You can look like a vampire: skin whitening horror stories from the streets of Bangkok
Lured by the promise of pearl-white complexions in ads on social media, young women in Thailand fall for cheap creams said to have herbal ingredients but full of toxic mercury, which cause acne, blotches and spidery red veins
Achara Chairak wanted to look prettier and that, she believed, included having light skin. The lighter the better.
The Bangkok office worker tried some brand-name whitening creams sold at pharmacy chains, but they didn’t make much difference to her skin tone. So last year she decided to try one of the creams sold online that promised more dramatic results.
The facial cream, the ads claimed, contained traditional herbal ingredients and would produce lasting changes in lightening skin tone. “Before and after” pictures showed women with dark complexions metamorphose into beauties with fair skin.
“At first my skin got visibly whiter and brighter,” says Achara, who is in her late twenties. “I was very happy.”
She began buying more of the cream and using it several times a day. That’s when her troubles started. Her skin started to feel irritated and itchy, sensitive to sunlight, and papery to the touch.
Soon, her face erupted in acne. Spidery red veins became visible on her cheeks as clusters of dilated capillaries began showing through her skin. Discoloured blotches also appeared on her face, a condition known medically as melasma.
