For The Love Of Bonnie: February 2016

Lets discuss " Skin Bleaching' . Lately it seems as if i have been hearing a lot about African American men and women bleaching their skin in order to become "whiter". But the long and rocky history of skin bleaching didn't start here, In the 1200s- 1600s European women would use skin lighteners to make their skin as pale as possible, this was their definition of beauty. The lightening of skin during this time also served as a separation between the poor and the rich.

A similar practice can also be traced to japan in the 1200's. Women would apply white lead as a facial powder, it didn't bleach the skin but it did result in several cases of lead poisoning. The facial powder killed several thousand woman until it became illegal in 1643.

Mercury quickly became a substitute used by women as a skin peeler used to eliminate dark spots and blemishes.The downside was that the use of mercury caused premature aging of the skin. In the 1800s when slavery was ending there was a huge supply of mercury based facial creams being sold. This was because slave owners had convinced their slaves threw years of abuse that , people with whiter skin were better then people with dark skin.

William Lynch a British slave owner delivered a speech in 1712 , that is believed to be the source of how slave owners would mentally and physically abuse African Americans for years and years to come.This speech is also believed to strongly control the way African Americans would define their ideas of beauty.
The speech roughly said , " You Must Use the dark skin slaves versus the light skin slaves and the light skin slaves versus the dark skin slaves... They must love,respect and trust only us. "

It seems as if this mentality isn't just linked to the United States but rather it can be traced anywhere with people who are melanoid or African descendants.

SKIN BLEACHING IN JAMAICA

SKIN BLEACHING IN INDIA

The Good

Good news is

Skin whiteners can be used to even your skin tone.When approached correctly you can get rid of under eye dark spots and other discolorations of the skin commonly seen in people of deeper skin tones.

The product that i personally find gives me the best results is the

AMBI® Complexion Cleansing Bar , I have been using it for years , i wash my face with it every morning . All it really does is keep my skin tone clear and even without the use of any heavy chemicals. Bonus , Its only around $3.

Purchase complexion bar here

The Bad

Click here to see what celeberity bleaches their skin

All over the world ,People of darker skin tones spend lots of money on a journey to completely change the way they look in order to be appreciated and noticed for who they are. 90% of users know all the risks of over using a product that completely bleaches the color of their skin.In my opinion, we should love the skin we were born in. But i also believe we have the power to whatever we want to our bodies.Some people could say changing ones appearance threw bleaching of the skin is no different from a person tanning to darken their skin, or putting a relaxer in your hair to make it straight. But is it all really the same?

No matter what your answer is, the fact remains that skin bleaching has many different consequences. Not to mention the level of self hate a person has to have in order to take such extreme steps to be desired by others.

African Celebrity Bleaches skin and calls out Nicki Minaj and Rihanna.

The Ugly

The list of side effects from the abuse of skin bleaching is long. There is a huge increased risk of skin cancer, skin may become grey unnatural color as well as other skin deformities.

I personally feel that until people of color can educate themselves and think for themselves white supremacy will always be able to determine the ideals of beauty. Until we can do that skin bleaching products will always have a sadly huge consumer base.

Feel free to comment below .