Blonde bombshell Beyonce Knowles shows off her lighter side

Beyoncé Knowles would have to go to some lengths to avoid being recognised. But she almost managed it while shopping in Hollywood this week thanks to a new fairer look – and not just her newly bleach-blonde hair. The 29-year-old singer’s skin also looked much lighter than usual as she showed off her long, bare legs in a pair of £635 jade suede Daffodile heels by Christian Louboutin.

.

Beyonce Knowles showed off a new hairstyle as well as a lighter looking skin tone which may have been a trick of the light

.

.

It may simply have been a trick of the light, however, as one expert claimed the fairer tone was unlikely to be the result of Miss Knowles – whose father Matthew is African-American and whose mother Tina is mixed-race – bleaching her skin.

Dr Sunil Chopra, a consultant dermatologist at the London Dermatology Centre, said: ‘The most effective skin-lightening agents are hydroquinone and kojic acid, creams which patients apply to the skin. The effects are temporary and work by inhibiting the enzyme ... responsible for the skin’s pigment. Both are very popular. I see maybe three people every week who want this procedure.

.

The pop star on stage in 2008 (left) and stepping out earlier this week

‘But it cannot be used over the whole body. It is very unlikely she has had her skin bleached in this way.’ It is not the first time that a lighter-looking skin tone has drawn attention to the former Destiny’s Child singer, who is set to headline this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

In August 2008, L’Oreal was accused of ‘whitewashing’ the star in an advert by digitally lightening her skin. At the time, the cosmetics house denied that the pictures had been altered in such a way but The New York Post newspaper called the advert ‘shocking’ and accused it of making the singer – who is married to fellow U.S. music star Jay-Z – look like a ‘weird, nearly white version of herself’. Last night a spokesman for Miss Knowles refused to comment on the latest speculation.