Your Ultimate Guide To Skin Pigmentation And How To Fix It
Also, 7 incredible products to help you do it!
Also, 7 incredible products to help you do it!
When was the last time you thought your dark spots?
I’ll admit that isn’t the most ideal way to start this piece, but something needed to be done to jolt your attention!
It’s one of the most common skin issues amongst people and it’s a pity we don’t talk about pigmentation enough. Most don’t even address it. They just continue going about their lives, which is good from an accepting yourself point of view but unfortunate, because it’s not like pigmentation can’t be treated.
With a few lifestyle changes, a dedicated skincare solution and a fair amount of patience those stubborn dark spots and uneven skin tone issues can be dealt with for good.
As they say, the first step towards resolving an issue is to understand it well enough.
Pigmentation is essentially the term for an altered or uneven skin tone that’s caused by an increase or decrease in melanin production. Melanin is what protects your skin from UV rays and sun damage but when it gets unevenly distributed, certain spots or patches end up having a different skin tone compared to the others. Darker patches (hyperpigmentation) signify excessive melanin levels while lighter patches (hypopigmentation) are a result of significantly reduced melanin levels.
Unless there’s a medical issue such as vitiligo, most people tend to have hyperpigmentation that’s usually caused by either sun damage (since you aren’t wearing enough sunscreen!) or due to an inflammation-related issue such as acne.
While I’ve already spoken about these, since you won’t spare me without some kind of a list, here we go.
Pigmentation can be caused due to:
Sun damage caused by UV rays
As an after-effect post inflammation-led skin issues such as acne and/or eczema
Hormonal shifts in the body
Pre-existing genetic conditions
Side-effects of certain medication
As you can see, most of these are lifestyle-induced and can be addressed with a few simple tweaks in your daily routine.
Now to the most important part since that’s what you’re here for.
If you’ve been suffering from hyperpigmentation, instead of coming to terms with it, how about you come to understand the skincare ingredients that can help reduce it instead? It’s important to invest in products that can target those dark spots and marks and help reduce their effect on your skin.
What are those ingredients? Vitamin C and Niacinamide are the most important ones. While the former is the best possible resource to reduce pigmentation and brighten those patches while also inhibiting melanin production, the latter is excellent at reducing inflammation and its after-effects from your skin.
Aside from these two, Retinol is another great ingredient since it enables cell turnover, thereby reducing dark patches. Products rich in AHAs and BHAs are also great since deep exfoliation of the skin will improve its texture and appearance too.
One of the most important things, aside from using products with the right ingredients, would be to ensure you’re never skipping sunscreen no matter what the circumstances. Whether the sun is out or it’s cloudy, you’re indoors or outdoors, you must not skip on using SPF 40+ (or more) and reapply it every few hours.
Esquire tip: when choosing a sunscreen, go from a broad spectrum one that leaves no white caste and is water and sweat resistant!
₹8,500 (50 ml)
₹6,400 (50 ml)
₹5,950 (30 ml)
₹7,500 (35 ml)
₹5,000 (30 ml)
₹13,500 (100 ml)
₹7,500 (30 ml)