Brighten up your skin, just like your Christmas tree
I know, its only the middle of November, but I was born around Thanksgiving. So I often find myself rolling right into Christmas traditions before Thanksgiving meal even ends.
In my last blog post, I wrote about the amazing ingredient mugwort. How calming and soothing to the skin it is, and after writing that post, I thought about what people who may not experience redness or acne, but experience dull skin, uneven skin tone, and hyperpigmentation, and what products they would want to try to aid with their already existing regiment.
What causes dull skin, uneven skin tone, and hyperpigmentation?
Dull skin is caused by dryness, and lack of exfoliation or not removing the dead skin cells from the top layer of our skin (the epidermis).
Uneven skin tone can be caused by sun exposure, and hormones. Many derms say that pollution can be a cause of uneven skin tone as well.
Hyperpigmentation is when there is trauma causes to the tissues (skin) and this can be presented as dark spots or patches on the skin, and can be caused by acne, a burn injury, skin rashes (like dermatitis or psoriasis).
What can I do to help to brighten my skin, and help these go away?
Dull skin:
Exfoliating regularly is a great way to help remove the dead skin cells off your skin, and to help is you may experience dryness as well.
I recommend the Paula’s Choice 2% BHA liquid exfoliant, this is a life changer for me, really great to help clean the pores, and remove stubborn blackheads and whiteheads too. Also great for those with oily skin.
If you are looking for a gentler exfoliant I would recommend the Neogen Green Tea Moist PHA Gauze Peeling Pad. These contain an exfoliant called Poly Hydroxy Acid, which is a much larger molecule that doesn’t go deep into the pores and stays on the surface of the skin, and gently removes dead skin cells.
Another great tip to help stop dull skin, is to make sure to moisturize your skin every morning and night. This will leave your skin hydrated, and will cause less of a dull appearance to the skin.
Uneven skin tone:
Now, I would still recommend exfoliating regularly if you want to help with uneven skin tone, as some spots are very surface level, and be removed with just exfoliation. But other than that, you might have to work a little harder.
Another great way to help with uneven skin tone would be to start incorporating vitamin c into your skincare routine. Vitamin C is an antioxidant, and helps to prevent damage to the skin cells from UV radiation (the sun!) Leaving you with brighter skin than before.
Some products that I love to give my skin a boost of brightness, is the Hanskin vitamin C Glow Serum, which helps to brighten the skin using plant-derived ingredients. Another one that I am still trying out, and I’ll let you know if anything changes, the Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum (Propolis + Niacinamide) which I know doesn’t have vitamin C, but niacinamide is known to brighten and revive the complexion. And this would be a great for those of you who may not like vitamin C or have had a reaction to it before.
Hyperpigmentation:
Some ways to help with preventing more hyperpigmentation, is to avoid medium to extreme sun exposure. And making sure that when you are applying sunscreen/protection everyday constantly.
Also avoiding picking or irritating the skin- especially picking at spot, scabs/rashes, and acne. These an scar after the skin heals, and with that, it could also cause post-inflammatory hypopigmentation.
I have found that my hyperpigmentation has improved significantly better once I started on medication for my acne. When I had less acne, I did not pick at it, and also made sure to help the process when I did have a pimple. I would use a pimple patch instead to help myself not to irritate the spot.
Making sure I am hydrating my skin is also something I do, so that the skin doesn’t get dry and causes deeper indents into the skin from spots that do leave pigment.
Pimple patches that I recommend to everyone and their mothers are the Neogen A-Clear Soothing Clear Spot Patch, and these bad boys stay on your spot, and are amazing at sucking all the gunk/bacteria from my pimples. As well as I am using a topical retinol (from my dermatologist) and that has improved so well. Like I have said before in a few of my blog posts, for the longest time, I was so hesitant to go to the dermatologist. But I was struggling with such physical pain from my acne, and I could never catch up to the aftermath of a pimple. That I have had to really learn how to heal my skin after I started on acne medication. And I am so happy I went, because my confidence is better, I do to have to experience the pain of acne as a much smaller scale, and I can have a lot more fun with makeup without having to always use high-coverage foundation to cover the redness and inflammation.
I hope that this post helped you figure out what can help your skin and its concern. I definitely did not know much about the differences of these, and since going to esthetician school, I have learned so much about my skin. Just like the Christmas tree this year, I hope your skin shines just as bright! (just blind anyone lol)
What did you learn from this blog post?
Let me know on my social!
