Have you spotted some blemish on your skin lately? Age spots, darkened areas, scars, pregnancy masks, and other types of skin discoloration can make you feel older than you are, and this may influence you to reach for dangerous lightening products such as the likes of hydroquinone, steroids etc.
Uneven skin tone is a broad name that covers all types of dark areas of skin. This situation happens when the body creates a lot of skin pigment, melanin, in certain areas, which is then responsible for those dark, blotchy patches.
Melanin is the pigment responsible for producing our skin and eye colour, as well as the colour of our hair. As the body ages, however, the skin is less able to spread correctly the pigment, increasing the possibility of uneven skin tone. The most prevalent areas that are often affected are forehead, cheeks, upper lip, and chin. After the age of 30, this can also show up as age spots on the hands and other parts of the body.
Uneven skin tone is often caused by couple of factors. The most common one is the sun. Exposure to damaging UV rays, whether from the sun or tanning beds can cause the excessive production of melanin, which leads to dark spots and discoloration.
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The second most common factor is hormonal changes. When women take birth control pills or become pregnant, their skin undergoes changes in their skin tone as a result of reaction to the change in hormone level. This therefore leads to skin darkening, which usually affects the cheeks, chin, and forehead.
Inflammation is the third most common factor . When the skin becomes inflamed, due to acne, chemical peels, or other skin treatments or damage, the skin may react by producing too much melanin during the healing process.
Various medical conditions such as Addison’s disease, Cushing’s disease, celiac disease, and other genetic and hormonal disorders, may also causes uneven skin tone. Smoking can also increase risk.
In most cases, treatment begins with skin lightening creams that help fade dark spots through exfoliation. These creams slough away the outer layer of skin, allowing new and lighter skin to show through underneath. Skins lightening cream containing harmful ingredients such as hydroquinone, steroids, mercury etc are banned in the UK, as they can cause serious side effects if used incorrectly.
However, there are many alternative skin lightening products containing natural ingredients that are available online and in shops which are not harmful and safe to use. But you need to understand the basics of skin lightening in order to determine what products are best for you depending on what results you want to achieve.
4 ESSENTIAL GUIDES TO SKIN LIGHTENING
There are 4 essential guides to skin lightening in order for your product to be effective, and also achieve a blemish free skin
EXFOLIATION
This is always the first step of skin lightening and will always occur whenever you want to lighten, have blemish-free skin, get rid of or prevent wrinkles, etc. There are different ways of exfoliating, but basically you need an exfoliating soap or scrub and exfoliating gloves/cloths.
However, do not over-exfoliate your skin as this will not produce a faster result, but can lead to excessive dryness, irritation, redness, and sensitivity. So you have got to be patient with your skin.
LIGHTENING
This is the stage where you introduce natural skin lightening product that is made up of active skin lightening agents It is recommended that you introduce your skin lightening cream/product after 4-6 weeks of exfoliation.
Also, natural serum with active ingredients such as l-ascorbic acid, niacinamide etc are great for lightening at any stage in your regimen. So don’t hesitate to also add them for effective result.
MOISTURIZING
This is very vital for healthy skin in general, but especially for skin that is subject to exfoliation and lightening. This can all be very drying on the skin so you need to make sure you restore the skin’s moisture. This can be achieved by including moisturising cream and oils such as sweet almond oil, coconut oil, jojoba oil etc into your regimen.
PROTECTION
Skin Protection is key and very vital! If you have the best regiment but you go out into the sun unprotected, all your efforts will definitely go down the drain. So always protect yourself from UVA and UVB damage by sun- blocking.