Most of us are in war with it, but do you really know your enemy? How can you win a war with an enemy you don’t understand? You can't is the short answer.

The whole topic of pigmentation is a long and complicated one, I'm going to try and give it to you in bullet points because whose got time to read??

Causes of Pigmentation (sun spots, age spots, brown spots)

• Most of the time its UV exposure (sunshine)
• In fact a sun tan is to a lesser degree the same thing as developing pigmentation
• UV exposure causes the skin to throw melanocytes (brown pigment) to the surface of the skin to protect it from the suns rays. But unlike pigmentation, a sun tan goes away

Things you didn’t know causes pigmentation

• HEAT - Thermal heat can cause melanocytes to surface causing pigmentation. This is annoying right?
• PYSICAL TRUAMA - Do you have some scars you cant get rid of? Well they are probably not actually scars. Most likely they are post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation that occurs after you injure your skin - like for example picking a pimple
• HORMONES (you probably already knew that one) - female sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone stimulate the overproduction of melanin (melanocytes)

Why lasers are not a great solution

• Post laser hyper pigmentation
• Rebound pigmentation
• It’s becoming pretty common knowledge that heat based lasers can often cause pigmentation down the track. Not surprising really when you think about it. Its HEAT and TRUAMA

What should I be using?

A pigment blocker

• Pigment blockers attack melanocytes from being released. Putting a huge dint in the problem before it even begins
• Of course Homepeel recommends our Pigmentation Serum. We chose it because it contained loads of impressive ingredients (which I won't go into now because the point of this article is to be brief) But the most exciting and my ‘go to’ for blocking pigment is White Mulberry. It’s the strongest, most natural of all pigment blockers
• The synthetic options in my opinion cause long-term damage because the skin hates to be irritated (causing more pigmentation)

An Exfoliant

• Keep the dead skin cells off that have pigment or the ‘expression’ of pigment
• We are not referring to ‘scrubs’ here. We mean the ‘chemical type’ (acids, retinols and enzymes)

HOMEPEEL OPTIONS

• Green Herb Skin Peel Kit - done 3-4 times per year is the most effective way to achieve this. Follow the link for more info
• Fortnightly Fruit Peel - Cleans off all dead skin cells every two weeks with no down time (no after peeling)
• RETINOL 1% - Creating daily cell turn over
• Enzyme Cleansing Kit - Two parts - the Enzyme Cleanser which ‘eats’ dead skin cells away and the Exfoliating crystals you add to the Enzyme Cleanser. Add the crystals twice a week. Contains nasties to further irritate the skin

Sunscreen

• STOP UV getting into your skin to start causing trouble
• Use zinc oxide or titanium dioxide physical/mineral because chemical sunscreens can also cause pigmentation

Patience and commitment

• MOST IMPORTANT
• It takes time to get it under control
• And truthfully even when you do, if you drop the ball, it can come back very quick