Lovely women with lovely blemishless skin – they look so wonderful on the pages of glossies, while you are perennially saddled with your tanned and freckled skin. Hence the desperate search for skin lightening creams and lotions. But you know the usual pattern, don’t you? The more attractive the woman in the commercial for the product, the more convinced you are of its effectiveness. And you are aware that the model may not have used the skin lightening product at all.

You can, however, stop being swayed by promotions and advertisement campaigns if you care to switch to more objective assessments of skin lightening products – the ones that come from the customers and users themselves. These are available online and on print, and yes, it is true that some of these are the brainchildren of companies manufacturing skin lightening creams. But it is not difficult to spot the ‘genuine’ reviews from the ‘planted’ ones, and the former will give you the pros and cons of most of the skin ligteners available in the market.

Why should you think before buying a skin whitener for yourself? Of course, because it’s your skin and you should be taking good care of what you are applying on it. A number of ingredients used commonly in skin lightening creams and lotions are now known to have harmful effects on one’s skin. Hydroquinone is the most common of these. It is used as a melanin inhibitor in most skin whitening creams, but its side effects can range from a darkening of the skin to pink patches as a result of hyperpigmentation or a complete prevention of melanin production. Over sustained use, hydroquinone can even lead to skin cancers.

Skin lightening creams often cause a condition called ocronosis. In this the melanin pigment, which is supposed to be nearer the surface of the skin, goes down deeper and becomes nearly impossible to take out. Skin whiteners are also known to result in acne and other kinds of pimples and rashes. Many of these become permanent conditions unless treated immediately. Surprisingly enough, even those skin lightening products that claim to use natural ingredients are not free from such side effects.

Scientific researches have revealed that chemical substances used in the composition of skin lightening creams, such as lactic acid, glycolic acid, arbutin, azelaic acid, kojic acid, mercury and treitinoin do not cause much harm if used in low concentrations. But to make their products more effective and produce faster results, cream manufacturers often use these chemicals in concentrations above the permissible limits. This is the main reason why women often break out in rashes and pimples after beginning to use skin lightening products. There is also the question of mismatch between the product and the skin type on which it is used. Many of the creams claim to be effective on “normal” skin. Can any of us ever be sure we have “normal” skin?

This is why you should read as many reports about a skin whitening product as you can before you actually decide to buy it. Read up about the ingredients that go into its making and try to get hold of at least one report by a medical or professional organization which gives you a technical description of the cream. The consumers who post reports about such products usually begin by describing their skin and why they went for that particular product. This could be an easy way to check whether your skin type matches that of the reviewer’s. If it does, you can expect a similar set of problems with the cream, or the same kind of rewards.

But don’t ever make the mistake of taking your skin for granted by treating it with any which skin lightener. You may live to regret it.

Keep reading below to find out what is the best rated skin lightening cream by customers..