conversation for years, especially how it plays out here in Canada. He's in Toronto. Hello.

Hey, how's it going? We've heard about what's happening in countries in Africa and just about everywhere, but how does colorism show up here in Canada? Yeah, good question. I mean, you know, colorism plays out in Canada in a similar way to how racism plays out here. I think it's not so overt and in your face as in other countries like say the United States. It's just a lot more subtle, right? And in fact, I would argue that this subtlety is just as if not more dangerous and damaging because you don't actually see the colorism coming at you. So I see it play out in the Canadian screen industries, I would say, like in film and television. And like if you were to do like a content analysis of Canadian television commercials and let's say you just watch

Canadian television for like a week or a month, you know, what you're going to notice, is that when you do see the occasional black talent on screen, they are overwhelmingly light-skinned and or biracial. You know, especially when it comes to women. And Canadian television, you know, just doesn't show anything that even remotely resembles, you know, the full range and depth of the black community. You know, the black community in Canada, you know,

like most black communities around the world, it boasts like a wide range of hues, you know, people with all kinds of complexions, you know, that's what makes black so beautiful. But it feels like a parent, someone, you know, forgot to send that memo to Canadian casting directors, right, who I will presume are mostly non-black, because if you have, you know, black casting directors, I don't think they would be so ignorant or tone deaf and just cast predominantly lighter-hued

talents like this, you know? How common is bleaching happening here in Canada, from what you know? Yeah, I mean, you do see it for sure. I wouldn't say that it's as widespread or an epidemic like the doctor or dermatologist who's talked about in different parts of Africa. But what I will say is that, you know, when our pop culture heroes bleached their skin, many of their fans and super fans are going to emulate them, right? So the example I like to give is when, you know, the Jamaican dance hall superstar Vibes Cartel, who was released from prison last year, you know,

he's widely popular around the world. And in Canada, of course, right? We have a large Caribbean community and a Jamaican community in particular in Toronto. And, you know, when he was bleaching his skin for many years and he was celebrating it in song, and, you know, Vives Cartel even launched his own line of skin, brightening products, you know, bleachers. You had this product called cake soap whose intent it was to bleach your skin. So did we see, you know, bleaching, skin bleaching levels rise in places like Canada and the United States?

I'd probably say yes. But then, you know, Vives Cartel also admitted that, you know, experiencing colorism was one of the things that led him to bleaching his own skin. And then he ultimately started discouraging people from skin bleaching because he, you know, He knew that it was like a total assault on black beauty standards and that it also contributed to health risks, you know? How is history in pop culture shaped the bias for lighter skin? Yeah, I mean, that bias definitely, it comes as a byproduct of human history, you know, as, you know, the doctor dermatologist tried to outline.

I mean, you know, and then, you know, when you look at human history and then how it's reinforced through popular culture, then this sort of bias and colorism, it sort of shows up today in everything, you know, from, you know, television commercials to dating apps. you know, I just happen to be a student of human history. And when you look at how, you know, the European colonial powers like, you know, Germany, Germany, Spain, France, it's these countries that spread this idea that European features, you know, including lighter skin, were superior. And then, you know, for those countries that were colonized by France and Spain, like those in the Caribbean and Africa, you know, people were literally taught that darker skin, if you had darker skin, you were

inferior, you know? So these colonial hierarchies, uh, they tended to place, you know, lighter skinned people, um, who are often of mixed heritage in higher social and administrative roles. And that, uh, then reinforced, uh, you know, this privilege based on skin tones. Now, I think what happens with, uh, popular culture, it helps to certainly propagate this ignorance, right? And it, and it has for many decades, right, even until now. So, you know, if you look at, you know, you know, screen industries, film, television advertisements, they still typically center, you know, white or light-skinned people as romantic elites, you know, as heroes,

and as higher symbols of beauty. And in casting and storytelling, what you've always seen is that, you know, lighter-skinned actors have historically been more likely to be chosen, even in communities of color, right? So not just the black community, but in, you know, Latin American communities, in South Asian communities. And it's interesting because I do a lot of work in the music and entertainment industry.

And in that space, it's really bad. You know, like colorism appears in, you know, if you watch like music videos and you look at the casting choices, right? You'll notice that, you know, lighter skin talents and performers, they often receive a lot more visibility. So that's where you see there's still very much a huge issue. Dalton, let me jump in for a second because we're both from generation X-GenX and you'll no doubt remember the conversations happening around Fresh Prince of Ballet.

there in the 90s when the original AnViv played by Janet Hubert, a dark-skinned black woman was replaced by Daphne Rack Maxwell Reed, light-skinned black women. Remember that one? Oh, I absolutely do. And I remember some of the pushback, you know, as far as within the black community. Like, what was behind this casting decision, this switcheroo, you know? So we're seeing a change. Can you talk to us about this cultural moment being referred to as the great shift? What's happening? What is referred to as the great shift? It's essentially just about talking openly and honestly about, you know, people unlearning these harmful beauty standards that that favor lighter skin, you know, even straight hair and urocentric features.

And social media is full of content that is now calling out this colorist behavior, you know, who gets platformed and, you know, who gets called beautiful at the end of the day. Now, one of the most important things I see when we talk about this great shift is that it's celebrating, you know, dark skinned identity. Okay, which is fantastic. So if you go on social media, many influencers and everyday creators, they're using this great shift moment to unapologetically celebrate, you know, dark skin, black features and, and I would even say African heritage in general.

And online, too, there's this real resistance to this idea that lighter-skinned people, you know, should be the face of movements or brands just because they, by being lighter-skinned, they might be more palatable to white and mainstream audiences. So, you know, what personally excites me is that within this cultural shift, you know, black creatives are pushing for more equitable representation in all areas. You know, we look at film, we look at fashion industries, look at advertising, you know, not just this sort of token inclusion, right? So colorism is being challenged, you know, when it comes to casting decisions, brand deals and influencer pay gaps. And there is interesting to see, like, even most recently this company, American Eagle, you know, they put out this tone deaf television ad. That's what people are talking about now for this new line of genes.

And it featured this, you know, Sydney Sweeney, this actor. And, you know, she got dragged on social media, as did American Eagle, for using this tagline, you know, that Sydney Sweeney has great genes, as in, you know, it could be genes, you know, J-E-A-N-S. And then people were interpreting that to mean genes, G-E-N-E-S, right? And that company got totally dragged, right? So that's what's happening on social media. And I applaud people on social media for dragging companies that are so tone deaf, you know? Right. Lots of conversation happening around that ads on people defending it.

Other people saying that, or as you pointed out, criticizing it as well. Let's have a listen to TikTok or Elijah. Before the great shift, being dark skin was a bottom tier experience. This was back when light skins ruled the damn world, right? Back in middle school and image school, it was a crime to be dark skin. You would get called African booty scratches for no reason. You would, somebody would turn out the lights. So what did Elijah go?

Light skins, we're supreme up here, bro. And now I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened. What you make of what you just heard. Yeah, yeah. I mean, what Elijah is saying is bang on. I mean, you know, people are just a lot more aware nowadays as a result, right? Like you literally, if you go on social media, you have all these social media movements and hashtags, like, you know, melanin magic and, you know, dark skin is beautiful, unlearn colorism.

And, you know, there are all these newer organizations out there in North America that are just actively working. to uplift, you know, darker, complexed or dark skin models and actresses. And, you know, this shift just reaffirms that blackness, you know, it's not a monolith, right? We have to embrace the full range of tones and textures within the global black community, never mind North America. And I, you know, I also think that it doesn't hurt when there also just happens to be like a ton of hugely successful, darker, hewed black people that are just dominating industries across sectors. I think that does something to push forth this idea that you do not at all need to look closer to white to be all right. So clearly it's a new day. Dalton, this shift has had

the opposite effect on how people with fairer black skin are being perceived. What can you tell us about that? I mean, sometimes, you know, lighter-skinned black community members, you know, they're sometimes viewed as being not really black or not black enough. And I think this makes a huge, poor assumption that their blackness is somehow diluted or less valid. And, you know, this is hugely problematic because, you know, it can lead to their feeling, you know, somewhat excluded from black spaces or, you know, this idea of being constantly questioned about their identity. And then there's also, you know, this idea that kind of tends to float around out there

that, you know, lighter skinned blacks are, you know, they're fake or soft or bougie and perhaps somehow less connected to the struggle. But, you know, but if you look at human history, that's a bunch of hogwash. You know, there are basically a ton of light-skinned blacks that have played such a key roles in the, in the black community's upliftment. I mean, you know, whether, you know, like Rosa Parks, you know, all the way to one of my, you know, heroes, Malcolm X. I mean, he was light-complected.

And, you know, look what he did to sort of change how we view race in the black community. So, you know, this type of ignorance, it just needs to stop, you know? How do you have conversations about the shift without it negatively impacting black people with lighter skin? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I think about the emotional impact. I mean, I think it creates a lot of that within the community. I think for, you know, lighter-hued black community members, it probably creates a lot of identity confusion, you know,

especially for people who are feeling a bit disconnected from, you know, both black and white community. So, you know, there's this thing, I think, just talking to some of my, you know, light-skinned peers and friends and people like grown up with. And I think some of them, you know, they have this almost like this for survival or survivors guilt, you know, where they maybe they're, they feel that they're being treated better than their darker-skinned friends and peers, but, you know, they didn't ask for this, you know? So I think it creates a lot

of confusion and emotional impact, you know, which is not good. Dalton Higgins, thanks for talking to us this morning. Hey, thanks for having me. Dalton Higgins is an author and cultural critic. You've been listening to the current podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.