Hey guys,

This is my first thread and I have a view questions.

I've been reading a lot about lightening creams lately, especially on this site, and the one that seemed to work the best was Bio Claire.
I only heard positive comments about it, and found a lot of threads about other people saying that mixing the oil with the cream would bring awesome results, so I was really positive about it and didn't think twice before ordering it.
So after I finally bought Bio Claire, I found out that it's proven to contain steroids in it and that it's dangerous (I know, lucky me huh?)
Then I started searching for the side effects and I freaked out.
I received it yesterday and was really scared to use it, but I didn't hesitate and starting to think that using it just for a few days wouldn't do me anything bad so, I used the cream in the big tub (the 300g one) on my legs in the afternoon, and the oil with the cream on top at night, but I kind of got paranoid and felt weird so I washed it off later lol.

But

[sorry I clicked on submit per accident lol]

... But my point is, from what I saw on the website with banned products only the smaller cream on a ''toothpaste'' tube and the Body lotion were found to be dangerous, Is it maybe possible that the body oil and the other cream don't contain the harmful ingridients and steroids?
Cause man I really feel bad for waisting for waisting so much money on something I won't even use :sad:

p.s: sorry for the mistakes I'm still a newbie haha ><

p.s: sorry for the mistakes i'm still a newbie haha ><

Hi sneakisland. It was a good idea that you chose to read more about this, this is important to do with any product used. It is the entire brand (unsure about the soap) that is adulterated with the steroid clobetasol propionate. The oil, crème, lotion, and possibly even their soap had given some of the users bad side effects from it's use. I had used the oil, lotion, and crème on my legs before for a few days and it had burned them, I discontinued before there were physical scars. Everyone's experience is different, some had far worse effects and some very little or none, but once it's in the blood stream, it affects us all. The crème is more concentrated, the lotion (from the tube and bottle) are diluted versions of the crème, and the oil consists of a glycerine, alcohol, petroleum ("vaseline blanche") base with vitamin E listed near the bottom and "Bio-Vegetaux 2%" which isn't explained to what it is nor does ot exist. The main active ingredient was tested to be clobetasol propionate (the "bio-vegetal activator"). At the bottom of the ingredient list, the products mentions to contain kojic, lemon, mulberry, licorice, and bearberry. The amount of these ingredients are so minimal, it is not enough to be considered as active ingredients and is far from enough to produce any results.

Hey Golden Girl, thanks for your attention :)
I'm really glad I informed myself about it and didn't continue the use.
What scares me the most is this steroid that they're using in their products, I can't believe this product is still available in the market and that they are fooling other peope like this.
I'm still curious how long it takes for the steroid to get absorbed in our bloodstream and get out of our system afterwards.
I mean, if I'd use it on my arms for let's say four days~one week could it still be dangerous?
I found some other sources about topical steroids but they aren't clear enough :(

wow GG!! so glad i stopped using bio claire only problem is i wish i knew what was in the oil that was what i used and it only broke my face out i didn't get any stretch marks or burns, wondering now if i should use it on my body cos right now my face is ok it just needs to be cleared from the spot marks :(

I don't think it's a smart idea to use it on your whole body,
Since you'd have to use a bigger amount of oil and would have more chances to get unwanted side effects.
Check out this site: http://dermnetnz.org/treatments/topical-steroids.htm

Here's what it says:

Internal side effects

If more than 50g of clobetasol propionate, or 500g of hydrocortisone is used per week, sufficient steroid may be absorbed through the skin to result in adrenal gland suppression and/or eventually Cushing's syndrome.
Topical steroids can suppress the production of natural steroids, which are essential for healthy living. Stopping the steroids suddenly may then result in illness.

Btw, the pictures scared the sh*t out of me. :eek:

I'm unsure how long it takes for the steroid to be absorbed and removed from the body. From my experience of puuting it on my arms and legs before was quite negative, it seems to be quickly absorbed in the body. Because after I applied the it to my upper arms and bottom legs for about 3 or 4 days, my skin began to turn bright red (and I'm brownskin) and tender. I eventually became to painful for me to apply. It was really painful for me to walk and for my took several days for the redness to stop. My legs went back to normal w/ no scaring or marks. But my upper arms turned a very dark pitch black, it looked like I was literally burned. I thought the skin underneath will be light, but it wasn't and it didn't flake away even after a month or so it was still the same. So I began to exfoliate the area with an exfoliant papaya kojic soap and another skin lightener to lighten the area. Eventually my skin return to its normal brown color (my upper arms are actually light brown compared to my lower arm).

Everyone has not experienced what I had, some lightened really well on their body, but internally you never know what is or may later happen? And some have far worse experiences fro using it in shiort or longer amounts of time. For me, I should have went to the doctor then if I had known it was actually steroids that was causing this. But at the time I didn't know and thought it was just an allergic reaction. People, as well as myself , have written about our experiences w/ BC before if you do a search in the search engine.

I tried clicking on the link you posted, but it states the page is not found? I would like to see the photos.

Is this it?
http://dermnetnz.org/treatments/topical-steroids.html

http://dermnetnz.org/dermatitis/treatment.html
(more info on dermatitis)
Are the photos at the bottom that you were referring too? Yeah, that looks really bad. I wonder if the people were able to have it treated and fixed?

Wow Golden Girl, I'm really sorry that happened to you.
I'm definitely throwing Bio Claire out of my list, and just stick to the kojic acid soap, although I'm not really satisfied with the results (I only experienced peeling of the skin but didn't really lightened up).
May I ask you which soap you used?
I am thinking of buying the swiss l-glutathione soap, I read some really good reviews about it but I don't know.
After this experience with BC, I'm not sure if I can trust any other brands anymore.

And yep, that's the website I was talking about.
I don't think so.. I really hope for them but it looks too bad, especially the stretch marks. :s

I don't think it's a smart idea to use it on your whole body,
since you'd have to use a bigger amount of oil and would have more chances to get unwanted side effects.
check out this site: http://dermnetnz.org/treatments/topical-steroids.htm

here's what it says:

Internal side effects

If more than 50g of clobetasol propionate, or 500g of hydrocortisone is used per week, sufficient steroid may be absorbed through the skin to result in adrenal gland suppression and/or eventually Cushing's syndrome.
Topical steroids can suppress the production of natural steroids, which are essential for healthy living. Stopping the steroids suddenly may then result in illness.

Btw, the pictures scared the sh*t outta me. :eek:


Thanks for the site. That was just the ínformation I was looking for. Link doesn't show up, however. So ill post it again

http://dermnetnz.org/treatments/topical-steroids.html

Yeah, thanks again for the site. Very informative and frightening after pics. I heard good things about swiss l-glutathione soap as well, I'm sure you'll still need a skin lightener lotion, crème, or gel to use along with it. For some reason from my experience, lightening soaps tend to lighten brown skin only slightly, but work really well exfoliating the skin which is plus.

Yeah, it is hard to trust ingredient lists from skin lightening companies and there are some that will not post the full ingredient lists. It would be a great idea if there was an investigation nonprofit group for skin lightening and if they can have all of the skin lightening products tested in order to see what's in them and how much of what for safety concerns.