You dreamt of going to bleach...

You dreamt of your feet experiencing the coolness of the damp sand...

You dreamt of soaking yourself wet in the ocean...

You dreamt of basking yourself under the caressing warmth of the sun...

What is Skin Whitening?

For ages, women have tried different means to get fairer and clearer skin. Clear and flawless skin boosts one’s self-confidence and self esteem. Especially Oriental women have preference towards fairer skin and they make various efforts to whiten their skin. Skin Whitening is a technical term given to the procedure of making the skin lighter in tone by reducing the production of skin pigment, Melanin.

Reasons For Skin Getting Dark

Dark skin color and formation of age spots is caused by buildup of melanin in the skin. Skin gets dark by exposure to sun, which increases the production of melanin.  Skin gets prone to hyper pigmentation over the time. In this condition Irregular dark spots come out to the skin of face arms, back, leg and hands, which is caused by increased melanin. 

Benefits of Skin Whitening

For the people seeking to tackle these disorders and want fairer complexion, skin whitening comes to rescue.  In fact skin whitening agents improve the overall skin texture by changing blemished, freckled and rough skin into clearer, translucent and brighter one.

Use of Skin Whitening Agents

Some of the skin-whitening agents combat with specific disorder or there are skin whiteners available, which make the skin fairer or make it smoothen the complexion by removing patches. Usually skin-whitening agents has particular manner to lighten the skin.  Skin has the capacity to renew itself every 28 days. In this process when old pigmented cells get sloughed off, these skin-whiteners come to action. After removal of old pigment cells, skin-whitener brings to the surface, cells containing less of melanin. This gives the skin a more even and lighter complexion.

Different Kinds of Skin Whitening Agents

There are number of skin whitening agents available in the market. Using these agents with daily care of skin, along with use of sunscreen will prevent your skin to get darker.

Hydroquinone is the main ingredient of most of the skin whitening agents but recently it has been substituted by other ingredients like arbutin, kojic acid and licorice derivatives as it has shown some toxic effects.

In this direction, when used externally, Arbutin does not show any side effects like toxic effects, displeasing odor. It is the recently found skin whitening and de-pigmentation agent. It is extracted from blueberry plant by an environmentally safe process, solid extraction.  It has many benefits like it lightens the skin, prevents pigmentation.  It also helps to prevent liver spots and freckles, which control melanogenesis and sunburns.

Another natural product is Retinol, which contains Vitamin A. For this purpose, the most important vitamin used is vitamin A, which is applied topically to treat rough skin. It helps to exfoliate and furbish the skin to bring out lighter and soft skin.

Kojic Acid is a tyrosinase inhibitor. For the sun-damaged skin, it is use alone or in combination with glycolic acid.  Aloe Vera has light skin lightening abilities as it absorbs UV rays.

One can avoid skin pigmentation caused by sun by using sunscreen. It protects the skin from UV rays and prevents from darkening of skin. Oxybenzone and salicylate are such chemicals found in sunscreen lotions.

Home Remedies for Skin Whitening

- To reduce the tan, apply a paste of turmeric powder and limejuice as both of these have natural bleach abilities.
- Ground fresh mint leaves to make a paste and apply it for 15 days.
- There is another wonder recipe. Mix 1 tsp of lemon juice and I tsp of honey with ½ tsp of almond oil in 1tsp of milk powder. Apply it for 10-15 minutes daily and wash with warm water to get shine and remove tan.
- An easy remedy is to put a slice of raw potato on the face to reduce marks and blemishes.
- Make a paste of 4 almonds, using milk (almonds soaked overnight) and apply it on face and neck for overnight. Wash it off in the morning with cold water. Follow this routine for 15 days and after that use twice in a week.
- Put few drops of limejuice in the grated tomato and apply it for 20 minutes. Wash it off. Use for few days daily until good results are seen.