“Go outside!” they say, “Get some sun!”

And sure, that’s good advice, if you are wearing your sunscreen and making sure to limit the amount of exposure you get at a time. 

But let’s face it: there is a national trend that goes back decades promoting worship of the sun. 

“Laying out” is a national pastime as long as anyone can remember (except for a brief period in the early 1990s when a sickly, fallow look was en vogue. But that was unhealthy for completely different reasons). When you are young and free, without a care in the world, you probably don’t think too much about what all that exposure to ultraviolet radiation is going to do to your skin.

And you certainly aren’t encouraged to.

In fact, that golden, sunkissed look only very rarely goes out of style. And in our contemporary society, it’s seen not just as a signifier of beauty, but also of status and even health.

As we age our skin presents us with the bill for the activities we pursued in our misspent youth. 

If we are lucky, the total that is due is as simple as premature aging and hyperpigmentation. If we are unlucky, or if we were very cavalier, the toll can be much higher.

At this point we may find ourselves looking for ways to undo the effects that the sun has wrought. Many people are turning to kojic acid for it. Kojic acid is showing up everywhere as an active ingredient to address hyperpigmentation, but also to address “skin lightening”.

Today at Skin Actives Scientific, we’ll unpack some fundamental concepts surrounding kojic acid for you so that you can make the best skincare decisions for yourself.

What is Hyperpigmentation?

We’ve all seen hyperpigmentation, even if we didn’t know that was what it’s called, and we probably all have some, somewhere on our bodies.

Simply put, hyperpigmentation is when an area of skin is darker than the skin that surrounds it. You may have had freckles as a child and been embarrassed of them. This is probably the most common kind of hyperpigmentation and the one that we are exposed to most early. 

Hyperpigmentation occurs when the cells in your skin overproduce melanin which can happen for a wide variety of reasons. Exposure to the sun is the number one reason, and potentially the most common (as we all have to get up and walk around under the sun), but pregnancy, hormonal changes, and prescription medications can also lead to hyperpigmentation as well.

While freckles may be cute on little kids standing in front of sunflowers on postcards, as we age hyperpigmentation goes out of style very quickly. This is entirely a cultural value and has no bearing on real concepts of worth. That said, “even skin tone” is a beauty concept that becomes increasingly valuable to many as we age.

Hyperpigmentation or Skin Lightening?

Now before we get into kojic acid and hyperpigmentation, it’s a good idea to slow things down and clear up a common misconception.

There is a big difference between hyperpigmentation and the process called “skin lightening”. Skin lightening is a process that many people feel compelled to undertake to lighten the overall tone of their skin.

This desire can be understood when one examines the fair skinned beauty standard that has monopolized fashion magazines for literally decades. While inroads are being made in this area, it is safe to say that this standard is as bigotted as it is pervasive. Google the words “beautiful woman” and you will see what we mean. This same search rendered 5 years ago would yield far fewer women of color than it does today, and today there are scant few.

At Skin Actives Scientific we don’t believe in the process of “skin lightening”. The products that endorse this course of action are of two types, either unsafe or unethical, potentially both. Don’t allow yourself to be taken advantage of by snakeoil salespeople who want you to feel ashamed of how you look. In order to make a new world, we must all change within ourselves. Love who you are, and refuse to be made to feel ashamed of who that is! Skin Actives is with you.

The truth of the matter is that kojic acid won’t help with “skin lightening” at all! Kojic acid has no ability to so-called “bleach” skin. It has activity that can reduce hyperpigmentation as we will see below, but not the ability to change anyone’s natural skin color. So if you see kojic acid being marketed in this way, you can walk right on by.

What is Kojic Acid Good For?

Kojic acid does in fact contain properties that will reduce hyperpigmentation and help “even out” your skin tone however. Skin Actives uses kojic for this purpose in a couple of our kojic acid products, below. That said, we take a very narrow view of skin evening as best described by our founder, Dr. Hannah Sivak:

“​​There are many ingredients that can be used to help with hyperpigmentation and this is a good example of when not to go for harsh “treatments”. Skin that is prone to hyperpigmentation is likely to react to many types of stress with more hyperpigmentation. For example, hydroquinone, a chemical used for skin lightening but banned in many countries because of its many side effects, will often result in more hyperpigmentation. Laser used to eliminate hyperpigmentation can result in larger spots that persist months after the treatment.

I prefer to use kojic acid dipalmitate as one active of many, because hyperpigmentation is best approached as the multi-step process that starts when UV reaches the skin and culminates in the accumulation of melanin in the keratinocyte. This synergistic approach allows us to use lower concentrations of each active so that we get better results in less time and with no side effects.”

This is why the Skin Actives range of products with kojic acid is very limited; we believe that the best care for skin whose melanin production has been disrupted takes place not with a single “silver bullet” ingredient, but with a number of products and several active ingredients working together in tandem.

If you’d like to hear more from Dr. Sivak about the chemistry of skincare, check out her personal blog, here.

Kojic Acid and Melasma

But not all hyperpigmentation comes from the sun. 

Many people will use kojic acid to treat their melasma. Now, melasma is very complex, and exposure to UV light does play a role in some of it. But one of the points that we think is most important to point out is that melasma is fundamentally a temporary condition. Some breakouts of the melasma can last as little as three months, for instance.

Still when dealing with a condition as complex as melasma, it pays to take things slow and steady. Melasma affects appearance only, it doesn’t come with any sensations or other disruptions to your skin. If it’s not hurting you, and is likely to pass on its own anyway, don’t risk hurting yourself with a treatment designed to speed the process. 

As with all things the Skin Actives Way, we believe in taking time and doing things slowly and right, rather than taking a big swing and potentially finding yourself in a situation worse than the one you were trying to “treat”. At Skin Actives we often recommend the kind of patience that is measured in weeks not days, so struggling against your melasma might take as long as it would to clear up naturally.

Skin Actives Products with Kojic Acid

Because at Skin Actives we believe in a multifaceted approach to hyperpigmentation care, we stock just three products designed to help you with these challenges. We stand by these products but believe they will yield the best results when combined with others from our catalog, especially a UV blocker, such as our sunscreen.

• Skin Brightening Cream - If you want a quick and easy cream to help you smooth out some of those “sun spots” on your face or hands, look no further. Skin Brightening Cream is gentle, easy to use, and most importantly: side-effect free. Use with confidence!
• Enzyme Exfoliation Powder - One of Skin Actives’ veteran products, if you are looking for an exfoliating treatment that will also help you balance your skin tone, check out our Enzyme Exfoliation Powder. 
• Kojic Acid Dipalmate - The ingredient itself! Perfect for the DIY crowd, kojic acid soap has become a hot trend! Make some yourself at home with an easy recipe found on YouTube or your favorite DIY blog. Use Skin Actives Kojic Acid Powder in the ingredient step, it’s the same one we use to formulate with so you know it works!

Thanks for joining us once again everyone! We’ll be back next week with new blogs and new promotions for our Skin Actives Community. Have a great weekend!