Several months later, she stole a jar of expensive anti-aging moisturizer from her employer, mistakenly believing it would lighten her dark brown skin to the pallor of the auburn-haired woman she works for, Nicole Lediard.

"This theft was sheer desperation," said Lediard, a French-American psychologist living in Jakarta. "It shows the risks some women will take trying to conform to a certain standard of beauty." She did not fire Sumarni.

Thailand's Food and Drug Administration says nearly 100 illegal whitening products are sold around the country. In Indonesia, officials have identified more than 50 banned cosmetics.

Banned substances include hydroquinone, retinoic acid and mercury, which are among the cheapest whitening agents. Any cosmetic containing these substances is confiscated and destroyed, said Wattana Akraekthalin, the director of cosmetic and hazardous substance control at the Thai Food and Drug Administration.

But, she added, "The manufacturers of these illegal products are simply changing the names and the packaging, but the ingredients are still the same."

Unilever said its products are tested for quality and safety by the company's in-house Safety and Environmental Assurance Center in southern England.

"No product can enter the market without approval," Luepradid said.

An anti-whitening backlash may be gaining ground. In an article last year in a trendy weekend magazine, Thai journalist Nikki Assavathorn bemoaned her compatriots' "skin racism."

She accused the media and beauty product companies of brainwashing consumers by feeding into some deep "self-loathing" and imposing the white beauty ideal "to keep the profits pouring in."

"Since when did we become so preoccupied with fair skin, isn't it unnecessary and demeaning? Are we so self-loathing that we believe we will be deemed more attractive if we have a lighter shade of skin?" she asked.

(Shanghai Daily June 2, 2008)