Non-prescription skin lightening creams that claim to bleach or lighten your skin can be harmful.

“Unfortunately, many skin lightening creams contain illegal compounds that can damage your health”  says Indy Rihal of the British Skin Foundation. “The most common compounds are high-dose steroids.”

The damaging effects of these products are taken seriously by the law. In March 2009, a man who sold unlicensed medicines and banned cosmetics, including skin-lightening creams containing corticosteroids and hydroquinone, was ordered to pay £80,000 in fines (100,000 USD) , costs and repayment of illegal earnings.

So Are There Any Safe Products To Bleach Skin ?

There are actually a couple of manufacturers that we know of who produce effective and perfectly safe skin lightening cream products.

The specialist manufacturer of skin care products for Asian skin types, Pharmaclinix produces a skin lightening cream under the name of Lightenex. This particular skin lightening cream uses Kojic Dipalmitate as its main active ingredient, this is a perfectly safe naturally occurring compound and will not do long term damage to your skin. Lightenex should also be used in conjunction with a high SPF moisturiser to be really effective.

Lightenex is being used by thousands of women to treat areas of chloasma or melasma with some great results.

The other manufacturer of a safe skin lightening cream which will effectively bleach skin is Xtend-Life from New Zealand and goes by the name of Xtend-Life Natural Whitening Day Cream.

This particular skin lightening cream uses a naturally occuring substance called Extrapone Nutgrass, nutgrass has been used for thousands of years in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicines. The active ingredient in Xtend-Life Natural Whitening Day Cream is derived from the root of the nutgrass plant which grows wild in India.

Nutgrass root has also been found to have anti-aging properties for the skin. Therefore it is a natural way to whiten your skin, without any harmful side effects, as well as making your skin look younger. It is also effective at reducing freckles.

There are also 9 other active ingredients in the Xtend-Life cream which aid with anti-aging.

All in all, between the two products the Xtend-Life Natural Whitening Day Cream is by far the better value as it contains a lot more active ingredients and is about 20% cheaper and if you use the Loyalty Discount scheme operated by Xtend-Life then it becomes even cheaper still.

To find out more about Xtend-Life Natural Whitening Day Cream just click here.

Freckles are little localized spots of melanin or skin pigment. To better understand freckles, let me explain a little about melanin. Human melanin or pigment cell, is of two variety. Eumelanin gives skin a brown hue. It is found in great abundance on the skin of dark people and allows them to get darker when they tan. Lighter skin tones have more Pheomelanin. This type of melanin imparts a reddish – yellow hue to skin.

Freckles typically occur on lighter skin. When fair skin is exposed to sunlight, it develops localised lesions or spots of pheomelanin. These reddish brown spots are called freckles. The lighter the skin one has, the more likely is one prone to freckles. Freckles are harmless and are not unattractive per se. But a lot of people with freckles want to reduce or even eliminate them.

A good way to start is to use a good quality sunblock. Sun blocks can protect the skin from the damaging UVA and UVB rays of the sun and prevent the bio-chemical reactions on the skin that leads to the formation of freckles. It is necessary to find the right kind of sunblock so as to not irritate sensitive, light skin.

For more tips and solutions to lighten freckles without damaging your skin go to: Skin Lightening Report