Name: AD Tour of Smoke and Mirrors
Location: Wellcome Collection

The fear of judgement means that many condemn skin bleaching in public while secretly lightening their own complexions. To break away from these taboos and double standards, and to protect people from dangerous products, we need honest information and open conversation.

Skin bleaching is a multibillion-dollar industry that draws a lot of attention, both positive and negative. From my conversations on the subject, it’s clear that many from the African and Caribbean communities know that the light-skinned ideal is in part a legacy of colonialism. But even today, this ideal has influenced me and many other Black women through television, where the majority of Black people are still light-skinned, especially musicians and reality-TV contestants. 

In 2018’s ‘Love Island’, for example, the one dark-skinned young man featured didn’t last long. This told me and many of my friends that light skin is still more admired than dark skin. 

I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing women who use skin-bleaching products for various reasons and women who are against it, but one thing that stood out was the harsh comments from both sides. Those who were against skin bleaching felt that you should be comfortable in your own skin, regardless of what other people say. They believe that women who bleach are insecure, and hate being Black. 

On the other hand, the women who bleached said they loved being Black, but their impetus to lighten their skin came from the very community that told them to be happy with who they are, which proved that shadism (colourism) is still alive and kicking. 

Irrespective of the reasons both women and men bleach their skin, I would like them to be able to access enough information to make up their minds safely on whether skin bleaching can really give them the lifestyle they want. Your complexion should never define how you are treated or your prospects in life.

What about skin-bleaching treatments of the future? Growing up in the UK, I knew of the creams and soaps, which are very popular but come with a host of dangers such as chemical burns and mercury poisoning. Through my research, I discovered that the latest methods are Intravenous glutathione treatments and skin-lightening pills. These treatments are very popular in the Philippines, but now have found their way to the UK, America and parts of Africa and the Caribbean. 

It’s been said that intravenous skin lightening does not cause uneven skin colour or the dark knuckles that creams can produce, which could make this method more appealing. As Dr Shirley Anne Tate of Leeds Beckett University said to me, “Skin bleaching is only frowned upon if you look like you lighten your skin.”

More: How the wellness industry thrives by making us feel bad.

However, there is no reliable scientific evidence to prove that Intravenous treatments and pills work, so it will be interesting to see whether these treatments can adhere to EU guidelines and be sold openly. The growing popularity of the injections in the US has led to a number of articles on the subject that underline their unproven effects and the possible dangerous outcomes, such as “serious skin disorders, thyroid function impairment and kidney dysfunction”.

Omar, 42: “It’s not a good thing to admit. I thought being lighter would make me look better.”

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Omar

For a long time, a lot of the information about skin bleaching has been targeted at women, from the adverts to news of product bans, but a growing number of men are lightening their skin. At a time when we keep talking about loving the skin you are in, it is somewhat surprising to see Black men bleaching.

The most famous skin-bleaching men include Jamaican reggae and dancehall artist Vybz Kartel, who even wrote a song, ‘Cake Soap’, about lightening his skin. There’s also Sammy Sosa, a retired professional basketball player, who started bleaching his skin back 2009 and is open about his treatment.  

At a time when we keep talking about loving the skin you are in, it is somewhat surprising to see Black men bleaching.

Last but not least, Nigerian entrepreneur Pela Okiemute has been nicknamed Nigeria’s Hottest Cream Mixer, with a following of over 100,000 people on Instagram, beauty salons in Nigeria, and a list of clients who want to emulate his glow.  

With the rise in male grooming, the number of cosmetic products and treatments targeted at men has also risen. This shift in culture indicates that it’s okay for men to look after themselves, and if that means bleaching their skin, then so be it. Ultimately, men’s thinking on the subject is similar to that of women: they want to feel more attractive and gain access to opportunities afforded to those with fair skin. In the Asia-Pacific region it has been estimated that the male cosmetic industry was worth $2.1 billion in 2016.

The media has always portrayed the skin-bleaching industry negatively. For example, back in 2014 I featured skincare entrepreneur Dencia on my BBC radio show when she launched her ‘skin-brightening product’ Whitenicious. She appeared on many media platforms, including Channel 4 and Sky, and every presenter who interviewed her was pretty harsh. So it took me by surprise when in 2018 Whitenicious by Dencia hired Blac Chyna, famous for having a child with Rob Kardashian, to tour and promote the product. 

There were a lot of mixed reviews, the majority being negative, with artists such as dancehall artist Grace Hamilton, also known as Spice, coming out to criticise Blac Chyna for making dark-skinned women feel ugly. However, sales for Whitenicious rocketed, which tells me that people feel that they have to openly criticise skin bleaching, yet bleach behind closed doors. 

Growing up in the African community in Liverpool as well as travelling all over the world, I have witnessed women from all faiths and backgrounds bleaching, so there’s no prototype or stereotypical-looking Black woman who bleaches. While we criticise these women for wanting to have fairer skin, there are white women tanning and even adopting the so-called Black aesthetic such as darker skin, cornrows, big bums, etc.

This is why I always ask these questions: Why are we in the Black community so hard on each other? Why do we criticise Black women for bleaching when we often see interviews with young Black men saying they’re only attracted to light-skinned girls? 

The women that I spoke to all started bleaching before the age of 18 – some as young as 16 – and all were introduced to these products by family members. So it’s heavily ingrained in the African and Caribbean culture, to the point where National Trading Standards is having conversations with churches, mosques and community leaders to help tackle the issue.  

For the many reasons I’ve mentioned, Black people are not going to stop lightening their skin, but we need to be more open about the issue. Those who choose to bleach need access to information in order to protect themselves, and we must also break down the taboo that is forcing them to bleach secretly and dangerously. 

Ngunan Adamu is a radio presenter and producer for BBC Radio Merseyside, CEO and founder of iWoman Academy/Media, and an international multimedia trainer for the BBC.

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Ngunan Adamu

Author

Amaal Said is a Danish-born Somali photographer and poet, based in London. Her photographs have been featured in Vogue, the Guardian and the New Yorker. In 2017, she was exhibited in Los Angeles, and in 2018 her photography was featured in the fourth volume of African Lens and exhibited in Accra, Ghana.

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Amaal Said

Photographer

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Many condemn skin bleaching in public while secretly lightening their own complexions. To break away from these taboos, we need honest information and open conversation.

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Rukia

Ngunan Adamu explores why skin bleaching is still a widespread practice and how it affects the mental and physical health of many people today.

Colonialism and the origins of skin bleaching

The desire for lighter skin

When skin bleaching goes wrong

The case for safe skin bleaching

Identifying skin lightening agents in cosmetics

Enduring taboos and the future of skin bleaching

Skin bleaching is a global practice and lucrative industry that continues to influence our perception of beauty today. Speaking to doctors, trading authorities, historians as well as the people who bleach their skin in secret, Ngunan Adamu examines its harmful effects on the mental and physical health of many men and women. She also considers whether skin lightening can ever be safe, as well as the reasons behind its stigma.

Skin Bleaching

The character of Sherlock Holmes, famous for drawing his conclusions from detailed observations, was inspired by a real-life doctor. But while doctors’ diagnoses use similar methods to detectives, the clues they spot and the verdicts they reach may be less clear-cut.

Mrs Agwu’s face is expressionless – there are no diagnostic clues, at first glance. Her posture is stooped, a question mark of sorts. The sole of her right shoe is scuffed. Her husband has a black eye.

The diagnosis is Parkinson’s, I realise. Her muted facial expression and stooped posture are characteristic. She has been dragging her foot, hence the scuffed shoe. Mr Agwu has a black eye because his wife inadvertently lashes out at night – a dramatic sleep disturbance is another feature of the condition.

Doctors and detectives seem to approach our mysteries similarly – we each spot inconsistencies, form hypotheses, reason logically, and reflect deliberately. We deduct and decode signs and symptoms (or clues). But on deeper inspection, how much truth is there in the comparison? The world of one literary detective, Sherlock Holmes, might just hold the answer.

His creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, a doctor himself, based many of Holmes’s methods on those of Joseph Bell, a professor of surgery and one of Conan Doyle’s tutors at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. 

More: How lowering testosterone affects the male body.

Bell’s infamous diagnostic skills were once described by a medical student of his: “‘What is the matter with this man, eh?’ Then flashing a signal to one particular student with those piercing eyes, Dr Bell would indicate he should pronounce the diagnosis. ‘No, you mustn't touch him. Use your eyes, sir, use your ears, use your brain, your bump of perception, and use your powers of deduction.’”

In ‘A Case of Identity’, Holmes stresses the importance of sleeves and the great issues that might hang from a bootlace. Here, he deciphers the occupation of a “fellow-mortal” (from ‘A Study in Scarlet’): “By a man's fingernails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boot, by his trouser-knees, by the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt-cuffs – by each of these things a man’s calling is plainly revealed.”

Forensic photography

Such subtleties lead doctors towards diagnoses, too. Pitted nails (these look like the surface of a thimble) are sometimes seen in psoriasis, for example. Mees’ lines (transverse white bands across the nails) are associated with arsenic poisoning, heart failure, renal disease and chronic infections. 

Absence is as telling as presence. Mrs Agwu’s right leg is not weak – this likely excludes a stroke (another explanation for a scuffed shoe). In ‘Silver Blaze’, Holmes notes the curious incident of the dog in the night-time: the dog did not bark, thus it must have recognised a shady midnight visitor. 

It’s tempting at this juncture to rush towards a conclusion, but Holmes guards against this: “It is a capital mistake to theorise before you have all the evidence.” If a letter from Mrs Agwu’s GP outlined her slowing down and blank expression, I might consider a diagnosis of depression, testing this hypothesis by asking questions about her mood. 

There’s danger in this hypothetico-deductive approach, akin to the crime of Procrustes – the inclination to fit the facts to our opinions instead of our opinions to the facts (Procrustes was a figure from Greek mythology who offered unwitting travellers a bed for the night. Little did they know he would stretch them or amputate their legs to fit the bed). In being welded to this possibility of depression in Mrs Agwu, I might miss the clues pointing towards her Parkinson’s.  

Holmes usually draws upon abduction rather than deduction: starting from observations or the known facts, then deriving their most likely explanation. Abduction entails working backwards to a probably or possible conclusion. 

In ‘The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle’, Holmes sees a cast-off hat and concludes that the man is highly intellectual (the hat is large – “a man with so large a brain must have something in it” – we now know this has no scientific basis, sadly) and experiencing a decline in fortunes and foresight indicating “some evil influence, probably drink”, since the expensive hat has entered a state of disrepair. 

Holmes reasons, from hairs on the hat’s lining, that the man is middle-aged, with recently cut, grizzled hair, which he anoints with lime-cream. “It is extremely improbable that he has gas laid on in his house,” he concludes, given the presence of tallow stains. 

Admittedly, one recent critic described this hat trick as “barely a half-step from parody”. In my view, though, Holmes was no ordinary detective, just as Joseph Bell was no ordinary doctor.

This abductive approach is the most commonly used investigative logic used in real-life murder investigations and is also often used iteratively in medicine, where we argue backwards from symptoms (the effects) to disease (the cause). Here’s an example: 

Premise 1: Most people with chronic untreated gout have tophi (crystals of uric acid, usually in or around joints). 

Conclusion: This patient probably has chronic untreated gout.

Observations made and reasons reasoned, it’s time to consider all potential causes or suspects before reaching a final conclusion (termed differential diagnosis in medicine). “One should always look for a possible alternative, and provide against it. It is the first rule of criminal investigation,” says Holmes. Inspector Stanley Hopkins is also schooled by Holmes, who tells him in ‘The Adventure of Black Peter’: “You were so absorbed in young Neligan that you could not spare a thought to Patrick Cairns, the true murderer of Peter Carey.” 

Yet, for all these parallels, differences abound between the crime scene and clinic consultation. We regularly face messy contradictions and uncertainties that are absent from the Holmesian universe.  

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,” Holmes says, but in medicine, there is inevitably more than one improbable solution, and more than one that might be true. Two people with the very same disease might present with different symptoms. Two people with identical symptoms often have different disorders. Many disorders have yet to be elucidated. 

Doctors also cannot work on logic alone. Hermeneutics matter – the interpretation of text: the stories of our patients, their lived experience of illness, and our diagnostic tools. So does semiotics – the doctrine of signs: the bull’s-eye rash of Lyme disease or the tiny Koplik spots of measles inside the mouth. 

In some cases, the methods of doctors more clearly reflect those of other literary detectives, who go beyond the singular theory or neat resolution. The investigative approach of William of Baskerville (a Franciscan monk in Umberto Eco’s ‘The Name of the Rose’) seems more closely attuned to medical diagnosis, what with its multiple layers of reasoning and “complex of motives, coincidences, and perspectives”.  

But none of this should underplay the strong Holmesian parallels with medicine. I sense, as I examine Mrs Agwu in a hospital just a few miles from Baker Street, that there are more similarities than differences between Holmes’ detecting skills and our doctoring ones. That much, Holmes might say, is elementary.  

Doctor Jules Montague is a consultant neurologist in London, a job she combines with work in Mozambique and India each year. She writes regularly for the Guardian and BBC Future and her work has featured in Granta, Mosaic, Aeon, The Verge, the Lancet, and the Independent. Her book, Lost and Found: Why Losing Our Memories Doesn't Mean Losing Ourselves (Sceptre 2018), explores what remains of the person when the pieces of their mind go missing. Her next book, The Diagnosis Cure, is out with Granta next year.

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Dr Jules Montague

Jules' website

John Smith is a Forensic Imaging Specialist who spent ten years working for the UK’s major forensic science providers before being appointed in 2007 as a Senior Lecturer in Imaging Science at the University of Westminster. His independent work includes consultation on forensic imaging processes, casework, lecturing and training. He enjoys providing lectures and courses to a variety of Higher Education Institutes and forensic practitioners.

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John R A Smith

Essay

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Incident_0864. Image_782. 2019-04-24 09:12am. Establishing photograph of entrance to crime scene

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Birthdays, appraisals and Harold Shipman

Read why GPs spend their birthdays preparing their annual appraisal.

Research primary source material relating to clinical photography, radiology, radiotherapy and radiobiology.

Smoke and Mirrors: The Psychology of Magic

Discover how magicians have helped psychologists understand the mind in the Smoke and Mirrors exhibition.

Do doctors really identify medical conditions in the same way that detectives solve crimes? Neurologist Jules Montague makes her diagnosis.

Are doctors medical detectives?

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, doctors believed that modern civilisation itself was making people sick. What with steam-powered trains, telegraphs and daily newspapers, modern life was just too fast-paced for people’s health to bear. The result? Neurasthenia, a disease of overtaxed nerves that was believed to afflict the high-status ‘brain-workers’ of society’s upper crust. 

Amelia lives in Chicago and writes the column ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ for JSTOR Daily.

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Amelia Soth

@AmeliaSoth

Image gallery

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A wife sending her husband away on holiday

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Sickness from nervous exhaustion is not a new thing. Over a hundred years ago, neurasthenia afflicted society’s ‘brain-workers’.

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Contents of Henry Wellcome's pockets when he died

Explore stories inspired by the objects, manuscripts and more in our archives.

Stories inspired by the objects, manuscripts and more in our archives.

From Our Collections

When civilisation made people sick

What’s in your moisturiser? If it claims to ‘brighten’ your skin or ‘even out’ skin tone, it probably contains skin-bleaching agents. But finding out what those agents are can often be virtually impossible.

Since researching skin-bleaching products, I have been made aware that many high-street shops, for example Boots, Holland & Barrett and Superdrug, to name a few, sell products that contain skin-lightening agents. While these products might be legal, given that they are so widely available, how would the average person know what it is in them and whether the contents are harmful? Even more widespread are the harsher products you can find ‘under the counter’ in independent beauty shops.

If you google skin-bleaching products, the first thing that comes up is hydroquinone. This chemical can give the effect that many are looking for, but high levels of hydroquinone in products are dangerous, and excessive use is harmful for the skin.

I came across a research paper published by Waters Corporation, an organisation with its headquarters in Massachusetts, which designs analytical technologies. In the study, chemists used a method called UHPLC (ultra-high performance liquid chromatography) to identify skin-lightening agents in cosmetic products. By separating the different components of the products, they aimed to identify the percentages of pharmaceutical ingredients – such as hydroquinone, corticosteroids and tretinoin – in these misleadingly labelled ‘cosmetic’ products.

Corticosteroids are drugs used to treat inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis, and long-term use can cause permanent skin damage, and even high blood pressure and diabetes. Tretinoin is a derivative of vitamin A and is used to treat acne. Both tretinoin and corticosteroids help lighten skin.

Aliyah, 23: “I put my skin through a lot. It hurt to go out in the sun. I was in pain and it just wasn’t worth it. I hate that I did that to myself. I remember being 16 and wanting to feel pretty.”

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Aliyah

The scientists at Waters Corporation found that several of the samples bought online tested positive for skin-lightening agents that are not legal in cosmetic products. The labels were misleading and, in some cases, the skin-lightening agents were not listed on the product leaflets inside the boxes, making it more likely that people would use the products long term, and suffer adverse side effects. 

I have easily purchased skin-bleaching products in the UK, Nigeria and Dubai. Surprisingly, I was able to find well-known British cosmetic brands that sold skin-whitening products in both Nigeria and Dubai. These products were labelled correctly as skin-whitening creams, but you could not get the same products in the UK. 

It struck me that these companies knew their products did not comply with EU regulations. In the UK, harmful skin-bleaching products are available online and ‘under the counter’ in shops, and use euphemistic terms such as ‘even skin tone’ or ‘skin brightening’.

The booming market in Black beauty products

Curiosity prompted me to visit several African and Caribbean hair and beauty shops in Liverpool, which were all owned by South Asian men. On a few occasions there would be one young African woman working in a shop who would give you advice. But the majority of the time the shops would be staffed with South Asian men only. 

I asked all of them who usually bought skin-bleaching products, and they all said Black women, so I wondered where Asian women go to buy skin-bleaching products, especially as I’ve never seen any Asian woman come to these shops. The issue of South Asian men selling beauty products to Black women has long been a controversial topic. 

Black women spend six times more on hair and beauty products than white women, according to a survey by L’Oréal, so is it puzzling that there are so few Black female hair and beauty shop owners. On days when I was just buying hair products in shops owned by South Asian men, before I started my research, I was always asked if I wanted to try skin-bleaching cream, until finally they realised I was never going to buy. 

It felt awkward that a man of a different nationality was trying to push a product that he thought I needed or should want. At times, the hard sell you get almost feels like you are being offered drugs. However, as with most UK problems, if it’s not happening in London, action isn’t taken.

At times, the hard sell you get almost feels like you are being offered drugs. 

I hope to have the products I bought tested, and I will be talking with our local councillors to make sure that every hair and beauty shop is checked thoroughly. I suspect that although only a small number of women in Liverpool have admitted to me that they use skin-bleaching products, the high stock levels of skin-bleaching creams in beauty shops tell a different story.

Skin bleaching seems to be very addictive, like taking drugs or drinking alcohol to excess. The women who use the products know they’re harmful, but they are addicted to that look; as long as they get the ‘glow’ they are looking for, they don’t think about the damage. 

It would be perfect if there was a way of home testing your cosmetics to see if they contained harmful components. For many years we have argued against animal testing for cosmetics; if only we used that same energy against the covert use of harmful ingredients in skin products.

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In pursuit of purity

Discover how people have sought to keep themselves ‘pure’ across the ages.

Find primary source material about the treatment of various medical conditions.

Come and explore how willing we are to be deceived by illusionists.

Could your moisturiser be damaging your health? If it contains skin-lightening agents, the answer is yes. But this is an area where consumers definitely do not have the upper hand.

Discover the mechanics of magic and the way that trickery works in the Smoke and Mirrors gallery. These live performances explore perception, deception and the ‘supernatural’.

<p>A performance taking place as part of an exhibition, live in the gallery space.</p>

In-Gallery Performance

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Smoke and Mirrors magic show by Will Houstoun

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We’ll be in Gallery 1. When you enter Wellcome Collection, it’s on the left on level 0.    

Gallery 1

Spaces are first come, first served and may run out if we are busy. You may wish to arrive early to claim a space. If you have any access requests or requirements, email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call 020 7611 2222.

Limited spaces available

Experience magic in the Smoke and Mirrors galleries with live performances exploring perception, deception and the ‘supernatural’.

Smoke and Mirrors Live Performances

Discover stories from the new exhibition ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ as we question why we are willing to be deceived through the spectacle of illusion. Your accessible tour will be led by a guide using speech-to-text technology.

Ezra is a Visitor Experience Assistant and guide at Wellcome Collection. His interests include film, history and poetry.

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Ezra Miles

Guide

Gallery tour

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A speech to text tour at Wellcome Collection

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This event will have live speech-to-text transcription for visitors who are deaf, deafened and hard of hearing. If you would like to come along, email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call 020 7611 2222.

This event will be audio described for visitors who are blind or partially sighted. Places are free but very limited. If you would like to come along, email access@wellcomecollection.org or call 020 7611 2222.

Speech-to-text

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We regularly run tours of our exhibitions for visitors with access needs: British Sign Language (BSL) interpreted, audio described (AD) and speech-to-text (STT) tours.

Access Tours and Discussions

STT Tour of Smoke and Mirrors

Join us for a night of spectacle and illusion, wonder and deception, magic and trickery at this evening of performances, talks and workshops inspired by the ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ exhibition. 

This is a special late-night event with a bar running throughout, serving magic-themed cocktails. 

Late

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Ada Campe

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This is a large-scale event with several different activities. Check specific sub-events for their locations.

Throughout the building

This is a large-scale event with several different activities, which may include drop-in sessions, scheduled performances, workshops or talks. Check specific activities for details and to see if you need to book a ticket or to just show up. Spaces for drop-in activities are first come, first served and may run out if we are busy. If you have any special requests or requirements, email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call 020 7611 2222.

Multi-part programme

Join us for a night of spectacle and illusion, wonder and deception, magic and trickery at this evening of performances, talks and workshops inspired by the ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ exhibition.

Seeing is Believing

Join curator Joanne Prince for a talk about images of and by Native Americans. You’ll hear about how Native American photographers, from Horace Poolaw in the 1920s to contemporary fine art photographers today continually break free from romanticised and colonial stereotyping to define their own images, narratives and identities. 

Joanne Prince is the Director of Rainmaker Gallery, Bristol. Since launching Rainmaker in 1991, Jo  has made it her life’s work to ensure that contemporary Native American  art is continuously exhibited in England. She has curated numerous solo and group exhibitions enhanced by her immersion in and understanding of Native communities and by collaborations with other specialist curators and academics. 

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Joanne Prince

Rainmaker Gallery website

Join curator Joanne Prince for a talk about images of and by Native Americans.

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