With the market brimming over with skin lightening products, you probably think that all it takes to get lighter skin is to pick from the shop shelf the product that suits you budget best. But believe me, the choice is a lot more difficult than that. And this is one product with which you run a risk in going purely by packaging and promotion. So how does one go about choosing a skin lightener?

Easy steps to your perfect skin lightener

Here are a four easy ways in which you can choose the skin lightening lotion or cream or soap or pill for yourself.

• First, consult a doctor and determine your skin type, and find out whether you are suffer from any particular skin condition. Armed with this knowledge, and the expert’s recommendation, do a survey of the good skin whitening products available in the market. Make a shortlist of those that match your requirements.
• Second, read carefully the list of ingredients used in each product , and immediately rule out the ones that have chemicals that are potentially harmful or are banned. It is always a safer option to go for those skin whiteners that use natural ingredients, such as berries, rather than chemicals and steroids. Look out for brands that come certified by medical or other professional or consumer organizations, and learn to be suspicious of products that contain no warning messages on the packaging. It is likely that those skin lighteners which appear to be cent per cent safe are not telling you the whole truth.

• Third, don’t make the mistake of thinking that a skin whitener also protects you from the UV rays of the sun. So whichever the skin whitening product you are using, you can never go wrong with using a good sunblock (with an SPF of at least 15). Even if your skin whitening cream is not effective, a good sunblock will at least prevent your skin from being darkened by the sun.

• And last, but not the least, watch your lifestyle and the things you eat. Much of our skin disorders spring from lifestyle malfunctions, stress and food-related problems. Eat natural, rest well and don’t stress yourself out. These may not make your skin look lighter than before, but they will certainly make it look healthy and glowing. And once that is ensured, a good, safe skin lightening product can get you the desired result.

It’s all in the pigment

Knowing your skin type is also very important. This will help you choose not only the right skin lightener cream but most other skincare products as well. If you can enlist the help of a doctor in this, then you are on safe ground. The dermatologist will not only tell you what kind of skin whitening products will suit your skin type, but he will also have a recommendation or two that you might consider at first.

But most importantly, a dermatologist will tell you why certain skin whitening creams work on certain kinds of skin, while others don’t. In a nutshell, it is all about melanin. Have you ever wondered why Africans are dark-skinned, Asians are brown and Caucasians are fair-skinned? It is because of the varying amounts of the pigment, melanin, in our bodies that skin tones differ from person to person and from one ethnic group to another. The higher the melanin content, the darker you are. There are two kinds of melanin: Eumelanin is responsible for the darker shades of skin and pheomelanin for the lighter shades.

What skin lightening creams do is reduce melanin from your skin to make the tone considerably lighter. In most skin lighteners, you will find an ingredient called hydroquinone, a bleaching agent that inhibits the production of melanin and thus lightens the skin tone. Other equivalents of hydroquinone are azelaic acid, kojic acid, glycolic acid and Niacinamide.

All this sounds simple, but the problem is that a lot of these ingredients have been found to have adverse side-effects. Hydroquinone, for instance, has been found to cause leukaemia in some animals and also irritation in certain skin types. This is why it is of utmost importance to choose your skin whitener carefully, and preferably in consultation with a skin expert.

Keep reading below to find out what is the best rated lightening cream