As we age, we get pigmented areas on the skin. The pigmented areas can be due to a number of things. Many people get pigmented patches, particularly on their face and hands, which have several names liver spots, aging spots or solar lentigines. As time passes we accumulate more and more dings, and get pigmented scars. I have lots of pigmented scars on my hand from liquid nitrogen burns. We can also get skin conditions such as melasma that cause pigmented areas.
Whatever the cause, the resulting uneven skin tone, makes many people feel that it makes their skin look older.
There are number of compounds that have been found to lighten pigmented areas. Currently at the dermatologist there are number of treatments that are used for lightening areas. Cryotherapy, dermabrasion, lasers and often various gels and creams are applied to the affected area of the skin.
There are a number of ingredients the gels and creams that have been shown to be effective, common ones included hydroquinone, azelaic acid, kojic acid, arbutin and some vitamin C derivatives. Most frequently the dermatologist prescribed creams contain hydroquinone. Hydroquinone by prescription contains 4%, and over the counter preparations contain up to 2%. However, it should be noted that products that contain hydroquinone are now banned in Europe (within the European Union).
For at home one product to try is Donell Lightening Gel. It contains some ingredients that have been shown in studies to lighten pigmented areas. The gel contains a number of ingredients including azelaic acid, kojic acid, glycolic acids and vitamin C. The gel is applied to the pigmented areas only 1 to 2 hours before bedtime for a couple of months.
It is important to note that no lightening treatment including lasers will work on all pigmented areas. The results for the different treatments for individual areas can range from on longer visible, to lighter, to no long-term effect. I used this gel on several areas and it was quite effective for som, but not others. The one thing I did not like about the gel that I used was that it was a bit runny. Since it is sold as a gel, perhaps mine was a batch with not enough thickening agent.
[tags]skin lightening, skin pimentation, azelaic acid, kojic acid[/tags]
2 Comments
A lot of my clients seemed surprised to notice pigmentation “suddenly” come out, years after abandoning their sun worshiping days! That’s the thing about pigmentation; if you’re not proactive now, you won’t pay for it until years later in some instances.
Darker and ethnic skins (especially Asian) are more predisposed to hyperpigmentation, and although they may not have actively tanned at any time in their life, if they haven’t been protecting their skin from an earlier age, they will notice more and more pigmentation as time moves forward.
To understand how pigmentation works, you can visit:
http://myfacialfacts.com/index.php/2008/05/29/what-exactly-is-pigmentation/
Have a Safe Summer!
The Derma Divas
Donell Lightening Gel is a wonderful product for the skin pigmentation. but must consult by expert people before using this. Because there many types of skin pigmentation disorder some causes dark spots or circles and other are
hypo-pigmentation that cause the white patches in skin.