name change and controversy of fair lovely

Glow and Lovely formerly known as Fair and Lovely is a very popular and controversial skin-lightening cream. Their advertisement often depicted dark-skinned individuals as undesirable for jobs and marriage and how making their skin fair can change all of that.

Many of us suffer from hyperpigmentation, sun spots, freckles, and age spots which are great cosmetic concerns for many people. And due to this reason, skin-lightening products are in great demand which targets these specific skin concerns we face. Where fair and lovely aka glow and lovely went wrong is it targeted people’s self-esteem instead of their skin issues.

Colourism and racism are prevalent throughout the world and this brand decided to capitalize on that.

This generated a lot of outrage against the brand especially after the black lives matter protests in America the company was accused of promoting racial discrimination so it changed its name from Fair and Lovely to Glow and Lovely and it also announced that they would stop using discriminatory words like white/whitening, light/lightning from all of its packs.

Ingredient list

Water, Palmitic Acid, Stearic Acid, Niacinamide, Glycerin, Dimethicone, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane, Titanium Dioxide, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Isopropyl Myristate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Allantoin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Cetyl Alcohol, Titanium Dioxide, Aluminum Hydroxide, Stearic Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Potassium Hydroxide, Disodium EDTA, Perfume, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Benzyl Salicylate, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Citronellol, Geraniol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Coumarin, Cinnamyl Alcohol, Limonene, Linalool

Ingredient analysis of glow and lovely aka fair and lovely

The good

• It contains niacinamide as the third ingredient which means the formula might contain a good amount of it, niacinamide helps retain skin moisture, reduces hyperpigmentation, and helps fight acne.
• Palmitic acid – it locks in moisture and forms a protective layer around the skin
• Stearic acid – it has moisturizing and anti-inflammatory properties.
• Sodium ascorbyl phosphate – is an anti-oxidant also known as vitamin C which helps in fighting free radicals. But it is far down the ingredient list so the formula might not contain enough vitamin c to be effective.
• Glycerin – it helps in moisturizing the skin

The bad

This cream contains a lot of comedogenic ingredients like

• Palmitic acid
• Stearic acid
• Isopropyl myristate
• Cetyl alcohol

Out of these isopropyl myristate have a comedogenic rating which means it has a high likelihood of clogging your pores and causing breakouts and acne.

It contains a lot of fragrance ingredients

The problem with fragrances is that they are really bad for our skin because they have proven to be highly irritating and sensitizing to the skin. When an ingredient is sensitizing to the skin it means breaking down the protective barrier of our skin creating the damage we are trying to avoid through our skincare. Fragrances are the no. cause of cosmetic allergies.

Following are the fragrance ingredients this cream contains

• Perfume – it is a synthetic blend of 30 to 50 chemicals and can even be up to 200 chemicals. A lot of fragrance chemicals are chemicals of concern.
• Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Benzyl Salicylate, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Citronellol, Geraniol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Coumarin, Cinnamyl Alcohol, Limonene, Linalool – these are highly allergenic and skin sensitizing fragrances and for this reason, the European Union Cosmetics Directive requires 26 fragrances to be labelled separately in the ingredients list of the product i.e., the cannot be simply listed under perfume. This cream contains 10 out of 26 of those fragrances.

Claims made by Glow and Lovely (Fair and Lovely)

The brand used to advertise this cream as a skin whitening cream after the backlash it stopped using terms like skin whitening instead it now claims to give you HD glow to your skin. This word is completely made up as it does not mean anything.

It claims to give bright glowing skin. Niacinamide helps fight hyperpigmentation which means it can reduce dark spots, it has anti-inflammatory properties. this is the only ingredient in this cream that can help in bright glowing skin. But the effectiveness of niacinamide also depends on its concentration in the formulation which is not known.

My experience of using glow and lovely

My skin type is dry and non-sensitive. This cream comes packed in a tube, it has a cream has a thick consistency, when I applied it on my face it left a white cast which give me an ashy appearance, it is probably due to the titanium dioxide ingredient in this cream which is known to give a white cast in sunscreens. The cream has a matte finish and I did not find it moisturizing enough. This cream also has a strong smell and I do not use fragranced products because of my sensitive nose and the problem fragrances create on our skin.

So is glow and lovely (fair and lovely) good for your skin?

Glow and lovely (fair and lovely) contains too many fragrance ingredients which can make your skin sensitive and irritating so sensitive skin types should stay away from it, it also contains potential acne-causing ingredients out of which one has a high comedogenic rating so oily-acne prone should not use it either. For dry skin, it is not hydrating enough and the fragrance ingredients can further damage your skin barrier. 

As for glowing and bright skin, it has only niacinamide which helps in fighting hyper pigmentation whose contraction in the product is not known.

I give glow and lovely 1/5.