Chemistry in Whitening Mask - Becoming the Green Lantern?
A sarcastic fake news was uploaded onto Youtube which arouses people’s awareness on the issue of ingredients used in whitening mask. The woman in the interview claimed to use some kind of poisonous masks, making her face with distinctive fluorescent green color at night. Do you think it is possible?
To answer this, we may first look at the mechanism of skin whitening.
Major Mechanism Of Skin Whitening
Melanin is the determinant of skin color. Therefore, many beauty products with an attempt to lighten your skin tone will aim at reducing the concentration of melanin in the skin.
To do so, chemicals may be introduced to block the synthesis of melanin or to interupt the reactions involved. One way to do so would be inhibiting tyrosinase (the enzyme involved in the first two reactions of the synthesis of melanin).
Many beauty products contain hydroquinone (benzene-1,4-diol) which has its ways to do it. (oxidative damage & inactivation)
Overall effect:
Hydroquinone -->
1. induce generation of oxygen --> oxidative damage of tyrosinase
2. binds to histidines of tyrosinase --> inactivate tyrosinase
--> --> enzyme lost its function in speeding the first two reactions of synthesis of melanin --> reduce overall pigmentation --> reduce the concentration of melanin
The Chemistry behind may be quite complexed. And one important thing is that, hydroquinone can be found in tea, berries, coffee, beer and wheat! So you may guess what we should eat then!
You may check out more for the other mechanisms to reduce melanin:
So… What Does It Do With “Fluorescent Green Light”? Is The Chemical Used Poisonous?
Reducing melanin is the traditional way to whiten the skin. However, some manufacturers use fluorescent brightener, which is usually added to laundry detergent to make clothes appear cleaner after washing, in beauty products to provide an immediate whitening effect so as to attract buyers.
However, the flourescent brightener will give blue fluorescent light instead of a green one. And at some time sunlight appears to be in yellow color as the shorter-wavelength lights are scattered at the atmoshpere.
Blue + yellow --> white light --> whitening effect!!!
Although there is still no sound proof of damage of fluorescent brightener on our skin. But in the synthesis process, some heavy metals are involved as catalysts, which adds to potential risks of prolonged usage.
Here are three examples of the fluorescent brighteners. Do they look similar and give the fluorescent properties?