Skin lightening caused by vitamin C serum?
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free skin care · Wed May 27, 2015 11:04 am

I am African-American and my skin color is tan. I have noticed when using vitamin C serum my skin looks bleached. I don't have a desire to change my skin color in fact it bothers me that it has bleached my skin.

Has anyone else experienced this effect? I want to be able to continue to use the serum for the anti-aging benefit. But I will probably have to discontinue using this product. I used the Timeless vitamin C serum.

free skin care · Wed May 27, 2015 7:17 pm

My skin became lighter from using vit. C serum but I have continued to use it anyways. I actually use a self tanner on my face a couple of times a week to give me some color.

free skin care · Thu May 28, 2015 3:07 am

I'm not sure that there's any other way to reap the benefits of anti aging topicals than to accept a certain paleness as inevitable.
Vit C promotes collagen formation and mitigates the effects of free radicals thus promoting cell turnover,...and it's an antioxidant that helps protect from the sun and fades dark spots.

I'm not African-American but I use to love the sun because I looked much more attractive with a tan. But now with using Retin_A increasing cell turnover along with things like Vit C, AHA and other antioxidants and exfoliants (along with sun screen) I am much paler than I'd really wish to be.
But I don't see there's any other choice if one wants to reap the benefits of most anti-aging topicals (and use sun screen). I believe all anti aging choices make us paler by the nature of how they work.

free skin care · Thu May 28, 2015 4:35 am

tigerlily: would vit C serum help remove age spot?

free skin care · Thu May 28, 2015 5:23 am

Lin1313 wrote:

tigerlily: would vit C serum help remove age spot?

I had some age spots appear on my hands quite early on because I neglected my hands and always forgot sunscreen there.
I've only been working on them for a few months but I think the combo of Vit c, Retin-A and dermarolling (and a occasional peel) is responsible for significantly fading them.
I do expect them to pretty much fade away with a little more time.
I think many things need to work together to give the best results.

Fri May 29, 2015 1:10 pm

I wouldn't describe vit C as bleaching at all. It helps undo some damage so that's likely what you are seeing. Compare your skin that hasn't been much to the sun to your face, the vit C is just helping undo the effects from the sun.

If you don't want such a brightening effect, I'd try a vit C serum with a lower amount of LAA than Timeless uses which is 20%.

free skin care · Mon Dec 07, 2015 8:14 pm

Well I'm reporting back on my results. I haven't used the vitamin c serum for several months and the normal shade of my skin had returned. I decided to try this again and sure enough the color of my skin has turned pale again. The normal shade of my skin is tan. I'm not happy with this because I want to be able to use a vitamin c serum without the effects of brightening my skin.

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