I have always found supermarkets in foreign lands fascinating… the mixture of the familiar coupled with the unusual. Qatar is no exception.

I thought I would have a regular post showing items from the shelves that caught my attention.

To the right of the shampoo section I came across the skin lightening products. For the extremes of skin lightening you need look no further than Michael Jackson. Skin lightening creams do big business in India. Qatar has a large population from the Indian sub-continent.

A search on the internet provides a many pages advertising creams as pages detailing the risks and damage caused by using these products. Clearly there are a myriad of social pressures which make some darker skinned people want whiter complexions at the risk of damaging their skin and their health.

As a white skinned European, who spends a week or two every year sunbathing whilst on holiday, I am not going comment, just record products that make me stop and look.