In Lagos and other major Nigerian cities, local beauty spas are springing up offering all kinds of services including ‘organic’ skin lightening options. These outfits market an alternative to chemical-laden soaps and creams but this investigation uncovers that the same toxic chemical substances are used in producing ‘fast action’ lightening creams which exposes Nigerians to higher risks of skin cancer and organ damage, writes ISAAC ANYAOGU.
Twenty-six year old Goodness Dickson, runs an online outfit that offers natural beauty care products. The store front is on Instagram and the factory is the damp, moldy backyard of a ramshackle bungalow inside llupeju, a Lagos suburb.
Prior to meeting her, she had completed a three months training programme on the production and manufacturing of organic beauty care products at a spa around Ikeja, Lagos state capital. She was moonlighting in another beauty spa, offering massages to rake in enough money to set up her own shop.
Across Lagos, this is the latest hustle among young women. They are taken through a three to six months course on how to manufacture “organic” skincare products, which as this investigation shows, is largely adding aloe vera extracts and other natural compounds to chemicals purchased from Ojota chemical market in a curious blend that promises lighter skin tonnes within weeks.
Typically, organic skin care uses topical creams and lotions made of ingredients available in nature. Some of the plant-derived ingredients include herbs, roots, flowers and essential oils, but natural substances in skin care products also include animal-derived products such as beeswax, and minerals. These substances may be combined with various carrier agents, preservatives, surfactants, humectants and emulsifiers. This is not often the case from some production process observed by this reporter.
Organic skincare products
Dermatologists laud organic skincare products because they are made of natural ingredients without any chemical elements in them. The ingredients used are organically farmed and do not contain genetically modified materials, synthetic residues, or chemicals.
When they say a product is natural, it means that some or all of the ingredients used in their production are derived from plants and animals. They could be organic or non-organic in nature.
In the course of this investigation, we obtained a 200-page detailed instructional manual along with over a dozen videos for the production of ‘organic’ skin whitening creams in the Nigerian market. Many of the so-called ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ skin care products contain high levels of chemicals and some even include skin lightening creams including those some non-profits like Zero Mercury Working Group and Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRAdev) Nigeria tests indicate has mercury levels of more than 1 parts per million.
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Typical instructional Guide for a local ‘organic’ cream
SKIN WHITENING SERUM
INGREDIENTS:
1tsp giga white powder or snow white powder
1tsp rosewater
1tbsp skin whitening hot oil
DIRECTIONS
In a clean container, pour your giga white powder, add rosewater and stir till it’s dissolved. Add skin whitening hot oil and stir till it is mixed together. Pour it into your serum container and use morning and night or you pour it in your lotion.
SWISS LIGHTENING/WHITENING MILK LOTION
INGREDIENTS
2 Dodo white up or clinic care lotion
1 7days serum
1 Botox injection serum
1 Skin Free Milk
1 3beta cream
2 Anti-Stretch Mark Body Ampoules
1 Teaspoon Vit E
3 Kojic Clear Tube Cream
30 ml Whitening Glycerine
2 Tbsp Arbutin
DIRECTIONS
Dissolve arbutin powder with glycerine and pour in a bowl. Add every other thing listed. Mix properly.
NB: Use rose water to make it lighter if you want it light
The instructional guide includes directions for how to formulate creams that will make your skin brighten in seven days, turn your skin ‘half-caste’, totally peel the first layer of the skin, clear dark knuckles, or for a molato skin
Elsie Nwadialo, a skin beauty therapist agrees that there may challenges with the naming of organic skincare products in Nigeria considering the volume of chemicals used in manufacturing them. She said that used in moderate quantities and according to standards, these substances will not constitute much harm.
“They will not also guarantee rapid skin whitening in seven days,” she said.
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Ojota Chemical Market
The Ojota Chemical Market is the largest open chemical market in Lagos, Nigeria. it is a hub of chemical importers, dealers and supplies. Chemical products sold in the market ranges from industrial, cosmetics, water treatment, pharmaceutical, construction and food processing.
Industrial chemicals like Barium Sulphate, Benzyl Alcohol, Borax, Dimethyl Formamide, Ethyl Acetate, are highly sought after followed by cosmetics chemicals packaged in sacks and drums. These chemicals are largely imported from India and China. There are other smaller markets like the one in Idumota, on the Lagos, island, that deals with chemicals.
The Ojota Chemical Market is, however, the go-to place for producers of Nigeria’s organic beauty care products. Over the course of three days, this reporter witnessed dozens of local skin care manufacturers troop to the market in search of the necessary chemicals to facilitate their production.
Some cosmetic chemicals are used for soaps, creams, shampoo, deodorants, perfumes and make-up. They include Paraffin Wax, Peppermint Oil and Petroleum Jelly, Kogic Acid among others. Some of these retailers sell formulations of base cream made from melting wax with oil and water. Others sell the raw chemicals used to mix the brew.
Dorcas Udo, who manages Chemicals & Organics Store at the Ojota Chemical market showed this reporter already formulated chemical base from which local manufacturers advance into making soaps and creams. The shop slightly bigger than a typical cold room, has rows of wooden shelves filled with assorted chemicals of different variants.
She explained that what often passes as organic creams is the addition of plant extracts to the formulated base creams with generous helpings of skin lightening creams like Clobestasol Cream, Aneeza gold or chemical compounds like hydroguinone, cysteamine or even corticosteroids.
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Shakirat Gold-Olufadi, consultant physician and dermatologist at the University College Hospital Ibadan clarifies that the so-called natural or organic skincare products do not mean free from harm.
“Natural does not mean it is good for your skin. A lot of our factory-produced soaps and creams actually have natural products in them but they have been tested and the quantities put in them have been put to test to be the right quantity needed by your skin.
“When you do homemade natural products, sometimes you’re putting in a quantity that is harmful for your skin. Sometimes, you’re using products that will give irritant reactions on your skin.
“Then the latest trend is that people are mixing triple action creams with infant’s ‘natural’ products thereby causing a lot of harm to the skin. This includes recurrent skin infections and it can get as bad as skin failure.
“So on natural products, I’ll say one needs to be careful and except you’re trained to know the right products to combine for the skin, we generally prefer regular store-bought cleansers and creams which have been subjected to quality control checks.” she said.
These quality control checks are totally absent in the formulation of these creams at different spas around major cities in Nigeria. They are often branded with the store owners names and are without NAFDAC approvals.
“The problem is they use formulations that will lighten the skin in seven days. They do not follow the right standards and some abuse the process, using chemicals containing cortisol steroids to get fast action,” says Nwadialo.
Lax regulation
Moyinsola Adeyeye, director general of the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said dealing with the local spas has become a nightmare.
“And there are some cosmetics people that makes cosmetics in their studio, these people are not well trained to make cosmetics, we need more sensitization. Some of them don’t know that mixing these things can lead to something down the road, it can lead to cancer for those who use bleaching creams.
“Your skin may be lighter now, but is going to happen in 10 years, if you keep using the same thing, that person may have cancer.
This reporter attempted to accompany NAFDAC monitoring team on a raid at a local spa in Ikeja but several attempts were unsuccessful. On one occasion the officials could not get approval to fuel their vehicle and on another occasion, there weren’t any available handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanners to conduct on-the-spot testing for mercury in skincare products formulated by these spas.
“The situation is so bad that sometimes, it is these people we are supposed to carry out enforcement activities that support us with logistics to go even go out,”says a NAFDAC enforcement official who craved anonymity.
Thriving market for local skincare
There are over a dozen beauty spas within two blocks inside Ikeja GRA, a visible proof that the business of beauty is the thriving gig in Lagos and other major cities in Abuja and Port Harcourt.
Majority of these outfits have established stores on Instagram and use social media platforms majorly to push their products. A lot of them are also selling on e-commerce platforms and their major offerings include rapid skin lightening creams, steroid injections among other beauty enhancement products. Some of them employ social media influencers to push these products convincing many to patronise them with disastrous consequences.
