Posts Tagged ‘kojic acid’

Skin Bleaching Cream – Finding One That Won’t Make You Suffer

December 17th, 2009

Your choice of a skin bleaching cream boils down to whether it works with nature, or against it. And whether you can feel it working.

  1. Natural acids work with nature.
  2. Chemicals work against it.

Chemicals are put on skin to make it peel. Once it starts to dry and flake, the skin is scraped off. This is called ‘exfoliation’. Few people use peels to lighten overall skin tone. You just can’t peel your whole body.

It’s overkill.

But moles, dark circles, acne discoloration, freckles, sun spots and tattoos have all been attacked with chemical peels. Pigment runs very deep. A chemical peel has to burn off layer after layer to ‘get to the bottom of it’. It takes a lot of surrounding skin with it.

The naturals work differently.

The most effective natural ingredients in skin bleaching creams are acids. This may sound harsh but it’s very mild. The list includes:

  • Kojic acid.
  • Alpha arbutin.
  • Vitamin C.
  • Azaleic acid.

You cannot feel them work. They team up with nature. The gentle acids work on melanin production. When melanin is inhibited, skin lightens. As skin naturally replaces itself there’s less and less melanin in the new skin cells. 

How do we know it’s safe? Alpha arbutin has been scientifically investigated. The result? Medical officials now call it “an alternative medicine” for skin bleaching. Also,

  • Kojic acid has been taken for centuries in Asia. They thought it was a vitamin. Then they noticed their skin was getting lighter.
  • You eat ascorbic acid in oranges. You drink azaleic acid in citrus juices. Kojic acid comes from rice or plants. Alpha arbutin comes from a berry bush. Bears love to eat it. Human herbalists love the juice, too.

These natural skin bleaching ingredients work. And you don’t feel them working.

  • Share/Bookmark

Skin Bleaching Products – The Trouble With Hydroqinone

December 17th, 2009

The trouble with hydroquinone in skin bleaching products is you have to leave it on. This is just like any other skin lightening cream.

But The U.S. Cosmetics Ingredient Review Panel ruled hydroquinone is not safe when left on the skin. Toxic substances from the chemical get into the body through the skin. Once inside, it can attack and damage nerves. Hydroquinone was put on lab rats and they formed skin cancer. It goes terribly awry on dark skin. If you are not Caucasian, even the makers of hydroquinone skin bleaching products tell you not to use it.

A study compared hydroquinone with kojic acid, a natural skin bleach.

  • Doctors in Vancouver report both the chemical and the natural acid worked well.
  • Neither was better than the other.

But kojic acid is safe.

  1. It’s a natural juice squeezed from leaves or distilled from rice. Asians have taken it for years as a general health supplement.
  2. Not only do you have to leave it on, but for overall skin tone you have to use it over a large area of skin. There is nothing in kojic acid that’s unsafe if absorbed through the skin.

It inhibits melanin production. Melanin darkens skin. As the body sheds old skin, the new cells are progressively lighter.

There are so many hydroquinone skin bleaching products sold over the internet. The only reason it is allowed in the United States is that dermatologists want to be able to use it on acne scars. They simply do not advise do-it-yourself hydroquinone skin bleaching.

What You Need to Know About Skin Bleaching

  • Share/Bookmark