Review: Fade Out Protecting Day Cream SPF15

There has always been something "good" about being light skinned in the Asian/black community.  All the Indian and black people know what I mean.  I remember being in my first year of uni and looking at a black hair magazine that had a feature about women who had bleached their skin and burnt themselves.  It was horrible.  I also remember being younger (about seven or eight) and being told that my skin was too dark.  

I was made to use that disgusting Vicco Turmeric cream which is something that not many non-desi people know about.

Vicco Turmeric is hell encased in an orange and yellow tube.  It's a yellow cream that contains a high level of turmeric (hence the name) and you're meant to use it on your face so as to lighten your skin colour.  Of course, it's not sold like that, it's sold as an ointment you can put on burns and the like.

It bloody stank so there was no way I was going to wear it to school so I'd have to wear a Vicco mask for about 40 minutes every Friday night...which is a very rock n roll way to spend your Friday nights, I've heard that Mick Jagger did the same throughout the 70's.

It never made my skin any lighter.  Many years later, I woke up and my skin was just lighter.

Anyway..

I was offered a sample of Fade Out's Protecting Day Cream (SPF 15) and I accepted because I have a pigmentation marks on my cheek which I don't really want there.

My mum used to use this cream before and all I remember of it was the horrible stench it gave off.  It literally smelled of garlic and onion.

The initial whiff of the new one is not the same, it has quite an old school scent to it, a bit like the old rose perfume that grandmas wear.

Having said that, the onion and garlic smell is all to apparent as you get on with your day.  I smelt it constantly for the few days of wearing it but you get used to it after a few days.

The packaging is still the same as it was, I think the jar is ceramic?  The photo on the right can be clicked on and made larger so you can see the benefits of using this cream..

My skin is combination so I tend to get a greasy nose and forehead if my moisturiser is too heavy for my skin.  This cream didn't exacerbate my greasiness and that it was quite a light, yet also moisturising cream.  It also sunk in really quickly.

Does it work?
In short, yes.

I'm a bit confused as the cream isn't marketed as making your skin lighter but the blurb on the bottle says that it will do this..


Don't buy this expecting to change five shades of colour overnight because that's not what happens.  I'm writing this review as I go along and I am currently in my second week of testing it and the patches on my cheeks have become lighter/smaller.

It did sort my pigmentation marks out.  It is now four weeks after my cream finished and the marks have still not made a comeback so I do believe that it works.

I haven't been using an eye cream whilst trialling this product.  The reason for this is simple, this cream has managed to sort my dark circles out.  I mentioned before that I don't have typical Indian dark circles.  I only get darkness when I haven't had enough sleep and the darkness fades when I do get enough sleep.  Having said that, getting enough sleep isn't really easy when you have a hectic workload so it's nice to see that this cream has been making a difference.

Fade Out do also make a night cream, a day cream without SPF and an eye cream.  As all my eye creams have finished, I'll be picking up their eye cream next.

This retails for £9.18 and can be bought from both Boots and Superdrug.  Superdrug don't have it online but I have seen it instore.