Looking for a permanent solution to help lighten you skin? Want to know if kojic acid has long-term or just temporary effects? In search of kojic acid skincare which works? We're about to delve into all you'll ever need to know about kojic acid and how long you can expect it's effects to last.
Can Kojic Acid Permanently Lighten Skin?
Yes and no. Kojic acid is a very effective skin lightening active. Kojic acid works by preventing your skin from finding the tools it needs to make melanin. Imagine your skin like a factory, for your factory to make goods, it needs ingredients and manufacturing equipment. Kojic acid works to lighten and brighten your skin tone by engaging your skin's manufacturing equipment so melanin pigment cannot be made.
For as long as kojic acid skincare is used, a person's natural skin tone can be lightened.
This brightness will not reverse as soon as you stop using kojic acid skincare, but instead will take months to return.
When Kojic Acid Skincare Can Permanently Lighten Skin
Your skin makes melanin (the pigment responsible for skin colour) for 2 different reasons. Firstly your skin makes melanin as a result of your DNA, a pre-programmed 'volume' which determines your skin colour on birth. Secondly your skin makes melanin for protection or as a result of skin damage i.e. from a cut or as a consequence of acne or spots. Even a sun tan is a sign of skin damage.
If your skin has become darkened because of damage, kojic acid skincare could permanently help lighten your skin.
Scientists call this type of skin darkening hyper-pigmentation or when it's made as a result of acne or similar skin damage, post-inflammatory hyper-pigmentation. In these situations, if the damaging trigger i.e. a spot has vanished, then hyper-pigmentation may be permanently lightened with kojic acid skincare. This is because once the damaging trigger has been removed, your skin is no longer being told to make more protective melanin.
These types of pigmentation usually go-away naturally, however kojic acid skincare can help speed-up your skin's fading.
Try out our Kojic Acid & Vitamin C Skin Brightening Soap to test out the results for yourself.
Why Permanent Skin Lightening Isn't Good
If you're looking to lighten and brighten your natural skin tone, the one which you were born with, then permanent skin lightening solutions can be tempting. However permanent skin lightening solutions are not healthy for your skin. Why? Because they work to stop your skin from making melanin by being cytotoxic. This means instead of 'engaging' your skin's melanin making factory, permanent skin lightening actives burn-down your skin's melanin making factory making it available to no one.
Hydroquinone for example is thought to have cytotoxic effects and when skincare ingredients have cytotoxic effects, they're rarely contained to just 1 kind of skin cell. Hydroquinone for example may be able to stop your skin from making new, healthy collagen - a protein which allows your skin to resist fine lines and wrinkles.
The bottom line: Kojic acid skincare is not cytotoxic and therefore cannot permanently lighten your skin tone. However for as long as kojic acid skincare is used, it will and can lighten and brighten skin tone. Kojic acid skincare may also in some cases permanently lighten skin tone for example when skin darkening has been caused by temporary skin damage i.e. as a result of acne.
