What is the difference between brightening and lightening skincare products?

It's easy to put skincare products in boxes—brightening or luminising ones are safe and healthy, while lightening or whitening products are bad and endorse a narrative that lighter skin equates to a more ideal beauty. Recently, against the background of ongoing conversations about in India and other Asian countries, some beauty brands changed the messaging on the bottles from “lightening” to “brightening and glow-boosting.” What do these terms even mean and how much of it is all in the marketing? We spoke to Paula Begoun, cosmetic chemist and founder of skincare brand Paula's Choice and Delhi-based dermatologist Dr Kiran Sethi for their take. 

What does "brightening" mean on a bottle label?

Brightening is a marketing term that can mean lots of different things depending on a product’s formula or the message the company is trying to convey. “We use the term brightening to explain how a products formulary can minimise skin discolouration caused by sun and pollution, while helping skin have a more youthful, smooth appearance and even tone,” says Begoun. “Typically brightening means to increase the radiance or vibrancy of the skin. If one's skin feels dull, they will want to make it more radiant. It is not about changing the amount of pigment in the skin at all,” says Dr Sethi. When skin is given the ingredients it needs to “maintain hydration, eliminate the build-up of dead skin cells, repair its barrier, and be protected from environmental damage,” you get a “brighter”, healthier, younger-looking complexion.

What are lightening products and how do they work?

On the other hand, lightening products are the ones that seek to change the skin colour, reducing melanin in the process. Melanin is the substance in the skin that creates it colour. “Skin bleaching and skin lightening (often referred to in some countries as skin whitening) are terms used to describe the effect some skincare ingredients have on reducing and inhibiting skin’s melanin production," says Begoun. 

While brightening and lightening products are safe when used to its directions, bleaching crèmes, prescription medications and IVs that exist on the market can be very harmful due to chemical ingredients that can change skin chemistry for good. 

What is the different between the two product categories?

The biggest difference is the messaging, because neither claim is regulated. To figure out what end result your product will have, look at the ingredient lists. Exfoliators like AHAs and enzymes slough of all the dead skin cells and work on the cell surface itself, brightening the skin and helping to turn over skin cells faster. On the other hand, ingredients like niacinamide, kojic acid and hydroquinone work on a cellular level to interfere with melanin production, so technically, as they improve skin texture and turnover, they lighten skin tone too. 

But even this isn't hard and fast. Sunscreen, for example, works on a cellular level by interrupting damage before it gets to the layers of skin where new skin cells are formed. “When UV light attacks unprotected skin it triggers the creation of abnormal melanin production. So while sunscreen doesn’t actually work directly on living skin cells it protects them from becoming damaged and making skin look older and creating abnormal skin tone,” says Begoun. 

Anti-pigmentation products, like the ones you rely on to lighten the dark marks left over from acne, can interfere with melanin too. “Anti-pigmentation products involve ingredients that either reduce the amount of melanin in the skin, prevent the transfer of melanin to the skin, or prevent the release of melanin through inhibition of melanosomes (cells that create the melanin)  or through prevention of irritation of keratinocytes from external aggressors,” says Dr Sethi. 

What are the drawbacks of lightening products?

Some lightening products like hydroquinone can actually have adverse physical effects, particularly on darker skin tones. It can cause allergies in some people, and can cause halo spots, or a lighter ring of colour around spots you may be trying to lighten. In most countries other than the US, hydroquinone is banned or only available through a prescription. But the longer-term, more insidious effect is the idea that lighter skin is a sign of “good skin” or is something to aspire to—that should have no place in 2020, let alone in a country of over a billion people of all skin tones.

Also read:

Skincare actives: Why you need to know about these supercharged beauty ingredients

What you need to know about treating hyperpigmentation on Indian skin

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