Beauty for Kenyan women is a genie in a bottle. However, the damage wrought by cosmetics and gels while known to many, is not dissuading them from flocking beauty shops to acquire what they perceive to be looks and appearance enhancers.  

It is a case of beauty craving for the beast!

Substances used to manufacture beauty are the real genies as they have a habit of being dormant for long periods – even years – then, without a warning they spring up in form of a painful pimple or slit in the skin, which starts gnawing at the skin and leaving it with burns-like scars. The damage is irreversible.

It is until when the skin starts peeling off and a dermatologist is needed that the genie emerges the bottle.

Since 2012, when the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and Pharmacy and Poisons Board banned almost 500 beauty products, tony shops have been mushrooming in backstreets and downtown Nairobi, drawing in a high numbers of women – mainly – looking for the latest and trendiest products. This was a response to increased disposable incomes and rising urbanisation.

In the wake of the spread of use of beauty products in rural areas, KEBS has cautioned Kenyans against banned cosmetics and skin lighteners as they are likely to cause bodily harm and complications.

A report published by Al Jazeera in 2019, says the upturn in the economy influenced widespread of beauty products.

The report, citing Euromonitor International data, says, “Widely regarded as the hub of cheap knockoff cosmetics in Kenya, Dubois Road – along with River Road – is home to thousands of wholesale-cum-retail outlets, from which makeup is distributed across the country to Kenya’s growing legions of beauty enthusiasts. Increasing disposable incomes, urbanisation and population growth have fed a surge in the demand for colour cosmetics in Kenya, pushing the value of the market from an estimated Ksh5.4 billon ($41.7 million) in 2014 to Ksh12 billion ($94.7 million) in 2018.”

Despite the warning of widespread counterfeit and contraband cosmetics, demand for premium brands in Kenya is especially high. Multinational cosmetics firms have responded by opening shops in tony malls in Kenya and selling products through high-end, reputable retailers, says the report.

KEBS says counterfeiters are cashing on the demand and selling brand-name imposters to consumers at cut-rate prices and sometimes duping reputable retailers into buying fakes.

The price discrepancies between a premium brand and a fake are stark. While the least expensive lipstick in a MAC store in Nairobi sells for around Ksh2,800 ($21.62), at Milka’s stall on Dubois road, lipsticks claiming to be MAC sell for as little as Ksh150  ( $1.16).

Some of the banned products include bleaching creams, lotions, gels and soaps, some of which contain hydroquinone, steroids and hormonal rations that should be registered by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board for medical use.

Speaking to the Press after a media training workshop in Garissa, north-eastern Kenya on May 8, 2025, KEBS Quality Assurance and Inspection Manager Abdinasir Harret called on the media to help in creation of public awareness against the use of cosmetics.

“KEBS has listed some of the banned products on our website. Basically, those products have either hydroquinone or mercury chemical elements that are harmful to our health because they can cause skin diseases, or can be cancerous to our bodies,” Harret said.

“I appeal to the media to help us spread the word on this because you interact with citizens on daily basis and enlighten them on some of these products because for example, medicine, which most of our ladies in Garissa and Wajir are using, is a medicinal product but it is misused as a skin lightening product,” he added.

Harret regretted that despite the ban, the products continued to flock the Kenyan market through smuggling from neighbouring countries through the porous borders.

KEBS is not responsible for the authenticity of goods as its mandate is to ensure products meet the required standards. However, beyond the KEBS sticker, there always other demonstrable differences, which consumers are oblivious to. But the absence of a KEBS sticker does not necessarily signal a product is fake.

“Under the East African Community agreement, products for the EAC community that have been certified in their respective countries do not require an import standardization sticker,” according to KEBS spokesperson Phoebe Gituku, quoted by Al Jazeera.

The font used on the logos and labels of some of the suspected fake products and the size of packaging for one of the suspected imposters are typically different from the legitimate counterparts purchased from the manufacturers. Some of the tins of suspected fakes bear writing that rubs off easily.

Determining the threat to consumers is no walk in the park challenge. The Kenyan government recently started testing imposter cosmetics to gauge the potential health risks to consumers. Many times though, government officers are bribed to look the other way as fake products fill the counters.

Thank social media, suspicious Kenyan consumers are resorting to platforms like Facebook groups such as Glam Life to expose suspicious products they have bought and to share tips with other beauty enthusiasts for identifying fakes. However, he said that the KEBS surveillance officers were alert and would take legal action against traders and importers of such products when intercepted.

“Mostly, they access our market through unaccustomed routes either through the Kenya-Somalia border or other borders and transport them through panya (illicit) routes,” he said.

“Our officers are on alert and if we find such products in the market, we destroy them and sometimes take legal action against the traders and importers who deal with them,” he added.

According to the KEBS website, some of the skin lightening products include Jaribu Skin Lightening Lotion, Amira Skin Lightening Lotion, A3 Cleartouch Complexion Lotion, Fair White Body Clearing Milk and Precieux Treatment Beauty Lotion, Movate, Jaribu, Rico, Miki, Mekako, Tura, Fair lady, and Jambo.

• A Tell Media / KNA report / By Erick Kyalo