Things I Don’t Do (Yet): Dark Spot Concealers
By GlindaI added that caveat above because I have suddenly noticed a flurry of dark spot concealers that had gone unnoticed by moi from the likes of philosphy, Caudalie, Dr. Brandt, and even Clinique.
I have two medium sized dark spots on the top of each cheek, and they are starting to bug the heck out of me.
My two unwelcome guests first appeared during my first pregnancy. I panicked, and then found out that it was something that happened quite commonly to pregnant women, and relaxed. After my son was born, the spots faded quite a bit, but never truly went away. But, I could easily cover them up without a problem, even though it annoyed me to do so.
My second pregnancy is when they apparently decided to make my cheeks their permanent home, since my daughter is turning two next month and they haven’t faded in the least.
And who knows? It could also possibly be sun damage as well, since Lord knows I didn’t use much sunscreen for the first 25 years of my life. I also have a thyroid disease, which is listed as another possible cause.
So fantastic, I’ve got this ungodly trifecta of causes and it will probably take some sort of miracle for these things to pack their bags and leave.
Has anyone tried any of the dark spot concealers? Any recommendations? Anything to avoid?
You all were so helpful to KESW on the e.l.f. post, I thought I would give all you experts out there a chance to help ME!
October 26th, 2011 at 2:08 am
Clinique! My mom uses the serum at night and the foundation with the serum in it during the day. She says it has helped a lot and is great for the winter since it is quite moisturizing.
Philosophy does miracles and I have seen results in 10 days (acne scarring) but it can be drying if that is an issue.
October 26th, 2011 at 8:15 am
It sounds like good old melasma (also called “chloasma facii”) to me–what used to be called the “mask of pregnancy”. You don’t have to have any specific condition to get it, lots of women who take the pill regularly or simply just get pregnant and then never fully “rebalance” hormonally (so, yes, a thyroid condition can create the situation for it to occur, in any woman) will bring it on. It’s not brought on by sun exposure, but sun exposure can darken the skin in patches, often on the face but not exclusively. Getting rid of melasma doesn’t take a miracle, but the dark spot creams won’t have any effect on these because as long as your hormonal balance is off, the melasma will persist. The dark spot creams don’t influence your hormonal balance in any way.
The spot creams are forms of skin “bleach”, they are supposed to help to lighten up spots on the skin that do pop up as a result of sun exposure. They’re really not “new” products, they’ve been marketed to women for years, usually as a treatment for “age” spots, or what they used to call “liver” spots. They were (and still are, I’m afraid) marketed to women of colour who want to “lighten” their complexions. The older products were costly and not very effective.
I don’t know how effective these “new” products are (or if they’re really that “new”), but I admit I’m curious. I have a little “freckle” on the bridge of my nose that could stand a good bleaching, and it is the result of sun exposure. I’ve avoided tanning in the sun for ages, but apparently, whatever little exposure I got was enough to cause this.
October 27th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
I got it from birth control pills… evidently laser treatments work. A woman in one of my classes used it and it appears to have done the trick.