Let me present to you another surprise nugget of wisdom I discovered while writing about Fairy Skin Derma Set. Short version: STOP USING IT OR YOU WILL GO BLIND. Char.
Not char.
You probably won't go blind. But your vision will suffer one way or another. So will your skin after years of use. And maybe the insides of your nose. And idk, I'm currently neck deep in research about shit that happens when you decide to save a few bucks and use products with no proper labels.
Now, to be fair and honest, Fairy Skin will 10/10, 100% improve your skin. It did mine. For the entire 5 or 6 weeks that I was using the set, my skin was spotless, and soft, and bright, and fresh. The maintenance kit didn't produce an equally stellar result, but my skin still looked amazing. The difference is that Fairy Skin Derma set has dun dun dun dun HYDROQUINONE, while the Fairy Skin Glow set has none (or less of it, I still am yet to find a study, nonetheless, don't risk it.)
What I didn't know while using Fairy Skin Derma BECAUSE IT'S NOT ON THE LABEL, is that yes, the stuff has a dangerous albeit familiar ingredient called Hydroquinone. Had I known, well, I still would have used Fairy Skin because I'm that desperate for clear skin. But you know, how hard is it to actually be honest about your products? Users deserve to know what they're actually putting on their skin. Just because it's cheap doesn't mean its buyers deserve to be harmed. Even the poor and the scrooge deserve respect!
Now what is hydroquinone and why am I this angry?
Hydroquinone is the same shiz you'd find in Maxi Peel. The same ingredient that makes Maxi Peel effective in giving "kutis artista" skin through bleaching. Hydroquinone is extremely effective. It works by decreasing the formation of melanin, which is the pigment that gives skin its color. A quick Google search will give you this answer:
Hydroquinone is generally safe. However, there's a reason it's banned in Japan, the European Union and Australia. And why the FDA proposes its ban in the US. Aside from that it's likely to cause cancer, it's proven to cause ochronosis. What is ochronosis?
A quick Google image search will tell you what it is. Ochronosis on the skin causes dark splotches. Imagine using hydroquinone to whiten and bleach your skin, and you, the innocent user, ends up not only with darker skin, but with bluish-black splotches as well. Ha. What it does to skin is scary, but wait til you find out what it does to eyes. Read on.
And no, it doesn't just happen to users who fail to use sunscreen. It happens to both long and short-term users who use UV protection. There had been cases of ochronosis on users who've only been on hydroquinone for a few weeks. Exposure to mercury ~ which is also present in most low priced, low quality beauty products ~ increases risks of developing ochronosis.
I've been using hydroquinone on and off, knowingly and unknowingly, for about a decade now. It started in 2005. I had horrible acne and the girls at school who already had clear skin to begin with, started using Maxi Peel and Mena Pearl Cream. It was all the rage. It was on TV. And people who had skin more horrible than mine showed signs of improvement. After months of observing how their skin fared with those products, I decided to try them myself. I mean, my mom had already spent money on dermatologists with little success, spending less than P100 on products that showed promise seemed sound.
My skin improved. And then I stopped using the products. I do not remember all that clearly but in between using Maxi Peel, I'd use products with Salicylic Acid, Tea Tree Oil, Vitamin C, etc. none of which did better than Hydroquinone. I was on Accutane for a few weeks. I've tried dozens of products, but I'd always go back to Maxi Peel when my skin acted up. In total, I must have used Maxi Peel about once a year or once every 2 years, except during pregnancy and breastfeeding. That would be around 6-8 bottles from 2005 to 2016. I switched to The Ordinary Retinol in 2016 and 2017 because I was slowly realizing that while on Maxi Peel, I'd have dry eyes and blurry vision.
I initially thought it was all from stress, pollution, working at night in front of a computer, and heck, maybe even aging. But it wasn't. Thankfully, I discovered the source of my eye issues before it was too late. It was the vapors from Maxi Peel. The shit was drying my eyes. I also realized it was causing the discoloration of my eyeballs. They were turning dark at the part that was exposed to air and vapors. Like, if I opened my eyes really wide, you'd see a demarcation of the part that's exposed to vapors, and the part that's safely protected by my eyelids. I made a promise to never EVER touch another bottle of Maxi Peel or any toner with alcohol (I thought it was the alcohol content!)
As you know from my previous post, I made the mistake of buying Fairy Skin Derma Set, thinking all it had in it were Retinol, Niacinamide, Arbutin, Kojic, Glycerine, and stuff that are generally safe. After all, that's all the ingredients they say they have on their product labels. But alas, because of their scheming marketing tactics, I was unknowingly using Hydroquinone again. Here's the FDA report again in case you missed it.
I am a little over a week into using the set and I now am extremely paranoid about the damage it has caused on my skin and eyes. I have been avoiding screens and UV and stress and smoke because it's all irritating my already dried out eyes. I'm honestly more freaked out than I can muster to show. I'd be researching for hours if not for the discomfort of screens and dry eyes.
MORAL OF THE STORY ~ NEVER TRUST CHEAP PRODUCTS. Okay, so there may be some exceptions. But as a rule, if something's too good to be true, it probably is. In skin care, and by extension, in all beauty products, you can only have 2 of 3 things: EFFICACY, AFFORDABILITY, AND SAFETY.
If something is effective AND affordable, it's probably not safe.
If something is effective AND safe, it's probably not cheap.
If something is cheap AND safe, it's probably not effective.
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