Wrong Choice of Cosmetics Leads to Beauty Nightmare

KOMPAS/ADITYA DIVERANTA

Pitrianti (20) often complains about the acute acne problem she experiences through her personal social media channel. Her acne problem was triggered by a number of beauty products that turned out to have dangerous ingredients.

Having glowing skin is the dream of many women. However, this dream can turn into a nightmare if you choose the wrong skin care product, especially if the product is unlicensed and contains harmful ingredients.

This is what happened to Pitrianti (20). The woman from Ciamis, West Java, remembers her years in senior high school as one of her darkest for choosing the wrong skin care product.

Four years ago, severe acne took away Pitrianti's joy as a teenager. The photos on her Instagram account show her face covered with pimples. On her cheeks, the acne looks swollen and black, and is even bleeding.

The condition of her skin made Pitrianti feel that all her friends were disgusted on seeing her. Never mind chatting, but Pitrianti's friends often ran away when she approached. She became even more quiet and introverted. In fact, she wanted to quit school.

"When I was at home, I cried all the time. That's when I felt like quitting school, to the point I said to my mom, 'Mom, I want to quit school,'" she recalled.

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Pitrianti admitted that her facial acne was very severe at the time. The condition developed from the “low-quality” facial cream she used when she was still in the ninth grade at junior high school. It was then that she bought a facial cream called HN for Rp 200,000, at her aunt’s recommendation. The cream did not have a label, let alone a distribution license from the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM).

“I knew it [the cream] was ‘low quality’ from watching the news. There was low-quality facial cream on the news. When I saw it, it was the same as what I had been using," said Pitrianti.

She then consulted a doctor.

According to a BPOM publication, HN is one of the facial creams that contain mercury.

To cure her acne, Pitrianti switched to using the treatment recommended by doctors, which consisted of facial creams, soap and pills. Unfortunately, the cost of the treatment was higher than the low-quality facial cream she had previously used. Pitrianti had to spend at least Rp 450,000 for consultation and treatment.

Of course, because she was still a student, the cost was very high. She had to set aside her pocket money for her skin treatment. Even then, she was only able to see a doctor once every three months, or whenever she had saved enough money. As a matter of fact, she should see her doctor regularly, once a month.

"That's why the treatment was so slow. When I was in 12th grade, I was given free medical treatment by the doctor for six months. The doctor was so sorry for what I had experienced," said Pitrianti.

RIAN SEPTIANDI

HN Brand Illegal Beauty Products consist of toner, day cream, night cream and instructions for use..

Available online

Not only through conventional means, but low-quality skin care products are also sold through e-commerce platforms. Eliwati (27) from Bandung, West Java, became one of the victims of a whitening cream that was sold online.

The dream of having white and pure skin prompted Eli to search for whitening creams online six years ago. Her choice at that time was a cream sold fir Rp 100,000 by the owner of stall called

Pusat Racikan Medis (medical remedies center). The seller claimed the cream was formulated by pharmacists and safe to use.

However, after a month of using it, the skin on Eli's face started peeling and turned red. Over time, the skin around her nose and mouth turned black. Red blotches of red appeared on her cheeks. After searching for information, Eli suspected her symptoms were hyperpigmentation caused by steroidal ingredients in the cream she was using.

"I went to a dermatologist. Sure enough, what I had been applying was a cream that contained mercury and steroids,” said Eli.

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Unfortunately, Eli's facial skin had become “addicted” to the cream. In the end, she had to continue applying it on her face for two years. Every time she stopped, Eli felt a burning and stinging sensation on her face. The sensation disappeared only after she started using the cream again.

Eli stopped using the facial cream after consulting a doctor. It took at least two years for her face to return to the condition it was before she started using that cream. During those two years, she only used creams recommended by the doctor.

Another sufferer us Valencia (25), an entrepreneur from Tangerang, Banten. Valencia started having acne problems 11 years ago. To treat it, she used cream from a well-known clinic in Bandung, West Java, for six years and was fine.

However, a week after she stopped using the cream in 2017, pimples again started popping up on Valencia's cheeks. At the same time, red spots appeared on her forehead and nose.

“I thought, oh, this is a normal pimple, but how come there are more and more and my skin looks [irritated]? It looked like it's red and sore," she said.

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Eliwati (27) has acne on her face due to two years of using illegal whitening creams.l.

Valencia, who had moved to Jakarta by then, switched to another doctor. This time, she attended a beauty workshop held at a luxury car showroom in Jakarta. From the information she gathered, the speaker of the seminar was a dermatologist and venereal diseases specialist.

Valencia consulted this doctor about the problem she was suffering. She was then told to buy a set of cosmetic products worth tens of millions of rupiah. However, the day after she started using it, the pimples on Valencia's face festered and became sore.

“2017 was the worst peak. I searched on Google, what's up with the product. Someone said that it contained mercury," said Valencia.

It took at least one year for the skin on Valencia’s face to return to its original condition. The cost of the treatment was not as low as the first facial cream she purchased 11 years ago, which was only between Rp 200,000 and Rp 300,000 at that time. Meanwhile, she estimated that the cost of the skin treatment reached tens of millions of rupiah.

Instead of making a person’s face more pretty and attractive, the victims have found it hard for their facial skin to return to the “normal” condition it was before using such products.

The cosmetics supervision director at BPOM, Arustiyono, explained that one of the effects of using harmful cosmetics products was ochronosis, or the appearance of black spots. Once the skin had reached this stage, it was impossible to cure.

"At the very least, [the woman] should wear thick makeup every day, so she doesn't look too dark," he said.

In addition, using low-quality skin care products could also cause the skin to turn red. The difference was that this result could still be treated with close supervision by a doctor.

Unlicensed or low-quality cosmetic products continue to take their toll. The risk of permanent damage to the facial skin often hides behind the promise of instant results and low prices. Instead of making a person’s face more pretty and attractive, the victims have found it hard for their facial skin to return to the “normal” condition it was before using such products. (FRD/JOG/DIV/SKA/ILO)

This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswo.