Inner thigh/ vaginal area darkening due to hydroquinone

by June
(Los Angeles CA USA)

I want to correct the damage hydroquinone has done to my inner thigh/bikini line/ vagina. Does kojic acid also cause you to turn darker? I know arbutin is hydroquinone in disguise..... I bought even tone enhancement therapy pads that contain kojic acid as an alternative to hydroquinone but i discovered that arbutin is hydroquinone in disguise and these pads include arbutin, so I have not used them...thoughts on this??? Lemon juice doesnt work much, I bought some Godiva licorice soaps with papaya or something like that.....are those safe?? Any suggestions? I also found South Beach Skin Solutions for the vaginal area. Does that work? Is it safe??

Answer:

Hi June, kojic acid and arbutin are some of the safer skin lightening agents nowadays. Although arbutin is a derivative of hydroquinone, it has been shown that the skin-lightening effect of Arbutin is not due to the similarity to Hydroquinone at all. It will be too tchnical to explain, but the bottom line is, arbutin is safe to use. Better yet, most skin whiteners that contain arbutin come from synthetic sources to eliminate the natural derivative from hydroquinone, and works more effective than the natural arbutin.

You will be the best judge of a product's quality once you try it, because the results will depend on how your unique skin sensitivity reacts to the product.

As long as you use the safe skin whitening products, you'll be fine. :-)

Maria