Characterization of suspected illegal skin whitening cosmetics

An important group of suspected illegal cosmetics consists of skin bleaching products, which are usually applied to the skin of the face, hands and décolleté for local depigmentation of hyper pigmented regions or more importantly, for a generalized reduction of the skin tone. These cosmetic products are suspected to contain illegal active substances that may provoke as well local as systemic toxic effects, being the reason for their banning from the EU market. In that respect, illegal and restricted substances in cosmetics, known to have bleaching properties, are in particular hydroquinone, tretinoin and corticosteroids. From a legislative point of view, all cosmetic products containing a prohibited whitening agent are illegal and must be taken off the EU market. A newly developed screening method using ultra high performance liquid chromatography-time off flight-mass spectrometry allows routine analysis of suspected products. 163 suspected skin whitening cosmetics, collected by Belgian inspectors at high risk sites such as airports and so-called ethnic cosmetic shops, were analyzed and 59% were classified as illegal. The whitening agents mostly detected were clobetasol propionate and hydroquinone, which represent a serious health risk when repeatedly and abundantly applied to the skin.