The fair skin tone trend has created a promising market for beauty products and services in many countries. This phenomenon impacts public health and social well-being in negative ways if it is not considered thoughtfully.
Abusing skin-lightening methods can damage human natural skin in diverse ways. One of the most well-known methods is clean pealing, which removes dark and dry skin and produces new bright skin. If people peel their skin too frequently, it will make the skin thin and sensitive to external factors like dust, sunlight, etc. Besides, using multiple beauty products at the same time to speed up the whitening process can ruin people’s skin. The strong actives like BHA, Retinol axit being used together will ruin the skin barrier. As a result, the users suffer skin breakouts with serious acnes, ends up with heavy and long-stay dark spots.
Another negative prediction of the demand for bright skin is reducing diversity in society. Instead of embracing different skin colors’ beauty, people are biased toward one skin type and are less confident if they do not have it. Imagine people cannot collaborate well in an international company just because their skin color is not bright. Economic-wise, skincare services and products are being overpriced day after day. People pay about 1 to 2 million Vietnam Dong for treatment at the clinic or 10 million VND for a single 100ml-serum product with simple elements. Hence, people are paying more for the same beauty result.
In conclusion, above facts outline the consequences of biasing a specific beauty standard without comprehensive knowledge about health, economics and society. People should embrace the personal outlook and pursue health life style for sustainable wellbeing.