There are two main reasons for failure to lighten the skin with skin lighteners.
1.
PRODUCT FAILURE-This is a major reason for failure.
Although most products are aesthetically acceptable, a major cause of failure is that ingredients with very dubious evidence are being used.
In addition, if established ingredients are used, they are in too a low concentration to be effective.
A good example is Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate (MAP).
Now MAP has been found to be effective at 10% concentration only.
However, because of the cost or stability issues, most companies use a much lower, undeclared concentration which, although appears on the ingredient list of the product, fails to work.
The only product for skin lightening with a declared concentration of 10% MAP is Lightenex® Gold cream by Pharmaclinix®.
Therefore a product that fails to tell you the concentration of each ingredient they use usually has something to hide.
2.
USER FAILURE-Most people using skin lighteners do not understand that sun protection, along with sun avoidance behaviour is necessary to get effective skin lightening.
This applies more to dark skins because they have large, active pigment producing cells, called Melanocytes that easily react to UV light from the sun.
This sun protection cream should be of sun protection factor (SPF) 50 & a thick layer should be applied at least three times daily.
This should also be done while indoors or on dull days.
Sun blocking is even more mandatory if using the oral contraceptive pill or Hormone replacement therapy after menopause.
Even the Infra red or heat from a cooker can activate the melanocytes.
The only problem with sun blocks is that the best physical sun blockers such as Titanium dioxide or Zinc oxide leave a grey sheen colour on skin.
This problem can be mitigated by using micronized titanium dioxide which although expensive, is aesthetically more acceptable.
Sun Blockex® SPF 50 by Pharmaclinix, is such a product and allows one to walk confidently when wearing it.
Clinically, the best results for skin lightening have been found by using Lightenex® Gold cream, followed by Sun Blockex® SPF 50.
