Michael Jackson and the use of make up and skin creams; a thread 
Here is Michael's makeup kit from the early 1980s. In this kit is a specialist makeup called Dermablend. This is a high-pigment makeup created to cover burns, scars and skin discolourations.
Many people with Vitiligo use this product, it’s sort of cover stick for the entire face. Because it makes the entire surface of your skin one colour, you have to use a few shades to avoid looking mask-like but it is very difficult to achieve a natural look.
It somewhat removes the person's ability to convey expressions, as it invariably conceals expression creases one makes when smiling, frowning, and so on. This results in users looking synthetic or doll-like when heavily applied.
Dermablend is popular with professional drag acts for this very reason, as well as it being generally useful for covering masculine traits. Michael used more and more stylized makeup as a result of his vitiligo and lupus as the years went by.
Switching as he did so from brown skin tones to whiter and whiter to match with the spread and depth of the vitiligo present.
But as his vitiligo became more wide spread and skin a more stark white, Michael turned to Benoquin and hydroquinone medical creams to remove areas of dark spotting too. Both of these prescription only creams are common in the treatment of vitiligo.
Dr. David Sawcer said patients with vitiligo remove dark areas of skin when most of their skin has become pale already, to even out the tone.
However, the creams can only successfully remove areas of weak natural pigment in patients with vitiligo. To put it simply, if you are black with no vitiligo and want to become white (as Michael was accused), these creams will not work to turn you white.
They only effectively work on skin suffering skin cell pigment loss. The creams need to be applied regularly and for life, and are not without side effects. Unfortunately, Benoquin and Hydroquinone certainly won't give the patient natural looking Caucasian type skin tone either.
The creams give an even vitiligo affected ivory white tone, striping away damaged black pigment cells to match, which doesn't look good under a flash or sunlight... which needs to be avoided due to cancer risk in vitiligo patients.
Way before he suffered from vitiligo (and lupus), Michael already had significant body confidence issues, and always thought himself ugly. So one can only imagine how hard all this was for him dealing with his skin condition too.
As a public figure, as a star, people demand to see you. And the media never stop judging you. The press went after him whenever they could about his appearance and anything they saw as erratic behaviour resulting from issues. Michael dealt with his situation best he knew how.
