"Blick". "Charcoal face."
"Why would I date someone I can't see in the dark?"
You feel embarrassed to go and seek help. I would have lost my life.
What? I didn't know that. Are you serious?
The chemicals in this are illegal?
So how are they allowed to sell it? I'm not surprised.
I can't help but wonder that - cos it's little black girls
burning their skin off - it's not being made a priority at all.
I used to just look at my skin as, like, really dirty.
And really...
..ugly.
When I first decided to use bleaching creams was when...
I think I was in secondary school and we'd get changed for PE and they
used to comment things like, "Oh, you'd be so much prettier
"if your chest was the same colour as your face."
"Oh, you've got really pretty features,
"even though you're dark-skinned."
The black boys say that they'd never date, erm, a blick ting, they'd
never date a black girl, they'd only ever go for a light-skinned girl.
"You're good looking for a dark-skinned boy." That's one
that you hear quite a lot.
Cos of how dark you are, when you put make-up on,
it's an opportunity to make yourself look lighter.
That's what I was told.
Welcome to our channel! Erm, I'm here with... Mariam! Woo!
OK so this is the first video from my...
VOICEOVER: I've been wanting to film a video about the topic
for a long time...
So, yeah, here we go.
I'm not saying my mum looks like Beyonce even though my mum's
like better looking than Beyonce, OK?
But she probably has Beyonce's skin tone. My mum bleached her skin.
I had family around me that bleached their skin.
I had family around me that also didn't.
I was in a stage of my life where I was like really, really,
really ruled by insecurity, so I was quite young, I was about 16, and
it was just cos my mum uses those creams, so I just went down the
hall, and I put them on.
I just wanted to fit in like all the other kids,
and I wanted to be desirable.
I saved up I think Â£20 for two weeks, and I went to my local
hair shop, and they serve as a beauty supply, a hair shop,
everything.
And they literally have these products out there, so I picked up
the toning creams, cos I think bleaching sounds a bit too harsh.
I didn't read the ingredients, I just looked at the picture, if the
woman was desirable, that's the kind
of colour that I'm trying to attain.
The effects at first was...
I describe it at the time as lovely, like, my skin looked...
It was starting to look a lot like my chest which was a lot lighter.
Black people, we have dark lips, in general.
So, obviously against the pale skin, they really stood out,
and they looked purple.
They made my skin feel very tingly and tight, which I expected,
for something that changes the colour of your skin,
I expected some kind of sensation or something.
It was actually my auntie who came to my house, and she was like, "Oh,
"what cream are you using?" And I was like, "Oh, just this cream."
And then she was like, "I think, it's not really, like, looking
"nice. I think you should stop."
Unless we sit forward.
Yeah. This, definitely.
Yeah, these two, yeah. This lady.
Everybody knows this light skin lady. This is the woman.
What? I didn't know that. Are you serious?
THEY ALL SHARE EXPERIENCES AT ONCE
This is the pile of products that we bought on the shelves,
that we found on the shop floor.
This was a more behind the counter situation,
where we had to ask someone about if they had any things?
And these are the products that we purchased online.
I'm a bit scared... No, smell it! You have to...
No, I'm scared now by it. That actually hurt my nostrils.
I have asthma, I cannot...
Well, after smelling that... Oh, my God! It has to be illegal.
I don't know if this is illegal.
I feel like the ones without any ingredients... Yeah.
It's suspicious. Yeah...
So, we'll put that forward, as well.
This placenta one, I'm sorry... The placenta one, please...
You go in there. Yup.
Leicester, London,... Nottingham. When I travel... France...
Every single hair shop sells this stuff.
Natural, you know? Yes.
Where, where did you...? This is under the counter.
So it's just a woman who makes...
A woman who mixes creams together and just sells them.
And you bought that? Mm-hm.
This was a lady who approached me after many
years trying to lighten her dark circles under the eyes.
She's an Asian lady. She used various products over ten years.
And, again, you can see how her skin has become leather-like.
Have you ever come into contact with anyone who's actually
suffered with severe side-effects from bleaching cream?
I have seen quite severe damage on the skin.
It looks almost like it's been burnt.
There is a danger of foetal damage.
Side effects also include:
The skin bleaching market is getting bigger, and
obviously the problem is getting bigger, as well.
We're off to meet Safi - she is a woman who used to bleach her skin.
She was hospitalised for a couple of days. It was a spreading
infection, so it really could have, it could have led to death.
I think it's quite brave to actually talk about something like this,
because it's not something you hear of all the time. No.
To me, it looks like just your average African...
I don't want to say auntie, but African woman.
Like, it doesn't look shocking to me.
But I can see, you know when you can tell somebody bleaches,
if that makes sense?
Hi! Nice to meet you. I'm Arlene. Arlene. Mariam. Mariam.
Nice to meet you.
Lovely meeting you. How are you? I'm good, thank you.
So, how often would you apply the creams?
And how long would you leave them on for?
The cream is every day.
Every day. It's like drugs.
It's like taking drugs, it's not easy to tell someone,
stop smoking, stop drinking, stop taking drugs.
It's easy to say, but it's not easy for them to stop, you know?
Some people need rehab to stop, some people need a reality check,
some people need some incident to happen into their lives,
so that's how bleaching is.
I was treating myself, because I was so embarrassed to go to the GP.
Oh, really? Because, they are going to ask you, "How did you get this?"
They will see that it's scars that have been building up. Yeah.
You know.
When I saw her, she was completely a white woman. I was shocked,
I could not believe it.
All her stomach and her hands were all blisters,
and I had to advise her to go to the doctors.
We went to A&E, and they put her on antibiotics
because it was so bad.
And she was in hospital for a week, and she came back home,
she was in bed for, like, about six weeks.
I just could not believe the Trading Standards would allow these people
..to save sell this product inside central London?
When I went to hospital, I couldn't tell anyone I was in hospital becauseo say,
"Oh, she went into hospital because of her bleaching cream."
When some people asked me, I'd just say, "Oh, I had hot water just pourh.
I was pouring the kettle and it dropped. That's how I get it on m
It sounds stupid! Yeah.
If it's that, I would have get it all over my feet. You know?
You feel embarrassed to go and seek help. I would have lost my life.
Just look at that.
See from there to there,
and then all that, cuts the skin.
All the way from there to there.
I used to have my cupboard in there full with all creams.
Waste of money.
Waste of time.
I didn't know how dangerous the chemicals were.
It never says the side-effects or anything.
It never says. Of course not. It says brighten, glow...
Don't want to say, by the way, you might get boils, you might get
cancer. They are not going to say that.
People who sell drugs, right,
their mind-set is, you have to make this money, it is what it is.
You've got to make this money. Providing a service. It doesn't
matter that they're feeding someone's habit or
addiction. Potentially, the person who takes that will go home and die.
They don't care, because they just need to have that ruthless mind-set.
I feel like the people who sell these creams think, well, they're
going to get it from somewhere, they might as well get it from me? I'vey.
I think maybe a lot of light-skinned people and, you know,
will hear this conversation and think it's an attack.
It's not an attack.
For me to assume that being light-skinned would solve all
my problems is stupid. Yes, there's the privilege there. Definitely.
Doesn't mean that your life isn't hard and you don't have to work for wha
How do the shops get away with selling it if it's that illegal?
I just don't understand.
I just can't help but wonder that if it was, like, white girls,
or something, from somewhere else, it might be on the news!
Like, "White girl buys a cream, and it burns her skin off."
And it would make the news, and then it would be like this,
then it would be all these protests, do you know what I mean?
But because it's little black girls burning their skin off,
ashamed to even say, or even when they do say something,
it's like, not much is happening.
I can't help but think that is a reason why things... It's not
being made a priority at all.
It was thought of that Trading Standards would be picking on
particular demographic, and it was thought,
"Oh, OK, this is a community thing."
It wasn't that they didn't care,
it was that they didn't want to look like they were stepping into
a particular ethnic area of stores, for want of a better phrase.
I think that's changed, to a large degree.
I mean, my approach has been that it's a criminal activity,
people are making excess money out of a criminal activity,
and it's something that's ripe for enforcement.
Like, you go to a food store, like a chicken and chip shop and
there's mice droppings, whatever, they don't reach the hygiene safety
standards, you close them down, and that eradicates the problem.
I think that's an interesting way of using the law.
At the moment there isn't specific legislation,
like closure audits that you can do with a food product.
People are getting suspended sentences but it would be really,
really useful if there were clear
guidelines that we can go to court...
We can also say to businesses, if you do this,
and you're this size, this business,
you might get Â£100,000 fine, Â£200,000.
Cos that would just take away the incentive.
There are lot of vulnerable, naive, uninformed consumers like myself.
Like myself.
And it's like, you know,
that's why the people with the most power, like, you guys might get the
fingers pointed at you, because you hold the most power,
you know, like, you can really make the difference.
Especially when we're being told by the media, told by our friends,
internalising all these negative ideologies about having dark skin.
You know, like, we can't be blamed!
I think the fear factor needs to really hit into retailers and
distributors, wholesalers and manufacturers,
and I think at the moment, as you have expressed,
the fear factor isn't there for a lot of people.
I've never seen a poster or even a warning or
not even like a little YouTube advert, you know they
got those annoying adverts before you want to watch a video.
The creams don't even state the illegal substances on it
so it seems like you're buying a regular cream. Yeah.
Not knowing you're harming yourself.
Do you feel like more could be done to publicise the dangers?
Do you know what I mean? Yes. For the consumer. Yeah.
I think more could be done.
So, do we decide what we like,
or does society tell us what we should like?
I've had to learn to, like, love myself despite what other people
People should just, like, be grateful for who they are,
what they are and love themselves, no matter what.
Just love your skin, cos you're beautiful, just the way you are.
The other day, the sun was shining,
and I took a snap and the sun was like beating against my skin,
and it looked beautiful, like, melted chocolate butter,
and everyone was complimenting me, like, your skin looks really nice.
I'm a lot more confident in myself, and in my skin.
I love my skin. I think it's just such a privilege to be black.
And everybody should feel privileged to be born the way they are.
When we celebrate our blackness, we're not anti-white.
Or anti-Asian. We are just pro pro pro pro pro times ten black.
I can't wait to go on holiday and be tanned.
I love even being darker, and glowing.
Honestly, like, it's just my favourite thing about me.
I love it.
Oh.
Sorry. I love my skin so much.
But my hand's dry, oh, my God, Lord!
Oh, wow!
Define, define cool!
Actually, it's dying in the back...
You know, this could be like a red carpet look,
like, you know, these days
anything goes. Yeah.