Hi, I'm a new and I stumbled upon this site when I was googling skin lightening creams. I am trying to lighten about 4 or 5 shades and learned that I could do this by compounding hq with dipropylene glycol.


Is anybody here compounding hq and finding success? Just wanted to know how far along others are coming

Hi Ava and welcome to the board. I have not compunded myself but am definitely interested as I know how much cheaper it can be to do and you can be confident that what ever you are using does not have any hidden ingredients like steroids or mercury etc. I have the instructions on how to do it and am hoping to start doing it when the weather starts to cool off. It does seem fairly easy to do as long as you make sure not to let your mixture oxidise. What percentage are you hoping to make? Will you be using an exfoliant as well, like retin A or similar?


Can I ask what have you been using so far before this compouding or is this your first venture into lightening? Most people try the manufactured stuff before considering compounding

I am looking to make hydroquinone 10% for my body, there are some areas that are very hard to lighten like my hands and feet.i am using neostrata right now but there is not enough in the tube for my whole body so i figure it would be smarter and a lot cheapter to compound my own hq therefore i have enough to spread evenly all over

Is that the 2% or 4% neostrata? What results have you seen with it? Ae you removing a permatan or just lightening? You did not mention whether you will be using an exfoliant alongside.

I am using 4% Neostrata with RA at night. I want to lighten my skin

ok so any resulst so far? How long have you been doing the routine

after 2 months my face is lighter. I just need my hands and feet to catch up! What is your current regimen?

Hands and feet are well known to be areas that can be hard to lighten for some so no surprises that you are seeing this yourself. The 10% should help some I am sure. I am currently using Obagi clear and on the days that I don't, melalite hq. Along with retin A I am seeing lightening but I have only been using the Obagi for a fairly short period. Before that I was using Fair and flawless but it thinned my skin, although it did lighten me but I was sacred of what would happen to my skin if I continued. I found out it had powerful steroids in it as well so that was a big no no.

Hi Ava. I would love to hear how you get on with the compounding. It would save a fortune . I think I would be tempted to try something home made on my body. Not so sure about my face. I tried the neostrata too but could only get the 2%. I only used it on my neck and I can see why looking for an alternative is a good idea because the tube would not be feasible to use on the body. It would probably only last a few days or so. Best of luck with the compounding and please tell us if it helps

Ava, just in case, make sure to do a spot test before applying all over in case your compound causes you any irritation and good luck with it.

Ava have you started yet?

I compounded some hq on Sunday. I used Cetaphil as my cream. So far it's been 4 days, can't say that I have lightened any. But its too early to tell

just how long does it take before you see any results?

What percentage did you make? At a guess,if it was 10%, I would have thought a few weeks should start to yield some changes. You may have to wait for the skin to shed as it does around every 28 days. Obviously the addition of retin A or something similar will speed this up. Let us know how it works out

I made 10%, my skin just looks really smooth which is most likely due to the cetaphil being so moisturizing

I'll keep you all updated two weeks from now if I see any changes

Oh goody. Look forward to it Ava. So you made yours with a cream. Did you find it easy to do?

yes, it wasn't hard at all. with a glass jar I heated the cream in the microwave for like a minute and 30 secs...added the hq, stirred it and then poured it back into the cetaphil jar. it didn't oxidize at all on me that day.

now today the cream looks to be changing to a purplish hue..I hope this doesn't mean its oxidizing! i still have so much left and cetaphil is very expensive. it cost me $13

Hi Ava I am no expert but I believe it is a brown colouring that you should be concerned about. I have never heard of a purple hue though. It may be a bit of a pain but it may be better to make it up in smaller batches next time. That way if it does oxidise you are not wasting a whole tub of cream . I know it may not help this time but something for next time maybe. Anyway I hope it yields the results you want because some of these companies that are sending out all sorts and charging extortionate money need to have much less customers

the cream is not as white as it was a week ago. I'm not sure if its still any good. does it have to be a really really dark brown for it to be considered no good??

and you are right about not trusting what some of these companies are really putting in their creams. I found the company Isis to have the rudest customer service so I decided not to buy anything from them. I will just compound my own cream than to give my money to a company who does not respect their customers

Ava I think that turning brown means if it is not as effectve as it was before. It may still work but not as well as when you first made it. I think that those who compund either do small batches like anageleyes said or use a preservative like sodium metabisulfite. Now this is why Isis got my money becasue although it seems easy, it also sounds like hassle too. I admire you immensely. I do hope to try this eventually though. I have come across countless stories about Isis customer service. Fortunately I have not had the need to deal with them in terms of contacting them directly. It sounds like they don't like a lot of questions and are happy to ban anyone at the drop of a hat. I suppose there are a lot of silly people like me who are willing to part with our money so they do not need to worry about any customers they lose with their rudeness

quiamontana wrote:Ava I think that turning brown means if it is not as effectve as it was before. It may still work but not as well as when you first made it. I think that those who compund either do small batches like anageleyes said or use a preservative like sodium metabisulfite. Now this is why Isis got my money becasue although it seems easy, it also sounds like hassle too. I admire you immensely. I do hope to try this eventually though. I have come across countless stories about Isis customer service. Fortunately I have not had the need to deal with them in terms of contacting them directly. It sounds like they don't like a lot of questions and are happy to ban anyone at the drop of a hat. I suppose there are a lot of silly people like me who are willing to part with our money so they do not need to worry about any customers they lose with their rudeness

ok, then i will be making smaller compounds in the future. i already bought some preservatives from lotioncrafters it should be coming any day now

yeah the customer service with Isis was so rude , I had never experienced such horrible service before in my life. i figured something was wrong with their system because it wasn't taking my credit card, so I emailed customer service about it and after a few exchanges she called me a c**t, and banned from the site so i will not be givng them my money and will have to just compound.

That is terrible !! How can a company be so unprofessional. I thought that fair and flawless was supposed to be bad but this company seems to be in a league of their own. I do hope their attitude is not a reflection of their product. It is great that you are compounding yourself and I do hope that it works out for you. What preservative are you getting Ava ?

One more thing Ava how are you storing your mix. Make sure it is in a cool dark place. Some also say that when addding the hq to the mix, it is a good idea to do it in a dimly lit room to help avoid too much light in. Also avoiding allowing too much air in helps so using a coloured airless pump bottle to store your mix maybe. The preservatives should help anyway.

I bought Germall preservative from lotioncrafters.

my hq just turned brown last night so I got a good week and a few days use out of it. I am going to make another batch tonight or tomorrow

sorry to hear that. Hopefully the preservative will help. I have never heard of it though. Did lotioncrafters say it could be used with hq then?