Stories
- Article
Enduring taboos and the future of skin bleaching
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.
- Article
The desire for lighter skin
Discover why some Black people feel more attractive with lighter skin. Ngunan Adamu speaks to three women who explain how they got hooked on skin bleaching.
- Article
Our endless quest for eternal youth
From poisonous 16th-century cosmetics to the latest “vampire facelift”, discover the fashions in unsavoury methods for improving our appearance.
- Article
Colonialism and the origins of skin bleaching
The widespread practice of skin bleaching was heavily influenced by the Western colonisation and slavery of African and South Asian countries. Ngunan Adamu explores this toxic history.
Catalogue
- Books
Colonial complexions : race and bodies in eighteenth-century America / Sharon Block.
Block, Sharon, 1968-Date: [2018]- Ephemera
Bright eyes, sturdy limbs, clear complexions, healthy brains; : these are assured by breakfasting the family on Honey-Grains.
Date: [between 1940 and 1949]- Ephemera
Ladies' face pack : For dull complexions and premature wrinkles : (these are medical facts ...) / Scottish Health Education Unit.
Date: [1972?]- Books
L'art de perfectionner l'homme, suivi d'un essai sur les caractères, les moeurs et les complexions des hommes illustres de Plutarque / [J.-J. Virey].
Virey, J.-J. (Julien-Joseph), 1775-1846.Date: 1809
- Digital Images
- Online
Paediatric chart: Complexion diagnosis, Chinese woodcut