How to be (stay) fair as possible?

There are a lot of women out there who avoid the sun and use skin bleaching methodologies. That is quite prevalent in the middle East, Asia, Africa, and India. So to all my Desi girls - does Fair and Lovely really work? I have tried it and no. It is mainly a moisturizer with sunscreen - same as Oil of Olay with SPF 15. Sunblock is a better alternative. With UVA/UVB protection and a broad spectrum one - it is the best possible thing to wear. Use sunscreen even on hazy days or days with light or broken cloud cover because UV light still comes through. I use Neutrogena' s SPF45 and also Helios by Roche with an SPF 60 with Mexoryl. Recently got approved by FDA. It beats bleaching your skin and putting yourself at risk for photo allergies and future discoloration. There is a high incidence of permanent darkening with hydroquinone. It is banned in Europe and FDA is considering banning it in the states. So people, rather than bleaching, try to avoid tanning in the first place. Check out the full scoop - http://www.blackbeautyandhair.com/html/display/features.asp?ID=15&bypass= The added bonus is that it is the only proven preventative for anti-ageing. Once your skin has wrinkled, there is really no cream that can unwrinkle it. So girls, prevention prevention prevention. Particularly it is UVA rays that age the face. Money saved for you - at 3-4 tubes a year of 2 oz of fairness creams (wasted as they don't work)- $15-20 and $100s if you damage your skin have photoallergies due to dermatologist visits avoided.