Dark Spots & Brightening

Uneven tone has more than one cause, and the cause decides whether anything topical will help.

Which kind you have

• Sun-related pigmentation — the flat brown patches on cheekbones, forehead and the backs of the hands, accumulated over years. This is the kind that responds best to topical actives, and the kind that comes straight back without daily sun protection.
• Post-inflammatory marks — what a blemish leaves behind. These fade on their own, over months; actives shorten the wait rather than doing something the skin would not.
• Melasma — symmetrical patches, often hormonal, often triggered by pregnancy or the contraceptive pill, and made worse by heat and visible light as well as UV. It is stubborn, it recurs, and it is worth seeing a dermatologist about rather than working through a shelf of products.

The one rule that decides the outcome

Sunscreen every morning, without exception. Every active on this page works by slowing pigment production; UV speeds it up faster than any of them slow it down. A brightening routine without daily SPF is money spent to stand still — and for melasma specifically, a tinted mineral sunscreen is the better choice, because iron oxides absorb the visible light that untinted formulas let through.

What to expect, honestly

Eight to twelve weeks before a visible difference, and gradual fading rather than removal. Any product promising faster than that is either overpromising or contains something that should not be in a cosmetic. Cosmetics act on the appearance of skin — that is what the law permits them to do, and it is what these do.