Skin-lightening creams: recalls and official safety alerts

223 EU Safety Gate alerts concern skin-lightening creams. The first dates from 23 December 2019, the latest from 17 September 2026. In the last four complete quarters there were 33, down from 51 in the four quarters before. The hazards named most often are chemical (100%) and other health risk (1%). Read from the official risk descriptions, the most common reasons are ingredient not allowed in cosmetics (100%), restricted chemical above the legal limit (49%) and allergen not declared on the label (0%). 20% were for products made in Côte d'Ivoire, 15% were for products made in Pakistan and 5% were for products made in France. 34% of the EU alerts were marked as sold online, and 13% name an online marketplace, most often eBay, Amazon and Temu. The most common outcome was import rejected at the border (31% of EU alerts); 64% included a measure ordered by an authority. Chemicals named in the official risk descriptions include hydroquinone, mercury and lead.