Consumer self-assessment proof strip for evaluating skin lightening progress

A packaged cosmetic product is provided which includes a skin lightening cosmetic composition, a package for receiving the composition, and a color evaluator proof strip. The strip may be inserted within the package or form one or more panels of the package. The strip includes a substrate (e.g. a card) and indicia placed onto the substrate. The indicia includes two adjacent columns, each column with a plurality of bordered areas each covered with a skin color shade, color shade darkness in regular progression increasing from one bordered area to a next bordered area. The first of the two columns represent initial color shades before treatment with the composition. The second of the two columns represents post-treatment color shades, a person's initial color shade being in a bordered area juxtaposed to a post-treatment bordered area, the latter being colored with an expected color shade after treatment with the composition. The proof strip assures a consumer that the skin lightening composition actually works.