Properties: Skin Brightening

Use: Use cream once or twice a day. Stay out of sun or use heavy sunscreen.

Ingredients: Water, jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) seed oil, sorbitol, butylene glycol, cetyl alcohol, glyceryl stearate, kojic acid dipalmitate, PEG-100 stearate, stearyl alcohol, sesame (Sesamum indicum) seed oil, sweet almond (Prunus amygdalus dulcis) oil, avocado (Persea gratissima) oil, arbutin, magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, melatonin, sodium hyaluronate, liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) extract, tetrahydrocurcuminoids, glutathione, polysorbate 20, citric acid, dimethicone, carbomer, triethanolamine, diazolidinyl urea, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, propylparaben, superoxide dismutase.

Skin lighteners, skin whiteners and skin brighteners are different names given to a type of product that decreases skin pigmentation. Skin color is mainly determined by the amount and type of the melanin in the skin.

There are two kinds of people looking for skin lighteners: those who have irregular pigmentation, resulting from age spots and/or melasma, and those who are not content with the color of their skin.

The short story:
There are several mechanisms by which a substance can help to lighten the skin color but most of them work by suppressing melanin synthesis. Some chemicals are very effective but can be irritating or are known to have undesirable side effects.  For example, strong chemicals may end up bleaching the skin permanently and irregularly, or increasing pigmentation in spots. It is very important to prevent these bad results. The best way is to avoid using strong chemicals like hydroquinone, especially in types of skin known to react badly, like African American and dark Latino skin.

Because melanin synthesis increases as a response to stress of several kinds, like UV and oxidants, avoid the sun and use sun block.  You should also know that skin lighteners will not destroy existing melanin, so you will have to wait until your skin renews itself to be able to see the lighter skin.

There are a number of excellent natural and synthetic chemicals that can help. If you have isolated hyper-pigmented spots, use the skin lightener only on those areas. The same if you have melasma, a type of skin hyperpigmentation caused by hormonal changes brought about by pregnancy or the use of "the pill".

Some excellent actives are
Azeloyl glycine (will also accelerate skin renewal), kojic acid dipalmitate (an easy to use and stable version of kojic acid), arbutin (the active chemical in bearberry extract), licorice root extract, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), melatonin, glutathione and magnesium ascorbyl phosphate. By using several of these actives, your chances of success increase, because melanin content of your skin will decrease through inhibition of several steps rather than just one.

Update: the combination of N-acetyl glucosamine and niacinamide, besides increasing synthesis of collagen and hyaluronic acid, may also decrease hyperpigmentation, age spots and uneven melanin distribution. We are currently waiting for independent research to corroborate these claims.

Remember the following rules:

#1: Be patient, do not expect fast results, because only the new skin will be lighter.
#2: Do not expect to look dramatic changes as such as those seen in with Michael Jackson. His skin is sick, having lost its natural melanocytes. He probably started with vitiligo, an auto-immune illness where the body destroys skin melanocytes in some areas, leaving white patches over the skin. Then his doctors would have killed the melanocytes in the areas that still had pigmentation using laser and some chemical tools. A sad story and not something should wish to imitate.