High Street shops in the UK that were prosecuted for selling illegal skin-whitening creams are continuing to do so, the BBC has found.

A woman who was fined for selling illegal skin-lightening creams sold the substance to undercover reporters, even though she had been fined for selling the product in the past.

Meg Chucks was fined ($1,800) £1,400 and had to pay £$1,350 of legal costs in October 2017, but still sold the health-harming cosmetics to a BBC investigations team.

South London YouTubers Arlene Dihoulou and Mariam Omotunde used skin-whitening creams when they were teenagers.

Arlene started using the treatments at the age of 16 because she wanted to "fit in".

"I used to look at my skin as really ugly. I just wanted to be desirable".

Mariam, 22, went to a local shop to purchase the creams. She did not read the ingredients, but just picked the products based on the skin colour of the lady on the bottle, assuming they were safe to use.

Both girls stopped using the products before they had damaging health consequences, but were shocked the illegal products were sold so openly in the shops.