Your whitening mask may contain fluorescent agents

As summer approaches, beauty-conscious ladies generally choose facial masks with whitening effects to take care of their skin while protecting themselves from the sun. However, there are reports from time to time that whitening masks contain fluorescent whitening agents, which makes consumers quite concerned. What is the real situation?

Two facial masks were found to contain fluorescent agents

Recently, a reporter from the Beijing News collected 8 kinds of facial masks that claim to have whitening and moisturizing effects from different sales channels such as shopping malls, supermarkets, and small commodity markets.

The ingredient labels of all facial masks do not mention the addition of fluorescent whitening agents. However, the results of tests on these eight masks by the laboratory of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology showed that two of them contained more fluorescent agents. Among them is the "Beauty Master" orange moisturizing and whitening essential oil mask sold at Jingkelong Tianshuiyuan store. The outer packaging says "Make a slightly yellow face as white as snow" and recommends daily use.

Another type of "Lulanjina" pearl whitening facial mask was purchased from a small commodity market in Fengtai. Each piece was sold for 2.5 yuan and it claimed that "pearl essence, a whitening holy product, will make your skin as white as pearls." But the results showed that the fluorescent ingredient in the mask was obvious.

The fluorescent agent contained in the mask cannot be washed off with water

Experimental process: Simulating the situation of consumers applying facial masks in normal times, after taking two facial masks with fluorescent agent, the reporter washed his hands stained with fluorescent agent with clean water, hand soap and facial cleanser respectively, and then, according to the experts, used ultraviolet light from a banknote detector to irradiate to see if there is any fluorescence remaining.

Experimental results: After washing hands three times with clean water, the reporter found that the fluorescent agent on the hands still emitted a strong bright blue light under ultraviolet light and was almost not washed off. I used hand sanitizer to wash my hands three times. My hands also emitted blue light after irradiation, but the effect was slightly better than that of plain water. Washing with facial cleanser is almost as effective as hand sanitizer, and neither can completely remove the fluorescent agent remaining on your hands. It was not until the next day, after several washes, that it gradually disappeared.

People who are sensitive to light may get cancer if they come into contact with fluorescent agents

Although there is currently no large amount of scientific evidence proving that fluorescent whitening agents cause very serious harm, it is an industrialized product and there will be some impurities remaining during the production process, or the influence of chemical substances including some of its degradation products. Once inhaled into the skin, they pose a hidden danger to the body.

In addition, for photosensitivity of skin, since fluorescent whitening agents will form a photosensitization effect after absorbing ultraviolet light, for such people, once they are exposed to high concentrations of fluorescent whitening agents, their skin may become allergic and itchy, and in severe cases, there is even the potential for skin cancer.