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Melasma, post-inflammatory pigment and sun damage — the mechanisms, and the ingredients with real evidence.
9 articles
Rosehip oil has a reputation that outpaces its evidence — but not by as much as you might expect. Here's what the research actually supports, where the gaps are, and how to use it well.
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Kojic acid is one of the more effective over-the-counter options for fading dark marks — but its instability problems and irritation potential are real, and the gap between its reputation and its evidence base is worth understanding.
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Alpha arbutin is one of the gentler options for fading dark marks and evening out skin tone — but gentler also means slower, and the evidence has limits worth knowing about.
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SPF measures how well a sunscreen stops you burning. It tells you almost nothing about the wavelength doing the ageing damage — and that gap in most people's understanding is exactly what 'broad-spectrum' labelling exists to close.
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"Hyperpigmentation" gets treated as one problem with one fix. It isn't — melasma, post-inflammatory marks and sun spots have different causes and different treatment ceilings, and mixing them up wastes months of a routine that was never going to work.
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Alpha-hydroxy acids get sold as one category, but glycolic, lactic and mandelic acid behave differently enough that picking the wrong one is a common reason an acid "doesn't work" — or works too well, too fast, in the wrong direction.
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Tranexamic acid moved from operating theatres to skincare shelves on the back of a genuinely interesting discovery — but the strongest evidence is for the oral, prescription version, and the topical version people are actually buying is thinner and newer than the marketing implies.
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Retinoids and vitamin C get the headlines. Azelaic acid quietly does three jobs at once — acne, rosacea and pigmentation — with a gentler side-effect profile than most of the ingredients that outrank it in popularity.
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Niacinamide (vitamin B3) has become a skincare darling — appearing in everything from serums to sunscreens, praised as a solution for nearly every skin concern.
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