Azealia Banks Addresses the Skin-Lightening Issue

Photo: Instagram/Azealia Banks

As rumors continue to swirl about Azealia Banks lightening her skin — as Yahoo Beauty reported last week — the rapper struck back on Instagram Tuesday, claiming that the public is getting it all wrong. “I’m working on a huge article about skin lightening. Including the differences between skin bleaching and skin lightening. Skin whitening and skin brightening. All four of these things are different,” Banks wrote.

Banks’s Instagram post. (Photo: Instagram/AzealiaBanks)

Followers piled on to contradict her claims and cite the harmful chemicals in and side effects of any treatment for lightening skin. User @woah_taylor_woah wrote, “They all have something [to] do with changing your natural skin tone, girl,” and @tomo_xxii chimed in, “Just like there’s a difference between tanning, sunbathing, and getting darker … don’t lie to yourself; there is no difference lol. You don’t have to justify anything.”

As we eagerly await Banks’s write-up, we decided to consult skin care professionals. According the the website for the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS), which puts three main methods — chemical peels, creams, and laser treatment — into the same category: skin lightening. The NHS does not distinguish between this and skin brightening — nor does it single out skin whitening or skin bleaching.

The site says that only chemical peels are long-lasting (not permanent) but can be “expensive, painful, and risky,” and can cause scarring and infection. It adds that deep peels are “not really suitable for darker skin.” Skin-lightening creams, the site claims, can “cause serious side effects if used incorrectly” and can cause thinning of the skin, kidney, liver, or nerve damage, and abnormalities in a newborn baby, among other complications. Laser skin lightening “works by either removing the outer layer of skin or damaging the cells that produce melanin.” The site says this method can cause scarring and skin infection.

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According to the website for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), some people looking to lighten their skin are now turning to injectable products. In Kim, a pharmacist at the FDA, is quoted as saying: “These products pose a potentially significant safety risk to consumers. You’re essentially injecting an unknown substance into your body—you don’t know what it contains or how it was made.” The site warns that injectable skin lighteners can cause liver disease and Parkinson’s disease.

“In general, consumers should be cautious of any product marketed online with exaggerated claims on safety and effectiveness,” Kim says. “They also should consult their health care practitioner before deciding to use any new product.”

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The FDA has also warned against noninjectable over-the-counter skin-bleaching products, like creams, as many contain ammoniated mercury, which is not approved by the FDA.

Skin-bleaching products are widely used in Africa, according to the website for the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), where unnamed additives in conjunction with ingredients like hydroquinone, mercury, and corticosteroids are causing serious health disorders — and sometimes death.

Banks hasn’t revealed whether she has actually turned to skin-lightening products — and if so, what kind — but it’s safe to say that if she is, whatever she’s using is posing a major health risk, whether she wants to hear from her legions of fans or not.

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