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Skin Lightening Myth: Sunscreen Lightens Skin

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Saturday, June 5, 2010

Skin Lightening Myth: Sunscreen Lightens Skin

Photocredit: Basicsofbeauty

I'm not sure how prevalent this skin lightening myth is, but I've definitley been asked about it.

Does sunscreen actually lighten the skin?

The answer to this myth is...yes and no.

Broad spectrum sunscreen protects against UVB and UVA rays (UVA rays mainly being the culprit for pigmentation-related damage). When you are shielding your skin from the sun, you are also allowing the skin to repair itself. Coupled with a great regimen that has a topical antioxidant (vitamin c serum) and an rx retinoid at night (which repairs damaged DNA) you can most definitley see some skin lightening and breaking up of excess pigmentation.

Even without a vitamin c serum or an rx retinoid, sunscreen can help to fade sun damage to an extent on its own. If the majority of your pigmentation conerns are sun damage related, than sunscreen can sometimes be the strongest or most effective thing in your regimen.

Particular when dealing with freckles and melasma. Daily usage of a sunscreen with both UVB and UVA protection (good PPD) can result in a significant improvement.

I am sure a lot of the lightening of acne marks, and discolorations I have gotten are from daily sunscreen usage.

Since summer is around the corner, I suggest everyone who is not using a sunscreen and reading this blog (what are you guys doing? lol, I talk about sunscreen in like every paragraph of every article. I am sure it's a very small % of people who don't use sunscreen and frequent this blog. I hope so, but either way I'm directing this towards you) to get one. I have said it before, but not using a sunscreen makes all your efforts go down the drain. Skin lightening and sunscreen go hand in hand.
<3

Labels: ,

posted by Mileena at 9:45 AM

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Mileena,

I just want to say I really like your blog and it's given me a lot of good recommendations when I look for products! May I ask what are some of the most hardcore skin lightener/brighteners that you use? My skin is really tough, actually quite insensitive/nonreactive to most products, so I have to use more than normal people to get the same effects. Thank you so much!

June 5, 2010 at 11:32 AM  
Anonymous Tammy said...

Hi Mileena! Great article--I was wondering, I've heard that sunscreen doesn't actually shield the skin from becoming tanner. I've noticed that PA+++ sunscreens are really popular in Asia and they're supposed to protect from tanning.

Could you shed a little more light on this please?

June 5, 2010 at 12:44 PM  
Blogger Mileena said...

Hi!

The most hardcore skin lighteners and brighteners out there...there are a lot. For tough, resilient skin I would say to look into Makari products (I have link to the official site on the right side if you want to check out the ingredients and whole range).

Their day cream (face and neck) and body beautifying milk (body lightener) are incredibly potent. What's great is that they are ideal for nonreactive skin, so they could be up your alley. I have yet to find a lightening product to lighten my skin as rapidly or as much as Makari. I used the Night Cream and Caviar Cream, but those are a bit much (very emollient). The Night Cream may be worth a shot for you, since you aren't acne prone.

Another one would be Bioderma White Objective Night (which unfortunatley seems to be out of stock or d/c).

;)

June 5, 2010 at 5:26 PM  
Blogger Mileena said...

Hi Tammy,

Sunscreens actually do protect against tanning. There is an actual scientific measurement for how much UVA penetrates into the skin and stimulates the melanocyte. It's called PPD (I have a label for articles about the topic on the right).

PPD stands for Persistent Pigment Darkening. There is a lot of information online about. You can even calculate the PPD of your sunscreen off a website:

https://www.ciba.com/pccibasunscreensimulator/

There are other sites out there that can give you an estimate of the PPD rating of your sunscreen.

PA+++ is an the Asian equivalent to PPD. Same thing, just different name. It's hard to find the exact UVA protection of asian brand sunscreens (usually the companies do not disclose this information) but generally PA +++ is a PPD of 10-12 which is perfect for everyday wear (incidental sun exposure).

June 5, 2010 at 5:33 PM  

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