Skin lightening is the process of reducing the pigment called melanin in the skin. Melanin is the pigment that gives skin its coloring and helps protect it from the sun. Skin lightening is a broad term that covers skin brightening, skin lightening and skin bleaching/ whitening. Let us look into the difference between the various forms of skin lightening.
SKIN LIGHTENING:
The aim of skin lightening is often to target dark spots and hyperpigmentation to bring about a more even complexion. The goal of skin lightening is not to alter skin color but to fade out unwanted blemishes and dark spots.
SKIN BRIGHTENING:
Skin brightening is targeted at giving your skin a natural glow and rejuvenating the skin by removing dull and dead skin cells from the surface. Skin brightening largely involves anti-aging ingredients.
SKIN WHITENING/ BLEACHING:
This involves chemically bleaching your skin beyond it’s natural skin tone.
Skin lightening products can come with a wide variety of ingredients and in recent times, eliminating toxic ingredients from beauty products is becoming the norm. People are paying more attention to what comes in contact with their skin. That aside, these ingredients can also affect someone else, someone who has no say in the beauty choices of the larger person. This is the case of pregnant women. There are so many ingredients in skincare products that are not so great for the baby.
Sadly, your skinny jeans are not all you may have to dump for the next nine months, certain beauty ingredients have to go as well.
Some skin lightening ingredients can cause complications to an unborn child so they must be avoided at all cost.
Notable skincare products to avoid include:
• Systemic retinoids
• Retinol derivatives
• Essential oils
• Hydroquinone
• Mercury
• Glycolic acid
• Salicylic acid
• Formaldehyde
• Chemical sunscreens, etc.
Article credit : Cocci Beauty