Hyperpigmentation and Sensitive Skin: Why Most Treatments Cause Irritation and What Actually Works

If you are treating pigmentation with sensitive skin, there's something I want you to know. Many of the most popular brightening ingredients can actually make your pigmentation worse. Not just fail to act, but drive the pigmentation deeper. And if you have a darker skin tone, the stakes are even higher. Your pigment cells, the melanocytes, are part of your skin's defense system, and they don't just respond to UV. They respond to any perceived threat, and inflammation is considered a threat. So, when a product irritates your skin, even at a low level, it is driving that dangerous inflammatory cascade. Love retinol. And that cascade sends a direct signal to your melanocytes saying, "Danger, danger, make more melanin. " So, a treatment that irritates while it treats is like pressing the accelerator and the brakes at the same time. That's why so many people treating pigmentation feel that initially it clears a bit, but then it stalls or it gets worse in another area as the treatment drives inflammation and new pigmentation. And in darker skin tones, this is amplified because the pigment parcels called melanosomes are bigger and they're spread more widely, and that pigmentation lasts longer. So, that means that the inflammatory backlash from irritating product lasts longer and hits harder. I'm thinking exfoliating acids here, one of the most commonly used treatments in hyperpigmentation. So, WHAT'S THE ANSWER? — I LOVE MAKING A MESS. SMASH CUCUMBERS. SO, what do you actually need? Now, the answer isn't necessarily more gentle products. It's more products and ingredients that have balance. So, this is where I get ultra geeky in seeking out formulas where the ingredients do more than one thing. Let's take my love affair with azelaic acid. She does so much in pigmentation. She works so hard. You know, you probably know that azelaic acid targets the key enzyme tyrosinase and blocks tyrosine from binding, so what we call competitive inhibition, and that's why it works so well. However, it also selectively targets the overactive melanocytes. And not only that, it helps downregulate their access to energy by impacting the mitochondria. It's very sophisticated. If that wasn't enough, it also speeds up cell turnover. So, that means it exfoliates away the skin cells on the top of your skin that already have pigment inside them. So, it gets rid of the old pigment, stops new pigment from forming, and reduces the signal to make more pigment in the first place. Wow. And then, as a final note, it is so helpful in post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation from acne because it helps stop the acne in the first place. So, no treatment plan for pigmentation related to acne for me is complete without azelaic acid. Oh, then let's take niacinamide. Now, niacinamide has a host of benefits inside the cell, but what we really want here is the way it interferes with the delivery of the melanin parcels, the melanosomes, from the melanocyte, the pigment cell, into the skin cell where it does that clever UV protection parasol thing that it does. So, it interrupts the delivery of the parcels. But at the same time, we know it boosts ceramides, and that means a healthier skin barrier. So, you get pigmentation suppression whilst also keeping your barrier intact when it comes to tackling pigmentation and sensitive skin. So, those are the two ingredients that immediately come to mind when I think about sensitive skin and pigmentation. But of course, there are different versions of similar ingredients. So, for example, we use hydroquinone a lot to tackle pigmentation because it blocks the enzyme most strongly, but it can be super irritating. So, the gentler flip is arbutin, a similar molecule, less irritating, and often more easily tolerated, especially in darker skin tones. Or, let's take kojic acid, which also works on tyrosinase to block the enzyme, but in a different place by stripping out the necessary copper it needs to work. We can take kojic dipalmitate, which is a gentler ester that actually gets into the skin better, and again is inherently less irritating. And then, of course, there's the whole support system around the pigmentation treatment itself. There's the way you cleanse, hydrate the skin, there's the way you sun protect. All of those have impact on the health of your skin barrier, can help support. So, you have this balancing act of activity on the one hand from your treatment, your actives, and barrier preservation on the other hand with smart treatment options, but also that support system is working for you. So, ultimately, when you're choosing a treatment for pigmentation, ask yourself two questions, especially

if you have a darker skin tone. One, does it target melanin production in a meaningful way? And two, does it calm inflammation rather than provoke it? So, if the answer is yes, then you are working with your biology, not against it, and the result should be great. Now, I've been working on something very special that's going to help tackle pigmentation and make it so much easier. So, make sure you're subscribed so you get the news first. So, I hope you've enjoyed this video, and I hope that if you haven't watched the other videos in this series, um you take a look so that you really know what you're doing when it comes to treating pigmentation. And if there's anything I haven't covered, let me know in the comments. I'll see you in the next one.