What is best for hyperpigmentation
TOP 10 Ingredients to FADE HYPERPIGMENTATION| Dr Dray
well hey guys in today's video i'm going
to be talking about
skin care ingredients that actually work
to fade dark spots
dark spots are otherwise referred to as
post inflammatory hyperpigmentation
basically whenever there's any kind of
irritation in the skin
it can lead to up regulation and pigment
production
and subsequent dark spots that can take
a very long time to fade
this commonly occurs with acne as the
acne heals
and it also can happen if you've been
using really irritating skin care
products
if you've been doing a lot of scrubs
that cause a lot of irritation in the
skin
ingredient number one i have to talk
about and i cannot
i cannot do a video like this without
without talking about
is vitamin c topical vitamin c
specifically l ascorbic acid vitamin c
is an antioxidant so it inhibits free
radical formation that can lead to
oxidative damage and subsequent up
regulation and pigment production
it also can inhibit the enzyme
tyrosinase that leads to
hyperpigmentation
and you know you can't you can't do a
video like this without talking about it
but the problem
i have with vitamin c and vitamin c
products is that vitamin c
is really unstable specifically the form
l ascorbic acid which is what we have
the most data on
it's very unstable it degrades very
easily and when it degrades it can be
incredibly irritating
not only that l-ascorbic acid is
water loving and a charged molecule so
those two things combined make it really
difficult to get it into the skin
and it oxidizes very readily on exposure
to air
and light so manufacturers have a few
challenges
to overcome in order to have a product
that actually is going to work
but because vitamin c is not a
actual drug that we prescribe there's
really no
not much onus on the manufacturer to
prove these things
i have the most confidence in
skinceuticals ce ferulic
they have done a few things with the
vitamin c that have been shown to be
helpful for stabilizing it and allowing
it to effectively penetrate into the
skin
they've added ferulic acid and vitamin e
both of which
have been shown to enhance the
penetration and stability of
l-ascorbic acid but that product is
super expensive
and you know i know i'm getting a bit
sidetracked here but i always get a ton
of
questions can you recommend an
affordable vitamin c
serum and i just feel like you know with
all the limitations around vitamin c
that just starts to become an anecdotal
recommendation
and i don't even use vitamin c myself so
you know i'll just stick with
recommending the ce ferulic one
but do know that it's not the only
ingredient out there that can help fade
your hyperpigmentation
if you do want to use vitamin c serums
though the best way to use them
is in the morning apply them to your
skin allow them to absorb and dry and
then
put on sunscreen on over it and
you don't necessarily want to use them
at night it's best to use them in the
morning because remember
vitamin c is an antioxidant so it's
going to help in scavenging the free
radicals that you're exposed to
throughout the day that can lead to
hyperpigmentation
so it's best to put it on in the morning
underneath
sunscreen ingredient number two
hydroquinone this has been
the gold standard for treating diseases
of hyperpigmentation for over 50 years
it too works by inhibiting that enzyme
tyrosinase
now the downsides of hydroquinone are
that it's irritating
and it can cause with long-term use
rebound worsening of the
hyperpigmentation so you have to be
really careful with it
hydroquinone you can buy over the
counter and two percent strength or it's
available by prescription
the prescription stuff typically is more
effective
but more irritating in my opinion it's
best
to pursue hydroquinone under the
supervision of a treating dermatologist
to get the best results it's not to say
that the over-the-counter stuff is off
the table i just find that
it can be very irritating for people and
remember
anything that causes irritation in the
skin can push you over the edge for
worsening your hyperpigmentation
but you know it's certainly an option a
good
hydroquinone product that's very
affordable is ambi fade cream two
percent hydroquinone
how do you use this you want to apply it
in the evening or in the morning
or you can apply it twice a day if you
tolerate it without any irritation
the key though is how you apply it you
don't want to apply it to a widespread
area
you only want to apply it to the areas
of hyperpigmentation
put the hydroquinone in the center of
the area of hyperpigmentation and then
kind of feather it out to the periphery
of the
of the affected area you don't want to
use that for
longer than five to six months without
taking a break
because if you do that it can affect the
neighboring melanocytes that were
otherwise normal and lead to those
rebound hyperpigmentation which you
don't want
hydroquinone is obviously not perfect
and per in my opinion it's it's best
used under the supervision of a treating
dermatologist
because there's just all of these little
issues that can arise
and then with the cycling of it it tends
to be more nuanced from individual to
individual in terms of how it's best
used so i don't know it's available here
in the states over the counter but in
other countries it's not so
it's not even an option around the world
the third ingredient though
i think is one that you can feel a lot
more comfortable with
and that is kojic acid kojic acid
is derived from like mushrooms and also
it was discovered i believe in sake
fermentation
anyways kojic acid is a compound that
acts as a copper chelater copper is a
key
factor in that enzyme tyrosinase
kojic acid you can think of is kind of
starving tyrosinase in a sense
and it it can cause irritation
people can have problems with it but
generally it's very well tolerated
now it can take several months to start
seeing improvement
but so long as you're tolerating it you
can definitely appreciate
some improvement in that
hyperpigmentation a product that
i really like that has kojic acid in it
you can get it in the drugstore
is the la roche posay melody
pigment control serum
this has kojic acid it also has glycolic
acid which will help
kind of slough off some dead skin cells
and improve the penetration of the
kojic acid but you can apply it but you
don't have to be as
precise however if you have some spots
of hyperpigmentation to make this last
longer you can just apply them to those
areas
another product with kojic acid that i
have used myself in the past and
reviewed for you guys is the pca
skin pigment gel they make one with
hydroquinone and one without so
if you i you know i use the one without
hydroquinone this is
less irritating but they have both
options
and that's really good it's just more
expensive i think than the melody one
but both
both are really good i recommend trying
it
once a day like in the evening see how
you tolerate it and so long as you're
tolerating it fine
it can be applied twice a day for
maximum benefit ingredient number four
is soy soy is very well tolerated
except if you happen to have a soy
allergy then you don't want to use it
but otherwise it's really well tolerated
it can improve hyperpigmentation because
basically it
prevents the pigment from entering the
top layer
layers of the of the skin and so
it kind of inhibits some of how pigment
is moved around
it can really just help even out skin
tone
it's anti-inflammatory and it has a
anti-wrinkle effect
it has a skin firming effect and it can
scavenge free radicals
it's really like i said it's really well
tolerated i think it is an under
appreciated ingredient out there it's
also been shown to improve
thinning skin that occurs with aging
it's a great
anti-aging ingredient for that reason so
if you are somebody who is more mature
and you're seeking
an ingredient that's going to help
not only improve skin firmness and
wrinkles but also brighten up
hyperpigmentation
soy is a good one to consider you can
just apply it
in the morning and in the evening so i
have found
that the sauna brand from japan
is excellent these are products that all
have
soy in them this particular product is
their facial lotion it's called a lotion
but it's more of a
it's more of a liquid almost like a
serum
and you can put this on in the morning
allow it to absorb and put on sunscreen
on top if you're somebody who likes to
use a moisturizer in the morning you can
put this on and then put your
moisturizer on over it
and likewise do the same thing at night
and this particular product you can
actually get on i herb
and you can also buy this even though
it's japanese
a lot of cities throughout the us have
asian markets asian grocery stores that
carry this
like hmart often will carry those
ingredient number five is great for
those of you out there who have
sensitive skin and or acne and are
dealing with hyperpigmentation and
that's going to be azoleic acid
azolic acid inhibits free radical
formation and also inhibits tyrosinase
so
for those reasons it benefits
hyperpigmentation
but it does have a a modest anti-acne
effect it can help break up close
comedones aka whiteheads
and it's anti-inflammatory which is good
for both hyperpigmentation
and an acne and it also is antibacterial
beyond that
for people who have a sensitive skin
condition called rosacea azolic acid is
actually a very effective treatment
for that condition because of its
anti-inflammatory properties
so it really benefits many people and
it's very easy to tolerate now the
prescription strength stuff is what we
have the data
date on and when i'm talking about these
benefits of azolic acid
i'm speaking about what has been shown
with the prescription strengths
however you can buy azoleic acid here in
the states over the counter at a lower
percentage strength
an azelaic acid product that i really
think is very good
is the polish choice 10 percent acelic
acid booster
or the ordinary um azoleic acid
is also very good i recommend both of
those and acelic acid can be applied
again i recommend trying just applying
it at nighttime to see how you tolerate
it it can be
it can sting and it can be drying but
otherwise it's very easy to tolerate you
can bump up to
twice a day ingredient number six that
is definitely helpful for
hyperpigmentation is going to be topical
vitamin a i'll just
say the umbrella category there i'm
including prescription retinoic acid
i'm including retinoic acid derivatives
adaptolene and tazeratine
and i'm including cosmeceutical retinols
all of these can inhibit that enzyme
tyrosinase
and these all help in skin cell turnover
that can kind of help in the clearance
of hyperpigmentation smooth out the
surface of the skin
allowing for more of a luminous glow
that kind of helps
basically in the scattering of light
yeah topical vitamin a
definitely is a mainstay in the
management of hyperpigmentation
as a matter of fact when i was speaking
about hydroquinone earlier i didn't
mention that
hydroquinone is frequently combined
with retinol and the treatment of
diseases of hyperpigmentation
because they kind of complement one
another over the counter you can buy
a dappling or different gel and
that you know is is a is a great option
now retinol is one of those ingredients
that's going to be really helpful
for people who have mature skin and are
looking for some anti-aging benefit
in addition to improving
hyperpigmentation it's going to be
helpful for people with acne because it
imparts some acne
acne control and also will
reduce the risk that the acne heals with
hyperpigmentation so it's treating the
acne and
it's treating existing hyperpigmentation
and preventing future hyperpigmentation
so really beneficial in those cases
but it's not going to be the best choice
for people with really sensitive skin
when using topical vitamin a it is
advised that you use it in the evening
because many forms of topical vitamin a
are not stable in the presence of light
so it's best to apply topical vitamin a
in the evening to a clean
um moisturized dry face so
clean wash your face apply your
moisturizer let everything dry
and then right before you go to bed put
on the put on the topical vitamin a
whatever form that you're using
that's that's the best way to use it to
reduce irritation
and to reduce the risk of it degrading
on light exposure
there are some ingredients that cannot
be combined with retinol that might be
advantageous
in your journey to improving
hyperpigmentation and those ingredients
you can then incorporate in the morning
one such ingredient
is going to be salicylic acid this is a
polished choice
uh two percent salicylic acid or bha
liquid
exfoliant now salicylic acid is
anti-inflammatory and it helps
with skin cell turnover to kind of
smooth out the skin and remove some of
that superficial hyperpigmentation it
also is anti-inflammatory and it can
and it can have a skin brightening
effect as well
and it will give you acne control so
this
is an ingredient that you could use in
the morning and leave
on underneath your sunscreen
during the day and you can incorporate
the retinol in the evening
that's a really great routine for people
with acne especially people with acne
who
whose acne heals with hyperpigmentation
really a good
good pairing this is also helpful if you
have mature skin
and are looking to kind of brighten up
the complexion
and maybe smooth out some textural
issues
but like topical vitamin a salicylic
acid is not a good choice for people
who have really sensitive skin or
rosacea it can aggravate those
conditions
the next ingredient is a good one though
for people with sensitive skin
really any skin type can benefit from
this ingredient and that is
licorice fruit licorice root can inhibit
how pigment is dispersed throughout the
skin
thus having a brightening effect and
evening out
skin complexion licorice root is very
good for
reducing redness and irritation it's
anti-inflammatory
if you have acne that heals with redness
and discoloration
licorice root is a good ingredient to
incorporate a product that i've
recommended in several videos
is the procure rosa care
moisturizer it's like a i mean you can
call it a moisturizer you can call it a
serum
what i like about it is that it has the
licorice root which is the main
ingredient
but it also is has a green tint to it so
it'll color correct
redness it's really good for proposed
acne redness
as well as hyperpigmentation and you can
apply it by itself
uh but i find that it works better
applied underneath the moisturizer
and it's also really good first thing in
the morning to apply it
let it set up and then put your
sunscreen on that way you really get
kind of that cosmetic benefit
of the green color correction throughout
the day it's a really nice product you
can get it at cvs
walmart and amazon recently though i
discovered the
it's skin li effector
power 10 formula this is a korean brand
and this is their licorice root serum
i finished it up it is really good
unfortunately this takes forever to
arrive and you can get it on amazon
but they often sell out and it takes a
while
i'll link it down below but that's
another licorice root option
you can introduce it obviously slowly
into your skin care routine starting
maybe just in the evening to see how you
tolerate it
and bumping up to you twice a day if you
do
but it's not something you have to be
really slow with
it's it's generally very well tolerated
so
that's that's an ingredient i really
like for people trying to help improve
hyperpigmentation because it's
it's not it reduces irritation
inflammation because of that
anti-inflammatory effect it's really
well tolerated
it's kind of low risk in other words
another
similar ingredient that has so many hats
in skincare is niacinamide i love
niacinamide i have a whole video on why
niacinamide is a good ingredient
as far as hyperpigmentation the
mechanism of action for niacinamide is
that
it interferes with the interaction of
pigment between
uh the skin cells that make pigment
melanocytes and the keratinocytes it
melanocytes make the pigment then they
kind of
hand it off to the skin cells the
keratinocytes
and so niacinamide interferes with that
but it's anti-inflammatory as well
similar to licorice root so it really
has many benefits it also has
uh the benefit of reducing oiliness it's
been shown to be helpful for acne i mean
it has
tremendous skin benefits personally i
always recommend cerave products they
pretty much all most of them not all of
them but most of the cerave moisturizers
have niacinamide in them and it's a
no-brainer in those products because
it's like
okay i'm putting my moisturizer on and
you don't have to think too much about
layering it or anything like that
for example two percent niacinamide used
in a moisturizer has been shown to
noticeably improve the appearance of
hyperpigmentation
in people with melasma so you know
there's no reason to feel like you have
to have a dedicated niacinamide serum or
anything
but speaking of serum i will call out a
product that
that's really good for people with acne
again it's their resurfacing retinol
serum
the reason i like this product so much
for people with acne
especially the types of acne that heal
with hyperpigmentation
is that it's got retinol in it so as i
said that's a good ingredient for
helping with skin cell turnover
controlling the acne reducing
inflammation and it combines
licorice root which i've already
mentioned and niacinamide
so this is really good if you have acne
and are looking to derive the benefits
of all three of those ingredients
but the most important one i mean all
this stuff just scratch don't even just
ignore everything i just told you
focus on those the best
ingredient for hyperpigmentation
is the ingredients that are the active
ingredients in sunscreen
sunscreen alone can and does improve
hyperpigmentation and sunscreen
is critical for any of this stuff to
work because exposure to
ultraviolet radiation from the sun
including sun that comes through the
window
does drive hyperpigmentation
specifically the sun that comes through
the window is called uva
and that really has a lot of
impact on how pigment is produced in the
skin
and the other type of light from the sun
that you need to concern yourself with
if you have
hyperpigmentation that you're trying to
fade is
blue light visible light in the blue
light wavelengths is established as
contributing to hyperpigmentation
specifically it's associated with
early onset and more stubborn
hyperpigmentation
and you know a lot of skin care
marketing has a lot of buzz
around around how their
ingredients protect against blue light
from your
phones and tvs but you know i have a
dedicated video on this
the majority of the of the blue light
that you need to concern yourself with
is coming from the sun including the
sunlight that comes through the window
as well so the sun is giving off visible
light that's how we see the world
and that visible light component in
addition to the uv
plays a role in hyperpigmentation and
both
come through the window so i'm telling
you guys that because don't think that
just because you're indoors all day
uh it's a reason to not apply sunscreen
your skin
can still be impacted by those
wavelengths chemical sunscreens
have filters like ava benzone oxybenzone
i mean there are a ton of different
sunscreen active ingredients and
chemical sunscreens
now those sunscreens they they
can give you really good uva protection
depending on how they're formulated
you know it's not something to it's
beyond the scope of this video for me to
get into that
but chemical sunscreens they can really
potentially give you really good
protection against the uva
like the rays that come through the
window from the sun that are not visible
to you
those can potentially give you really
good protection against those
wavelengths
unfortunately chemical sunscreens
especially those in the states because
we don't have as many filters here
can be irritating so for people with
hyperpigmentation
those sometimes are just not the best
choice for that reason
now the other type of sunscreen is
physical sunscreen
has zinc and or titanium dioxide
zinc will give you protection against
the burning rays
as well as those uva rays large particle
zinc will also protect
against the pro-pigmenting wavelengths
of visible light the blue light
mineral sunscreens by the way are much
less irritating than the chemical
sunscreens
tinted mineral sunscreens will have an
ingredient called iron oxides
iron oxides in those tinted sunscreens
have been shown to provide
some protection against those
pro-pigmenting wavelengths of visible
light
so tinted sunscreens are always a good
option tinted mineral sunscreens
ultimately though whatever sunscreen
that you like and use consistently
that's the best one relying on sunscreen
alone is not enough though
you want to be cognizant of how long
you're spending time
outdoors and also make sure that you're
wearing
sun protective clothing broad hats long
sleeves
i know it's miserable in the heat but
those things
it really needs to be a multi-pronged
approach is what i'm getting at you
can't just put on sunscreen and be like
i'm good to go
because it wears off we all know it has
many limitations
uh you have to do multiple behaviors not
staying out too long
and making sure that you wear you know
some sun protective clothing
so those are my top 10 ingredients for
hyperpigmentation
but i hope this video was helpful to you
guys if you liked it give it a thumbs up
share it with your friends and as always
don't forget sunscreen and subscribe
i'll talk to you guys tomorrow bye
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