Our skin gets darker because of melanin. It’s our skins natural reaction to exposure to UV. Uneven skin tone occurs when your skin may be producing too much of this and so doesn’t look even. There are ways in which to prevent and even out your skin tone.
What causes uneven skin tone?
Uneven skin tone has also been called hyperpigmentation. Which is when your skin produces too much melanin in certain areas and creates dark spots. There are many different causes for hyperpigmentation such as prolonged sun exposure, hormone changes or scarring.
The biggest cause of this is exposure to UV. Unfortunately, even though a little bit of sunlight can feel really good on our skin but UVA and UVB rays are the biggest danger to our skin. The rays can damage our skin to make it look older or even develop into cancerous marks. To protect your skin from these, you can do this by wearing sun cream at all times. UV rays can be harmful to your skin even on cloudy days! It has been known to even make its way through glass.
Exfoliation
Exfoliation is key to helping your skin in many ways. It can help your skin look brighter and more even. This is because our skin naturally sheds via a process called desquamation."When you’re young, all of your dead skin cells fall off in a pre-programmed fashion every 28 days," says Dr. Schultz. "But when you’re older, some of those cells hang on for 40, 60, even 80 days—and although they're too tiny to actually see, they can make your skin look dull, discoloured, and broken out from clogged pores." However, as we age, this process doesn’t work as well as it did when we were younger. This can then lead to your skin looking dull and lacklustre. It can even lead to your skin to look uneven. Helping to get rid of these dead skin cells can be very helpful for your skin.
There are two different kinds of exfoliator, one is physical exfoliator. These are slightly grainier than other products, which means that you have to rub it into your skin to reap the benefits. People who are new to exfoliation, it can be difficult to understand when enough is enough for your skin. Over exfoliation can be very damaging for your skin and is very easily done. Manually exfoliating your skin can help you to understand when you need to stop.
The other type of exfoliator is a chemical exfoliator. They are commonly known as AHAs or Alpha Hydroxy Acids, such as Glycolic Acid. These work by dissolving the glue that holds dead skin cells to new skin cells. These can be gentler to your skin but in turn, it can be easier for you to overuse products. Which is very easily done, especially by people who have particularly oily skin.
Try our Instant Detoxifying & Energising Facial Exfoliator for a physical exfoliator.
