The practice of voluntary depigmentation is still prevalent in Africa, with a wide range of lightening cosmetics used. Our objective was to research and quantify three regulated and / or prohibited depigmenting ingredients present in lightening cosmetics sold in Ouagadougou. Twenty-nine lightening cosmetic samples were collected from vendors and HPLC analysis was subsequently conducted to identify and m e s u r e the concentrations of hydroquinone, clobetasol propionate, and kojic acid. The presence of hydroquinone was indicated on the label of 13.79% of the products, while 51.72% contained it after analysis. Furthermore, none of the products mentioned a concentration of hydroquinone exceeding 2.00%, even though 27.58% of them contained high concentrations. For clobetasol propionate, its presence was stated on the labels of 13.79% of the products, while 31.03% contained it. One sample had a clobetasol content exceeding 0.05%, although none mentioned a concentration higher than this value. Finally, while 24.13% of the samples claimed to contain kojic acid, only 17.24% did. We also observed that 41.38% of the samples contained combinations of two depigmenting ingredients investigated, with a predominance of the hydroquinone +clobetasol propionate (27.38%). These results demonstrate that manufacturers' declarations regarding the compositions of active ingredients in lightening cosmetics can sometimes be deceptive.

lightening cosmetic; hydroquinone; clobetasol propionate; kojic acid; HPLC analysis