Fairness creams sold us shame: But do they really work?
Unpacking the science, the lies and my teenage struggle of getting a couple of shades lighter
It made headlines a few years back when Fair & Lovely rebranded itself to Glow & Lovely. It was finally cancel-culture worthy to pitch ‘fairness’ as a goal to have – a goal that had been ingrained in us for decades before that.
I had a love-hate relationship with my skin color in my teens. I was born “wheatish”, grew up in Delhi where there was an implicit (and often explicit) premium on fairness, and played enough outdoor sports to be perpetually tanned. “Usko bolo dhoop mein kam khelegi warna kali ho jayegi” (tell her to play outdoors less, or she’ll become darker black) was a line I heard more often than you’d imagine.
This was also around the time when duskier actors like Rani Mukherjee and Bipasha Basu were being celebrated in Bollywood – but always as “dusky beauties” – their ‘beauty’ still needed a qualifier unlike that of the fairer, more conventional looking actors.
Talking about skin color was frowned upon at home – it was seen as vain, regressive, and simply put – irrelevant. But outside, matrimonial ads always had “fair” as a selling point, Bollywood music romanticized “gori” (fair) women, and fairness cream ads were inescapable.
In hindsight, fairness cream ads were incredulous. They made you believe that if you have dark skin, your parents won’t love you, people won’t marry you, and employers won’t hire you. But 4 weeks of their cream and suddenly you’re glowing like a bulb, the it-girl in college, and the company’s newest CEO.
Teenage Radhika vs stubborn tan
I say ‘in hindsight’, because I did briefly fall for this trap in my teens (yes, I’m mortified). No, I didn’t think Fair & Lovely was my fast-track on the corporate ladder. But a couple outdoor sports tournaments later, hearing “wow, what did you do to your face?!” was getting a little hard to deal with. There was no way in hell my mother was buying a fairness product for me (and I sincerely hope she’s not reading this either…) so I tip toed around her and bought a tiny tube of the most marketed fairness cream of that time.
For those of you who never fell into this trap (firstly, kudos!), let me walk you through the experience.
These products came with a “shade card” – a long strip of paper with various skin shades.
You had to check your original shade on Day 1, and the promise was that you will become “5 shades lighter” in a few weeks.
And so, 14-year-old me colour-matched my face under various forms of light – like a wall painter looking for the right Pantone shade. I diligently used the cream night and day, week after week, but don’t think my ‘shade’ budged an iota.
I also tried every home remedy in the book to get fairer tan-free skin – scrubbed my face with besan and haldi (gram flour and turmeric), rubbed lemon and raw potato all over it, and washed my face with burning hot water hoping that the tan would just melt off. This futile mission went on for several months, till I gave up. I convinced myself that dusky was indeed beautiful – largely out of exhaustion, not mental evolution. But somewhere deep down, my skin color remained a deep insecurity for years to come.
Fair & Lovely has rebranded, but has our obsession with fairness really changed?
Over the last couple months, I’ve spoken to 100s of people about their skin care routines and favorite products (yes, I’m obsessed). And over 15 years later, I still come across people (specifically, young women in their teens and 20s) living through the same insecurity. They’re still using the same fairness products - now rebranded and in sexier bottles - hiding them deep within their bathroom shelves.
And so, the skincare geek in me decided to investigate what fairness products really do – scientifically. I pinged my dermat (the only other person I know who is as jumpy about skincare ingredients as me) and went into a label researching rabbit hole. We studied the formulations of the best selling fairness products in India, and here’s what we found:
1. Claim to have useful actives but in amounts too low to work
Most fairness creams we saw claimed to have some combination of niacinamide, vitamin C, licorice extract, or kojic acid - but in negligible quantities.
Several Glow & Lovely products list niacinamide — but not in the top 5 ingredients, suggesting a concentration likely below 2%. Studies show that niacinamide is barely effective at that dosage. Many products list Vitamin C derivatives like Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate or Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate — but again in low dosages. At such low concentrations, these ingredients are only marketing claims, not real skincare.
2. Give you temporary whiteness as an optical illusion
Most fairness creams we saw contained titanium dioxide, mica, talc, or aluminum starch. These are surface level brighteners that rely on light-scattering or white-cast creation. They give the illusion of brighter (whiter) skin without doing anything to the actual melanin in your skin.
Titanium Dioxide for example, is used widely in creams like Pond’s Bright Beauty*, Fair & Lovely, and Olay Natural White. It reflects light and leaves a visible pale cast - like makeup, not skincare.
The top 6 ingredients in ‘Glow & Lovely’ (i.e the 6 dominant ingredients) only contain solvents and sunscreens that give a surface-level white look, no skin helping actives:
Caption: Who knew a fairness cream could actually magically turn you into a white woman!
3. Full of added fragrance, that harms your skin
Fragrance is listed generically on almost every fairness cream. It’s one of the top causes of allergic reactions in cosmetics.
Excerpt from the Ponds Bright Beauty Triple Glow Serum ingredient list:
Excerpt from the Olay Natural White Day Cream ingredient list:
4. Packed with alcohols that destroy your skin barrier
Alcohol is used to create a lightweight feel, but some alcohols damage your skin barrier long-term. They help dissolve certain ingredients like vitamins, herbal extracts, and sunscreens that are oil or water-insoluble, but strip away lipids from the outermost layer of skin, leaving your skin vulnerable to pollution, UV, allergens, dehydration, flaking, and increased sensitivity.
Top 10 ingredients in the premium Shiseido White Lucent Brightening Gel Cream. Alcohol Denat is the 4th (non-water) ingredient, which indicates that it’s used in a high quantity.
5. No delivery systems = no penetration
For any skincare active to work, they need to reach the right layer of skin. Making this happen is the job of delivery enhancers. They are like the postal service of your skincare actives. Common delivery enhancers include ethoxydiglycol, dimethyl isosorbide (DMI), and encapsulation systems like liposomes or nanocarriers.
These delivery enhancers are usually expensive; and weak legal regulation means brands can get away without using them. So many fairness creams don’t use any of these! And so even if they contain useful actives, they’re unable to reach the right layers of your skin. It’s like writing a half-decent letter but forgetting to put the postage stamp.
Fairness Creams: Pointless? Yes. Downright harmful? Also potentially yes.
Our investigation finally explained why my shade never moved ahead on the infamous shade card all those years back. These products were not just ineffective and superficial, they were downright bad for my acne prone sensitive skin.
And to be clear - this isn’t just a “girl thing.” Boys, men - you’ve been fed the same toxic story too. Fair equals strong, successful, attractive. It doesn’t.
SRK if you are reading this - I am very disappointed 👎😤
If you’ve ever even considered giving in to the promise of fairness - just don’t. Take it from someone who’s been there: your skin won’t thank you, your self-esteem won’t grow, and that promised “glow” will remain a marketing illusion. You’re more than the shade of your skin🤎
