It isn’t easy to find a cruelty-free brand in Japan or Korea, I am not completely sure whether it’s because by law the products have to be tested (and therefore can’t blame the companies)…anyway, the most effective whitening products I had ever used (and missed horribly) were The History of Whoo Gongjinhyang:Seol whitening line: http://www.joseibi.com/product-line-review-the-history-of-whoo-gongjinhyang-seol-with-before-after-pictures/

I swear, when I stopped using the line, my freckles came back and my skin has not been that ‘white’ since. It was so effective and I read many similar reports from readers saying the same thing. The brand is made by LG and I love many LG products. However they are tested on animals which is why I stopped using.

In the before/after pictures I was not wearing any makeup at all, the freckles went away quickly with the Whitening Intensive. You have to massage it in circles until absorbed – but even with just the toner and emulsion my skin looked whiter and the sallowness went away rather quickly too. It’s not cheap – you said you have allergy prone skin so I really advise you to buy a set of samples (sources could be ebay, gmarket, etc.) to try first, because it is heavily fragranced and has alcohol in it. I have sensitive skin and I didn’t have a reaction to it, but it’s hard to say for individual skin types. The whole set will cost you a few hundred bucks…so with that kind of investment, I really advise trying out samples first. You can buy enough to last a month and if you don’t see any results at least you didn’t waste too much money.

Best of luck!!! xoxo